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Luke Loding
Composition and Rhetoric
September 20, 2017
LaFever
Literacy Narrative
Development in Reading and Writing
Growing up reading and writing were not my strong suits in school or even at home. I
was not the kid who would sit down and enjoy a book in my free time. I would have rather gone
out with my friends and play sports or do something courageous other than read. To be honest,
that is kind of how I am today as well. Of course, when the time comes to read something for
English I will do it and understand the text, but I do not enjoy books like other people do. When
it comes to writing however, I do enjoy it more than reading. Growing up with writing, for me,
was a little bit easier. It gave me a chance to tell a story and express whatever it is that I wanted
people to know. Although I did not enjoy much of English when I was younger, it did
progressively become easier when I became older and I do not mind reading or writing.
However, there are some memories that I hold with me growing up that affected me
positively and negatively in my academic career.
One of my earliest memories was in kindergarten. It was the first day of school for Alex,
my twin brother, and me. I remember getting ready to go to school and my mom yelling at us to
come down stairs because the bus would be at our house soon. When the bus came Alex and I
walked down our driveway with our superhero backpacks and stepped onto the bus. Right away I
noticed that the bus we would ride to school every day was the dolphin bus. The bus was your
average yellow school bus. However, the one thing that made it special was an orange, square
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piece of paper in the corner window on the driver’s side that had a dolphin on it. That was how
we recognized our bus when it was time to go home. We got on and jumped up into our seat with
our good friend Lucas. Lucas lived down the street and was someone we had known since we
were born. The ride to school was very short because it was basically in our neighborhood. I
recall getting off and seeing teachers holding up signs with their name on it. It was a giant game
of where’s Waldo. Little kids running all over the place, scattered trying to find their teachers.
Alex was able to spot a sign and sounded out the words and put together Mrs. Mitchell. She was
the tallest teacher in the entire school so it was very easy to see her sign. Alex and I walked to
her and got in the back of her class row. After all the students were in our row we went to her
classroom and introduced ourselves very briefly. We then went right into spelling. Here is the
first struggle that I can recall from my childhood. My teacher would say a word and we would
spell it as a class to her. She took out a bundle of notecards that had the words on them and the
first one she read aloud was,
“Dog.” The class spelled back anxiously in unison, “D. O. G.”
Then she read another one, “Cat.” As a class they spelled out, “C. A. T.”
Now this is where my first struggle of anything related to English happened. I was not
able to spell the easiest words in the dictionary. I’m not sure if I was overwhelmed on my first
day of school, but all the kids in my class were able to spell them fine. I had a bit of a panic rush
during class and luckily Alex was there to calm me down. After the school day, I went home and
ran to my mom. I told her everything that happened. Words raced out of my mouth as I was so
frustrated and nervous. She then sat me down to give me a brief lesson on spelling to help calm
me down for the next day. After, I felt good about spelling, but that was not an ideal first day of
school for me.
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I progressed through kindergarten fine and moved to first grade and then on to second
grade. Second grade is where my next memory of writing took place. I was in a class with my
teacher named Mrs. Stokien, one of the sweetest ladies I have ever met. Although, teachers in
elementary school are basically all nice. In my opinion, at least, she was the best second grade
teacher there was. I remember the assignment that made me realize writing was not so bad, was
later in the school year and it was a group project. The project was about any animal that you
wanted to research and you had to write an 8-page paper about that animal. Now eight pages for
second graders seems like a lot. However, this was relatively easy for my group and I because
we researched Sea Turtles. A Sea Turtle was my favorite animal growing up and I loved to learn
about them so the paper I wrote was easy because I enjoyed the project. I remember my group
sitting at our tiny, little desks and Mrs. Stokien handing me the paper. She told us we received
the best grade in the class and we even wrote an extra three pages for the assignment. It doesn’t
sound like a big deal but it was the first time I enjoyed writing a paper in school.
Despite my success in writing, I was a weaker reader. I had trouble picturing and
understanding what I was reading. I would get an assigned book to read and I would have to read
about 30 minutes every night but I wasn’t able to focus. I read every word on every page, but
after I was done I could not picture anything I had just read. Even though it was described in
great detail. So, some nights I would have my mom read to me. This gave me a chance to just
focus on what she was saying instead of physically reading the words. If I didn’t understand a
part of the book then I would stop her and ask questions. My mom at the time had been reading
to me since I was a baby and it stands out in my mind as I have grown up. She was a big help in
helping my reading ability and getting a better understanding of effective reading. I learned that
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if I read something and I do not understand it, to reread it. It may sound childish, but it was a
chance for me to help myself become better at reading.
As I continued through school reading became easier. However, I was still not enjoying
the material that was given to me until fourth grade. Before I found the book Pop, I didn’t like
what I was reading and really had no interest in what we read at school. Pop changed that for me.
I was walking through the library with my class one day trying to find an independent reading
book. I would run my fingers across the bookshelves to try and find a text that sounded
interesting. As I walked down an aisle in the middle of the library I found the book Pop. On the
cover was a football helmet. Specifically, it was a Cincinnati Bengals helmet so right away it
caught my eye because I loved football. The cover was very plain. It had a white background and
just the helmet in the middle with Pop written across the top of the cover. I checked out the book
and headed back to class to start reading. At first it was boring, just about some high school
teenager who wanted to make his varsity football team. However, as the story progressed it
became more intriguing. One day the young high schooler was walking in the park holding a
football and he came across an old man sitting on a park bench. The boy walked over to the man
and started talking about football. They got to know each other well and at the end of their
conversation the old man asked him to meet the boy at the park tomorrow and told him that he
could help him with joining the team. So, the next day the boy came back and finds the man
sitting on the same bench and says, “Hey are you ready to start today?”
The old man looked at the boy with confusion and asked, “Do I know you?”
“Yeah we met yesterday. You said you would help me get onto my high school team,”
The boy responded.
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Luckily the old man’s wife was there and came over to the boy to inform him that the old
man had Alzheimer’s disease from too many concussions in the NFL. For me, being in fourth
grade this book was exactly what I was looking for. Something interesting that would keep me
reading and a topic that I could be able to relate to in terms of my own life. From then on, I just
figured I had to look for books about things I could relate to, such as football.
The next book I found that I truly enjoyed was not until eighth grade. It was a class
assigned book that we read and talked about each week. It was the book, The Giver. This is truly
one of my favorite books even today. The Giver is a book about a perfect world where there are
no differences between people, therefore no conflict can arise in the society. The book gave me a
chance to read about something other than sports and it really made reading enjoyable for the
first time since fourth grade. Obviously, there were a ton of books in between fourth and eighth
grade but Pop and The Giver are two that really stuck out and made reading fun.
When I entered high school English was easy, however I was still not enjoying reading.
My Freshman year I had to read Lord of the Flies and other independent reading books. None of
which really stand out to me. I kind of just read what was assigned to me and didn’t pick up
anything other than that. Even throughout the rest of my high school career I didn’t enjoy
reading that much. Hanging out with my friends and playing sports was more important to me.
When I reached senior year, I had a teacher named Mr. Landuyt. He was not the best
teacher, but he told me a story about when he was my age that I related to. He mentioned that he
was just like me when talking about reading. He didn’t enjoy it when he was younger and that
reading didn’t really appeal to him until he graduated from college. One thing that I remember
from him is that he told me,“It is okay to not enjoy English. You may never enjoy it. However,
in your life, down the road you may find it to be very helpful and you may end up liking it.”
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“You may find your joy at the beginning of college or even at the end.” He added.
It was all about keeping an open mind for him and I am going to do the same as well.
Reading and writing both had their positives and negatives growing up for me. I
struggled at a young age with reading but the more and more I did read, the better I became. To
be honest I would say I am a good reader and a good writer however, there is always room for
improvement in both areas. As I continue through college I will become even better and I may
end up finding that enjoyment I am looking for in reading.