Davis 1 Lindsay Davis Professor Wolcott ENC 1102 15 January 2013 Climbing the Literacy Ladder Reading and

writing are very important skills to be able to have in life. Although depending on where you live and what part of the world you are in the importance of both reading and writing can differ. In America the skill level required for professionalism is growing higher and higher, especially for women. In the early 20th century it wasnt normal for women to get a formal education and to attend college. It was thought that women never needed to be able to read complex writings and write in complex ways. Through the era of womens suffrage it then became more acceptable for women to attend college and leave home. In the late 1900s my mom went to college for a degree in physical therapy and she tried very hard to get there. I think the fact that her mom and dad never went to college and didnt make very much money made her want to achieve something better than what they did. So when I was growing up she always put a big emphasis on education and needing to know how to read and write. My mom influenced my literary abilities from the very beginning and she was my biggest literary sponsor, providing me with a bunch of books throughout my childhood. She made it seem the most important thing to read and to like reading and I think thats what has shaped my view on reading and writing today and in the past. In the period of my life long before I could read or write my mom would

Davis 2 always ever since I remember read me bedtime stories. At first it would be little kid books like Goodnight Moon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and I loved those books, and I still do to this day. Then after I could grasp stories better she would read me bigger books with a more complex story. The ones I remember most are the Harry Potter books. I think her reading to me before she taught me how to read was very important, it showed me that reading is interesting and that you can imagine them in your own way. From then on I always loved it when she read because Harry Potter captured my attention. Then when my mom wanted me to learn how to read she stopped reading me Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Stone right in the middle so that I would be encouraged by not just her but the book also because she wouldnt read to me as much until I would practice reading every day. So I remember that I learned how to read very fast and I would read along with my mom in the book while she was reading and see the words when she would say them out loud. I learned how to read before I learned how to write. Though I already knew how to read at this point I didnt know how to write very well and I remember that I always dreaded it. I was supposed to go to kindergarten in Virginia when I was four and that year that I was supposed to start my family moved to Florida and the age cut off for kindergarten was five instead of four, so I had to wait a year to start elementary school. In that year my mom decided she was going to start teaching me how to write early instead of just waiting till I got to kindergarten and for them to teach me. She had bought the set to teach kids how to read and write called Hooked-on-Phonics, it did help me learn how to read but

Davis 3 it was also the starting block for helping me how to write and actually understand words and what they meant together in sentences. So once I got to kindergarten I already knew how to read really well and was all right at writing. In kindergarten the teacher I had had this story time part of the day and I always loved it. One of my favorite things as a kid, besides playing outside, was people reading to me. Throughout kindergarten I got better at writing. One of the main things I remember about kindergarten was that we started doing this Accelerated Readers program and we started at the very bottom level and were given books in that level and once you red them you would take a test on them and if you passed you would move up a level after you tested on so many books in that level. I remember gradually moving up from little kiddy books that were like ten pages to thicker books. Since I already knew how to read very well I moved up a lot faster than the other kids and I was the top in my class and I loved being the best. There was this one really smart kid in my class who caught up really fast though and he was a really fast speed-reader (He goes to MIT now). I think the accelerated reader program really helped me work to improve my reading level because without it I dont think I would have had that much motivation to get better. After kindergarten and through out elementary school we had the accelerated reader program and they would give out prizes to the people who read the most books and took the most quizzes on the books. That made me love reading even more. Through my mom as my main literary sponsor and Hooked-on-Phonics and Harry Potter I became a lover of reading. Throughout my whole academic career, except in high school, I got in the habit of reading in my bed before I would

Davis 4 go to sleep. I dont know why I stopped I think it was because my high school started at 7 so I had to wake up at 5:30, but somehow I stopped that routine. I used to not be able to fall asleep until I read some before bed. Im going to get back into that habit, starting with the first book in the Millennium series, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and hopefully I will become an avid reader once again.