Literacy Autobiography Draft

Growing up speaking two languages has always been a challenge for me. Spanish is my
first language and I grew up speaking it in my household all the time. When my first year of
school came around, I had to start learning a whole new language. My parents and both of their
families only knew how to speak Spanish so when issues like studying vocabulary or reading or
writing became difficult for me, I really had no one to ask for help until I went back to school the
very next day and then I would ask for help and still not really understand what was assigned.
Luckily, throughout elementary I had some really good teachers who made learning English very
fun and made it easier to learn the language and that made me want to read more books and learn
to speak confidently in English and that made learning awesome. By the end of elementary, I
graduated from ELD (English Learning Development) which assisted me and tutored me to
better read and write English so I wouldn't be as far behind as other students who easily
understood English and that really played a big factor in my education which led to many
positive academic outcomes.

Elementary for me was magical because that is where I found my passion for reading and
I read all types of books like chapter books, comics, history books, and regular story books. Once
I left elementary to go to middle school, I felt that my vocabulary had expanded and that reading
and writing became like there was nothing to it. It became easy and I would go on to reading
more by going to libraries to find new books and also by trying out e-books. Towards the end of
middle school I was confident in my writing and vocabulary that I used in assignments and
essay's but in just a couple months I would be introduced into a higher level English course that
hopefully would keep my motivation for reading and learning English.

Unlike elementary, high school was more difficult due to not having reliable English
teachers. My first year started with a brand new English teacher who made reading fun and
actually recommended me to read a trilogy which is now my favorite trilogy/ books and I could
re-read them all the time. But in that class we weren't really taught anything new from my
previous year and writing became boring and felt like I was just writing just to write not really
for fun or to better my education because It really wasn't. My second year was no better than the
first due to also having a brand new teacher who did assist in making my writing better and
giving me pointers but the teacher ended up abandoning the school half way throughout the year
so the rest of the year and the beginning of my third year, our class was left with substitutes who
did not have an idea in how to teacher English or really did not know how to run a class. My
third year started with substitutes who gave assignments but they never really taught us anything
new and for the past three years it felt that I was just learning the same thing over and over again
which led to me not really wanting to read or write because there was no motivation in doing
that.

Half way throughout my third year, Covid came and cancelled school which caused me to
lose more of my education. About a month into closure we were given computers so we could do
online learning but the teachers had very little knowledge about technology and that caused a lot
of issues in both teaching academics and also grading. This does not mean I disregard their
efforts in trying to teach but it was a lost cause and we were all just given a pass for all of our
spring semester classes.

Like some seniors would say, our senior year was stolen from us due to Covid and with
online learning, not much learning was done because there was only so much a teacher could do
with the current situation. Luckily though, my English teacher was an older woman who had
taught English for ten or more years and had experience with teaching English which gave me
hope for learning more and bettering me English. But like I previously said, there was only so
much a teacher could do with online learning and it felt that I did learn a thing or two in that
class but overall the class felt repeated like in my previous year.

Throughout my entire education, I mainly focused on improving my English and never

really focused on bettering my Spanish or really never practiced it. I now realize that both my
Spanish and English are iffy and need to be worked on and one might think that growing up in a
Spanish speaking household would better my Spanish but I was never formally taught it, I just
reached a point were I understood what people would say but I did not study the language the
same way I did with English and I felt that put a limitation on my knowledge of Spanish. Even
though I do not know the two languages very well, I still enjoy helping others in translation
which I did in some meetings that needed translators and also translating words for my family
members. I love being able to speak two languages but I hope that with having more of an
opportunity to expand my education, I can learn a third language so I could better communicate
with others.

When I first started school, I enjoyed learning and the academic atmosphere in each class
but in recent years I have felt that my writing skills have lessened over time due to an irregular
high school education. Like some would say, I have lost my touch by not reading anymore, not
practicing writing and just not having the motivation to learn. I joined EOP so I could hopefully
regain that motivation to learn not just English, but also math and social skills which I have high
hopes for and can't wait to learn.