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Timothy Sherrill
Prof. Leslie Wolcott
ENC 1102
14 September 2015

Narrative Response: How Chasing Literacy Shaped Who I Am

In Deborah Brandts Sponsors of Literacy, Brandt outlines how sponsors contribute
to an individuals education, positively or negatively, and how those factors result in who that
individual becomes (Brandt). Literacy refers to ones ability to read and write. Reading was
never a favorite past time of mine. Not because Im bad at it, quite the contrary, but ever since I
can remember, reading has always been at the bottom of my to-do list. Perhaps it was never
challenging enough for me, or I was always involved in my hobbies. In this Literacy Narrative, I
will trace my educational history and how it has ultimately shaped me into who I am today. In
addition, because of my history, I have trained and honed specific sets of skills over the course of
my education that has allowed me to become an independent learner. As an extension, becoming
an independent learner has allowed me to become an independent person, and thrive in
continuing my education and beyond.
Lets start from the beginning, in Elementary School. I suppose I learned the basics just
like any other of my peers in the classroom. Worksheets, reading out loud to the class, all the
basic stuff. No surprise to me, Elementary school is really where the educational system focuses
on English. As they should, its arguably the most important subject and skill to have in the

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future of your education. What puzzles me though, is how some children already have a decent
foundation and grasp on literacy, yet they never get the chance to exercise their skills.
I can always recall a memory of a literacy test everyone had to go through in second
grade with our teacher, Mrs.Geisdorf. You had to read a small passage in a limited amount of
time, and answer questions based on the reading in a one-on-one environment. The purpose of
this was to determine how well you retained the information in relation to how fast you could
read. I dont remember my score exactly, but it was somewhere in the ninety-five percentile,
meaning I scored higher than ninety-five percent of other students. To put things in perspective, I
think I was reading at a tenth to eleventh grade level at the time. I hopefully anticipated that I
would be placed in advanced classes early, or that I would skip a grade like some of my friends
had. I would never be prepared for what came next.
Absolutely nothing happened after that test. I still received the basic worksheets and
reading assignments to do, the same as everybody else. I breezed through the work while some
even struggled to identify basic parts of a sentence. Throughout a significant part of my
education, I completed English assignments just for the completion grade. There was no real
substance that I could build on and incorporate into my work. It started to become tedious and
seemed counterproductive to me. I didnt mind though, less work for me in the end. My apathy
toward reading would cause complications I would face later on during my final years of high
school and beginning of college, but Ill explain that further on.
Ever since those times, I only read three types of books. The first type of book were the
assigned book readings that I had no interest in whatsoever. Assigned book reports were the
reason I was wary to read at all. The other two books I only ever read were the Redwall series
by Brian Jacques, and the comic Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson. In hindsight, I favored

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the latter a lot more. Every Christmas I would get a new Calvin and Hobbes collection from my
parents and have the whole thing read in a week. I didnt stop there though, every time I reread
the collection, I would understand a little more than last time, such as spotting a double entendre
in the clever writing that Waterson frequently employs. More often than not, I would have a
dictionary nearby whenever I read to research any ambiguous words that I couldnt decipher with
context clues by myself. I would venture to say learning by myself was one of the most
influential choices on my lifestyle and literacy skills, all because of Calvin and Hobbes fueling
my passion for comic books.
Calvin and Hobbes wasnt the only hobby that furthered my literacy. In fact, another
favorite pastime of mine is playing music. Let me digress to explain that literacy to me isnt
restricted to just reading and writing in the conventional sense. Literacy encompasses everything
that requires reading or writing and extends to define being proficient in any particular skill
set. For instance, an individual may be superbly musically literate. Reading and writing music is
not a common skill, so one would have to extensively research how, and build upon that
knowledge to become adept. Learning how the notes on a staff are read, how to count beats, and
learning the instrument itself are all very demanding and laborious to pursue.
Personally, I play percussion instruments and guitar. Take for instance that I can read
sheet music for drums because Ive had more experience and know the instrument better,
however I cannot read sheet music for guitar. Granted, I am purely self-taught, but hopefully
with more practice, I can expand that foundation and strengthen my capabilities. In regards to
being self-taught, I used a similar approach with my English work in high school.
As I mentioned before, I would face unexpected consequences. I had always been ahead
of most of my peers, and a large amount of the work seemed like childs play to me. Throughout

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the course of my primary education, it slowly occurred to me that because I was breezing
through the work so effortlessly, I had been negligent to learn all the supplementary knowledge
through the years. As a result, I lost the opportunity to reach my full potential. To make matters
more paramount, I had this realization in the middle of an AP Language and Composition class. I
started to research and apply advanced writing and analytical strategies into all my writing,
school or otherwise. Immediately, I saw a clear change in my writing ability that helped to
express my understanding of the material that was perpetually more complex.
Developing my self-teaching skills early in my literacy education allowed me to face the
obstacles I unknowingly forced upon myself. The loathing I felt toward reading at the very
beginning started my whole method of self-teaching, and throughout the years built on that
knowledge to adapt it efficiently to any problem I faced, scholarly or personally. Historically, I
have found this technique to work exceptionally well in my time at the University of Central
Florida. From my sponsors such as teachers and authors, to material objects like my guitar and
comic books, all have helped me in my education, no matter how abstract or concrete. It is very
apparent to me that being a self-taught learner has and will continue to nurture me into becoming
the most independent adult that I can be. Everything up to this point in my history of learning to
read and write, becoming literate, has equipped me with invaluable skills that will aid me in
becoming successful in not only my intended career path, but the rest of my life.

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Works Cited
Brandt, Deborah. Sponsors of Literacy. College Composition and Communication.
Vol. 49, No. 2 (May 1998).
Waterson, Bill. Calvin and Hobbes. Print.
Jacques, Brain. Redwall. Print.