How I Learned To Become Literate Essay -- Personal Narratives Literacy

How I Learned To Become Literate As a six-month-old baby books had opened up a whole entire new world of experience for me. My inspiration to learn how to read and write was encouraged by my Mother and Grandmother. This is because they read out loud to me before bed occasionally and gave me the best time of my life by introducing me to a library. By two years of age I developed speech and other communication skills. This helped me understand and develop a favorite book, â€Å"PJ Funny Bunny,† and I would stare at the pages pretending I was reading them. I would continually pretend to read with other Dr. Seuss books, Smurf pop-up books (I imagined I was a part of these for hours), sniff & scratches, and sensory books. I had just begun encouragement to learn literacy. I always had a fascination when I would watch my Mother or Grandmother write (with their neat handwriting) or read something. I too, as a toddler, wanted to write just as well as they did. Therefore, I began writing on my games, play tables, and toy boxes (this was a big No, No). My Mother would in addition write out bills and use a calculator. Of course, I had to imitate her. But, any of this just wasn’t enough for me. I desired something more . . . I can remember I was extremely excited to begin school. It wasn’t fair to me that all the bigger kids that lived nearby got to go to school and I didn’t. Jealousy grew as I watched them out the front window of our house when they would return home with their happy school faces. This showed me school was fun and I was missing out on the greatest thing. It just wasn’t fair! I wanted to learn too! When I began Kindergarten I was prepared by knowing how to spell my name, recite and write the letters of the alphabet, and spell a few small words like, â€Å"CAT† and â€Å"DOG.† Our teacher, Mrs. Lowler, encouraged us to continue learning literacy by: sounding out letter or words, giving us more words to practice spelling, reading aloud to us every day, allowing us to take turns on the typewriter, recite poems and songs, take turns reading to each other, and finally writing a few small sentences. We also had a heartening contest that whoever read the most books would get a free pizza at Pizza Hut. There are two things I remember Mrs. Lowler did to encourage my literacy skills. One time she made us paint a picture and then we had to present... ...e a real feel for what it was like to truly be that character. Mrs. Paris also had us keep journals in class. Here she would give us a topic and we took about fifteen minutes to write our thoughts out. The fact that she took the time to write back to us made me excited and eager to write in my journal. This helped give me the idea to maintain a pen pal relationship with one of my friends from church. Throughout my years of learning literacy I have combined my knowledge into different experiences. I have written papers, articles for newspapers (16), read to younger to children, and much more. My own philosophy as a teacher is to be a â€Å"Reading Mentor† to my students. I want to show my students that literacy is fun to learn and expands your imagination. Without books we would not be able to have the ideas and thoughts we do today. There would be no creativity; as a result places like Disney World would not exist. I have learned so much from each of these teachers. The important lesson that I will pass on is to make learning an enjoyable and pleasant learning experience. Like Mrs. Paris, my Fifth Grade teacher, I want to show my students I love and enjoy what I am teaching them.