Jessie Worger

2/9/2014
Education 340
Literacy Autobiography
Ever since I was little I have been a student has a reading skill level that has been above
my grades average. I feel that the reason why I have always been a strong reader is because I
love reading many different types of books and that my parents and teachers always encouraged
me to read. The first memory that I have of reading is when my mom was preparing me for
kindergarten. She would sit me down and do flashcards of colors and shapes with me. Not only
would she make me orally say the answer, but I also had to write down the answer and she would
correct my spelling. One of my favorite memories as a child was my mom sitting on the
bathroom sink reading the Harry Potter books while I took a bath and sometimes before bedtime
she would let me help her read the big chapter books.
My parents always encouraged me to read books and gave me incentives to improve my
reading. During the summers, my parents took me to the library where our community
participated in a read for prizes program. The more books I read, the more prizes I earned
from the library, and that definitely motivated me to read a lot of books. My mom was always
buying new books for me from book fairs and she always told me that she would always buy me
books (but not toys) when I wanted new ones. My favorite childrens books were the Biscuit
series and the Very Hungry Caterpillar. I remember the very first chapter book I read when I
was little; it was called Heres Pippin. I also remember my mom being so proud of me.
My school in Arizona was also very enthusiastic about reading and they gave students
many reasons to read books. I remember the accelerated reading program my entire school
participated in. Each book in the library was worth a certain number of points and after you read
the book you went onto the computer in the classroom and took an AR test. If you scored above
60% on the test you received points on that book. Each quarter every student would receive an
AR goal that they tried to reach. I struggled in math and science in elementary school, but when
it came to reading I was always very advanced. I would usually have to earn 50 points more than
the average student in my classes and even with that goal I always went about 20 points above.
In my classes, we also had to do about one book report per quarter which I always looked
forward to. I loved how most of my teachers allowed us to be creative with our reports by
allowing us to make a movie, perform a skit, or play a game. This type of book report made
students think critically but also have a lot of fun.
In the sixth grade, I read more books than all my other grade school classes combined.
This was because my sixth grade teacher would take students out to taco bell who earned a
certain number of points. I loved my sixth grade teacher so I always made sure that I read
enough so that I could go out and eat with him. In sixth the grade I was reading at a 12
th
grade
level.
My love for reading had continued throughout jr. high and high school. In jr. high I
tested into the honors language arts and math classes. In high school, I was in the AP
composition and literature classes. I loved the literature class because we read so many
interesting and diverse books. With those books, my teacher made us do so many interesting
comprehension and analyzing activities. I remember for the book Waiting for Godot, our teacher
made us create a dancing interpretation of the book. We had to get into groups and make crazy
dances and show the entire class. For the book Lord of the Flies, we had very deep and
controversial talk about whether Simon represented Christ or if he was the opposite of Christ.
I still love reading, but with college I have a hard time finding time to read books simply
for pleasure. I am always having to read textbook for classes and having to study for tests. By
the time I am done studying, I am too mentally exhausted to read any of my novels. When I do
have time to read, my favorite authors are John Green, Jon Krakauer, and Mitch Albom. I like
quirky love stories or books about adventure.
I believe that reading and writing are important to every student and in every subject
because these skills can make students become independent learners and solve problems on their
own. This is because, if a student is a strong reader, they usually have the skills to think
critically and solve problems. In a math class, if a student does not understand a theory, if they
are a strong leader they can look up an explanation online and use their reading skills to work out
the problem.
Literacy skills are important to students in a Spanish class because Spanish requires lots
of reading and writing. Much of English and Spanish have the same prefixes or roots and if you
have a strong understanding of English then sometimes you can figure out the meaning of a
Spanish word. I also feel that literacy skills are important in this subject because if a student
learns the skill of how to figure out the meaning of a word by looking at the context, they will be
a much stronger Spanish speaker. Students in Spanish class need to learn how to have the
patience to read and work through a hard text, and being taught literacy skills at a young age can
help greatly with this. Another literacy skill that helps in Spanish class is the knowledge of how
to proofre