Literacy History Blog

 

    Hello! Welcome to my first blog! My name is Candice. I am a senior with a major in English education. Some of my interests include watching tv, baking, and dancing. My favorite genre is thriller or horror. I'm also an animal lover and have a goal of owning a German Shepherd and Siberian Husky. I took this class because I love reading and being able to explore different types of literacies sounded interesting to me. Also, I think I could use some help on my critical thinking skills.

    

       My earliest experience of being literate was when I was two years old. My mom and dad used to read books to me like Goodnight Moon. My dad said that they read it so much that I just started memorizing it. He was at court one day and apparently I recited the book to the judge word for word. My parents were both encouraging and wanted me to learn how to read. I always did well in reading classes. My dad enrolled me in a religious school. The school would sometimes give you an assignment with a specific counsel to work on. It could be reading with a clear voice or using eye contact while reading to an audience. I think this impacted my reading the most. After each part at church they would highlight a specific area with how they read the material and talk about why it is important to do it in a certain way. I think my brother shaped the way I read text messages as well. He is very particular in the way he speaks about things. Even though texts are supposed to be shorter ways to communicate he still would write in proper English and correct me if I wrote certain things like "ur" instead of "your". I don't think I am as crazy about texting as he is but certain things do bother me when reading texts. Like when people use numbers for letters. My earliest memory of being literate that I remember more clearly was maybe first or second grade. The class would do an activity called popcorn. One person would read up to however long they wanted to go and then randomly call on another person to go next.  One of the purposes of this activity was to make sure the class was being respectful and listening to one another. A challenge that I think I have with literacy is punctuation. Sometimes I may talk too fast and miss punctuation. It may sound like I am mumbling or conjoining a bunch of words together.  

  

    

    Today I live with a roommate, and his first language is not English. Helping him learn the language keeps me motivated in literacy. Sometimes I second guess myself with grammar and if I am using the correct format so I look it up to help him. He always asks me a lot of questions about how certain words are said. I feel motivated to be helpful and encourage someone to be proficient in two languages instead of one. Today I really enjoy poetry. It helps me reflect my emotions and thoughts into shorter pieces. Writing becomes therapeutic to me. When I don't know how to say things in words I write them down.