Andrew

Murrell
September 7, 2014
Final Draft

Forming my Foundation for Literacy

Sitting on my favorite chair with our dog Abby curled up next to it, I began
learning how to read for the first time. My mom would read to me on that chair almost
every night, occasionally trying to get me to attempt reading a few words, even though it

Waterhouse 9/25/2014 10:57 AM

Comment [1]: Great opening sentence! J

took me a while before I actually could. My favorite book of all time was Curious
George. My mom read it to me over and over again, but I never got tired of it. She started
reading to me at a very young age, around the same time, she also began teaching me the
alphabet. Both of my parents would sing the alphabet song with me all the time, even
before I could talk. We even had a deck of alphabet cards and an educational JumpStart
game that I could use to work on memorizing my alphabet on my own.
Once I got to Kindergarten and met my first real teacher, Mrs. Zeh, I began
learning how to read and write. She was one of the best teachers Ive ever had, and thats
not just coming from me, my parents have always said what a great job she did. She was
able to motivate me and make me interested in learning. We were given paperback
booklets that we would practice in every single day during class and for homework,
unfortunately all I can remember from them is having to write words and phrases on the

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Comment [2]: School? Wasnt your mom
real?

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Deleted: really

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Comment [3]: Comma splice.
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/gr
ammar/how-to-avoid-a-common-comma-error-
the-comma-splice

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Deleted: these

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lines provided in the booklet. At the beginning of Kindergarten, I had a hard time with

Comment [4]: Comma splice

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the motor skills involved in writing, mostly with my grip on a pencil. I had to start out
using a rubber grip that is molded with the correct finger position used to hold a pencil,
but by the end of Kindergarten I had flourished and had actually became a very skilled

Comment [5]: New paragraph?

http://www.writingclasses.com/WritersResourc
es/AskTheWriterDetail.php?ID=235

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writer for my age. There was an end of the year project I had to do that required me to

Comment [6]: Which vs. that -

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/gr
ammar/which-versus-that-0

write a small paragraph about a dinosaur below a picture. I had to draw of the dinosaur I

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was assigned to, and to this day it still hangs in a frame on a wall in my house. I was very

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Deleted: which
Deleted: that

Andrew Murrell
September 7, 2014
Final Draft



proud of that project, it represented the progress that I had made throughout the year and
all the work that I put in to get to that point.
The summer after Kindergarten, I moved up to base level chapter books. The first
chapter book that I fell in love with was called The Young Man in the Sea, and it actually
remained my favorite book until high school. That book in particular played a significant
role in causing me to actually enjoy reading chapter books, all of the non-picture books I
read before that I just didnt find all that interesting. I guess I was still just trying to find
what type of books intrigued me. Fairly soon after I found another book that interested
me, it was called Magic Tree House: The Knight at Dawn. Luckily this book was a part
of a large series and I liked the other books in the series too. I would sit in my cozy bunk

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Comment [7]: For help with punctuating titles
correctly, see this page:
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/mlastyle/a/
titles.htm

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Deleted:

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Deleted:

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Formatted: Highlight

bed reading, with my brother underneath on the bottom bunk doing the same. My parents
made us read for at least 20 minutes every school night. I ended up reading over ten of
the Magic Tree House books until I grew out of them and became bored with them. After
I found that series, it seemed like I was able to find more and more books that interested
me, which is a good thing because at this point I was in second grade and was already

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Comment [8]: My son LOVED them. We had to
read them all before he would start a new series.
Unfortunately, every time I thought we had finally
finished the series, they came out with another
book! We own 54 Magic Tree House books!

being assigned small book reports.

From the time my mom began reading to me as a toddler until second grade I
most rapidly improved my literacy skills. I have my mom to thank for that, although my
dad and my Kindergarten teacher did a ton to help me in learning to read and write, my
mom always pushed me the most and put in the most time working with me. She drove
me to keep practicing my literacy skills and enabled me to form a solid foundation while
making it enjoyable for me all at the same time. Since second grade I have been able to

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Comment [9]: Commas with introductory
phrases -
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/gr
ammar/can-you-start-sentence-preposition

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Formatted: Highlight

Andrew Murrell
September 7, 2014
Final Draft



grow steadily every year and build on that solid foundation I was able to create for myself
with the help of my parents and teachers.