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Workshopping Memo
1. Stephanie Nelson
2. My partner told me to make my paper longer and to include more details about all
the events that I included.
3. I went back through my paper to add details and it made the length of my paper
longer.
4. She was honest and told me exactly what she liked, didnt like and what needed to
be changed to make my paper better.

Taylor Carroll
UWRT 1102-011

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Ms. Knudson
May 5, 2015
Life as a Student
I havent really thought much about my literacy and how I came to be as a person
until recently. I come from a typical American family. I dont remember much about my
childhood other than that I was read a book before going to bed each night. This began
when I was around the age of two. Of course I couldnt read yet, but by the age of three,
my mother said I could say lengthy sentences. This was a very good thing that came from
being read to daily. I enjoyed reading time because I loved hearing all of the new stories.
Even when a book was repeated, the stories continued to interest me.
My twin sister decided that she didnt enjoy preschool so after only a week of
attending my mother decide to take us out of it. This disappointed me. I still to this day
do not understand why I couldnt have continued preschool without my sister. From the
week we were there, I learned so much. I remember being given the letter A with
pictures of things that started with that letter throughout it. We were then told to color the
pictures while practicing saying and pronouncing the letter. I just enjoyed the practice of
learning. Although my sister, Morgan, and I were taken out of preschool, we still played
school around our own house almost everyday. We didnt know much at the age of four,
but it was fun to play school. We would sit the children that my mother was babysitting at
the time down in front of us and act like their teachers. They were all younger than us,
maybe two or three years old. That was a great experience, teaching them the things that
we learned and also opening the books and showing them the pictures.

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When I was finally old enough, I was enrolled into kindergarten. This was
exciting to me and I had been counting down the days forever. On my first day, I felt
behind all of the other children. It seemed as if they had almost conquered the task of
reading where as I hadnt even began to learn to read a simple sentence. We toured our
new classroom and I noticed immediately that my favorite part of the room would be the
giant bookshelf full of books. The teacher would pick a couple off the shelf for my class
to choose from for story time. It felt just like when my parents would read to me before
bed. We were also given mini books made of paper once a week. They were the ones that
we were suppose to color the pictures in. Each week we would study that one book as a
class. We would also practice individually with our teachers reading the books. After
finally catching up to my classmates and their reading levels, I was given the most
improved award at the end of the school year.
After starting my first grade year as an average student, I began to improve more
and more as the weeks passed by. Although math is my favorite subject in school now,
reading and writing was throughout elementary and middle school. I had to beg my
teacher to allow me to check out more than one book at the library each week. I loved
taking them home and practicing my reading when I had nothing else to do. By the time
the end of second grade rolled around, a letter was sent home to my parents. The letter
was asking if they would want me to test for the AIG program. This program took
students from their class once a day that were above average in a particular subject. In my
case, I was put into the program for both English and math! I this side class, I liked the
fact that I was being challenged with harder assignments and activities.

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I loved going to school and even coming home and doing homework until my
family had to move an hour away for my fathers job. It was a completely random
situation. Therefore, we had to move with only two months left of my third grade year.
The move made it feel like my kindergarten year all over again. I was being forced to
make new friends and learn the ways of my new third grade teacher. I remember walking
into my first day at my new school like it was yesterday. I looked at the white board and
saw cursive writing everywhere. Luckily they had just begun their cursive unit. That was
something I had never really seen before but I caught on fairly quick. As I adapted to my
new school, I decided not to participate in the AIG program. I didnt know anyone
around and wanted to stay by my sisters side for the remainder of that year.
All throughout my middle school years, all I was focused on was the expectations
to meet to move onto high school. I call middle school my awkward stage, which many
other people can probably relate to and agree. I had very few friends so if I wasnt doing
an assignment for school, I was more than likely reading a book. Im not sure if it was
because I didnt care or that I enjoyed reading that much. When high school finally rolled
around, I dont know what happened. I went from being shy and extremely quiet to
outgoing and super talkative. However, this stage changed my view on reading. I now
hated it. You would never catch me reading a book. Even if a teacher assigned it to me, I
thought that Spark Notes would help me get by. Sadly, my personality change ruined how
I looked at English and inevitably school in general. My only explanation of this change
is an assumption; which is that while my social life began to grow due to my change, I
didnt have an interest or use for the great escape literacy once gave me.

It wasnt until

my senior year of high school that I realized that it was time for me to buckle back down

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or I would have no chance in pursuing my dreams. My biggest dream was to be the first
one in my entire family to attend college. This would be a huge accomplishment and I
knew it had to be done. Not only was I able to remain myself, I also started to complete
my assignments and read books again. It wasnt until the middle of that year when I
started receiving college acceptance letters. I realized that my hard work was paying off
again. Showing the letters to my family was an amazing feeling. Knowing that neither of
my parents finished high school was upsetting but I know that they were happier than
ever. Needless to say, I had no idea in what steps to complete to enroll myself into college
because they had no experience in the process either. However, I figured out how to sign
up for SOAR dates and everything.
I know that getting into college was one of my biggest dreams and greatest
accomplishments, but so was graduating high school. Looking off of the stage at the
audience, all I could seem to think about was all of the teachers, family members and
peers that taught me what I know. I wouldnt even know how to read or write without the
many supporters I had and still have around today.
After a few weeks of my freshman year of college here at UNC Charlotte went by,
I realized that I couldnt get by with what I did in high school. I couldnt just look at a
book once and be ready for a test anymore. I now had to take notes when necessary and
study them as much as possible. I also realized that I couldnt procrastinate like I did in
the past. I had to get my work done well in advance. I turned myself around before it was
too late but my semester still turned out for the worst. I was put on academic probation
because I failed chemistry and that made my GPA drop below a 2.0. This was hard to
come out of but as of right now, I am proud to say that I have nothing below a C in any

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of my classes. This includes my Spanish class. Learning this new language after never
taking any other Spanish class is definitely a challenge. The most challenging part is the
fact that my past eighteen years I have only been introduced to the English language.
Learning the Spanish language introduced me to the idea of cultural differences. Meaning
that before, I only knew of cultural differences as some sort of distant thing; but after
learning Spanish and seeing the different ways to use one word to explain/describe other
things I realized how different the English culture is compared to Spanish culture.
So far throughout my life, I can see how my literacy has improved for the better.
As with most other cultures, literary speaking, there are slang words and terminology,
and even if people speak the same language, the geographic location plays a part in how
that person speaks. As a quick example; Ive worked at a few restaurants and most of the
time Spanish people work in the kitchens at those restaurants. I heard a man speaking
Spanish, and in curiosity I asked another Spanish man what the other was saying. The
man I asked, who is from Mexico and speaks fluent Spanish couldnt understand him
enough to translate it for me. I used that example as a reference to how geographic
location may play a part in cultures literacy. Even in America, someone from New York
may not understand someone from Alabama simply because of their significantly
different dialect. this is all to say that despite my regular use of slang or my dialect,
learning Spanish showed me that even in other cultures, the correct form of
communication isnt always used or allied, and that slang is actually helpful and a
strong part of why my I feel my literary skills are continually growing.
Only 19 years into my life, and I can already reflect on my life with a sense of
accomplishment and happiness. This is because growing up as a twin, I never imagined I

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could ever live without my sister by my side; I even kept myself out of things I probably
wouldve enjoyed simply because I wouldnt have had my sister by my side. But here I
stand today, without my twin sister by my side, completely independent; I even pay for
my car, insurance, phone bill and rent all by myself without any help. Something that
once seemed impossible is now my reality and despite all of the twists and turns
throughout my life, here I stand today with only a bright future ahead of me. I began shy,
awkward, and highly dependent on my sisters and especially my twin and here I am
now, a proud independent college student who already has a foot-in-the-door job in the
career field I have chose to major in. if I do say so myself, I have came a long way and I
only see it getting better from here.