McCloy 1

Rebekah McCloy

22 September 2020

Zero Draft

Literacy Narrative

Reading was always something that was heavily promoted in my home. We have

photographs of my older siblings reading to me the day I was brought home from the hospital.

Mom and Dad had taught them the importance of reading and they were passing it on to me. My

parents read to me every night before bed. We would usually read a fictional story, have a Bible

reading, pray together, have good night hugs and kisses, and then they would tuck me in for the

night. Sometimes they would gather my siblings and I together, and tell us all a bedtime story of

their own invention. Dad’s, being similar to something out of The Lord of the Rings, would

usually involve dwarves, goblins, and elves. Mom’s usually revolved around adventures that me

and my three siblings would go on in order to save the world. I recall one in particular where she

had us fighting off a giant slimy purple chicken.

Some aspects of my elementary school experience were also instrumental in my love for

reading. The Scholastic book fair would come every so often, and usually my parents would give

me some of my allowance to purchase a book. I can remember getting A Dog Called Kitty,

Champ, Slam Dunk!, and many other books at this event. At the time, I was anxious to read

anything that involved animals, sports, or space. I had this idea that I was going to be an

astronaut when I grew up, but I also wanted to be a farmer and have horses. My plan, in the

second grade, was to get married so that I would have someone to take care of my farm while I

was in space. I also was very interested in baseball and basketball at the time, contributing to my
 McCloy 2

childhood love for books that involved sports. In addition to the Scholastic book fair, once a

year, my elementary school had this event where students would be able to bring a book in and

trade it for another. I can remember obtaining The Indian in the Cupboard because of this event.

The most important and influential thing that my elementary school did to promote

reading was the Reading Counts program. This was an optional program that had students

reading books that were of varying point values and taking a quiz on them. The number of points

the book was worth would affect your Reading Counts score. The program did provide prizes for

students that were also based on their Reading Counts scores. I usually had a high enough score

that I could choose from anything on the table. At the end of the school year, they would look at

the scores of every student in the school, and the top two score-holders would get recognized at

the awards assembly and receive $25 gift cards to Borders. In the second grade, out of the entire

elementary school, I earned second place. I later went on to get first place. It is because of this

program that I really got into reading. I can be a competitive person, and after a classmate of

mine told me that he had one million points, something that was literally impossible, I read every

book I could get my hands on in an endeavor to beat him. In these efforts, I can remember

reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea for the first time because it was the book that

was worth the most points. I was so disappointed at the end of the year because, I had just under

eight hundred points, meaning that I would not beat this classmate. Imagine my surprise, when it

was announced that I was the school-wide winner for that year. Even though that classmate

should not have lied, perhaps I should be grateful to him. It is because of his fib that I read so

many interesting books, some, like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, that I otherwise

may not have read until much later if ever.

 McCloy 3

Books have always been extremely important to me. They are my entertainment for road

trips and airplane travel. It was before we went out west to Yellowstone National Park, that

elementary school me bought and read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Oddly enough,

that was the Harry Potter book that I started with. This is because when I went to the bookstore,

it was the largest one that they had on the shelf at the time. They were all the same price and I

wanted to get the most pages for my money. When, as a child, I would get grounded, I would

always spend the several days of electronic-free time laying on my big stuffed dog in the middle

of my bedroom floor reading. I would read books like An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore and

The Little House on the Prairie series. Books are also how I get myself to fall asleep at bedtime.

Dad claims that I never slept until I learned how to read. Let us just say that I have always stayed

up past my bedtime to read. When I was a kid, it was by flashlight, the Christmas tree lights, or

my night light with the cover of Mary, the mother of Jesus. As an adult, I usually just read with

the lights on and then turn them off when I am ready for bed. Now, instead of phenomenal

children’s literature and books on global warming, I tend to read murder mysteries, science

fiction, and dinosaur encyclopedias before bed.

In short, books have made a huge impact on my life. I believe that all children should

have an equal opportunity to read, and that we, as teachers, should be trying our hardest to

promote reading. Reading should not just be something that students do at school. We should

encourage students to read books, short stories, and poems that interest them both inside out

outside of school.