: fy Simon Jackowski Dr. Raymond UWRT 1103-015 28 August 2015 ‘The Literary Development of Simon Jackowski My first experience, that I can remember, with reading and writing came in the early part agree vn eked), of kindergarten, this was not unlike most kids, but it was unlike Malcom X’s in that I did not do mest of my reading in prison. I am sure this was not the very first time I ever read or wrote, but it ‘as the first experience to significantly expose me to literature. Before ibicanen I would watch educational television and attempt to write, but doing those were of little significance compared i3 evelopment I went through in Begs kindergarten, we learned how to read and write from books with literary activities contained within them. These were very simple but very effective. Inside the books were elementary sentences such as, “The cat ran”, and “I ‘went to the beach”. There were also writing activities that had a ridiculous amount of room to vite about twenty words in; you could only fit five lines per page. My teacher was a strict but effective women named Mrs. Wheeler. She would only let us pronounce “the” as “thee” instead of “thu”, This seemed unnecessary at first but in the long run it helped me remember how to spell “the”. When I started writing in cursive, I practiced it much like Rosaleen did in The Secret Life of Bees, “Her name, Rosaleen Daise, was written twenty-five times at least down the page in large, careful cursive, like the first paper you turn in when school starts”. This was a very effective method that I still continue to do today.(Qnce-Lineutica is pd-natuclly wanted ip starcmsading. The first books | got into ‘were the “Magic Treehouse” series. These were and still are a very popular series of books for awe” young readers. They especially enticed me because of their interesting subjects, esinessto read, and volume to choose from. The particular books in the series that stick out in my memory are ‘the ones about The Titanic and one shou! emurai. In addition to The Magic Treehouse books, I was very fond of graphic novels, most noticeably Garfield, Baby Blues, and Duck Tales, would read these late into the night when I was supposed to be sleeping vot SoS because these. comics kept me interested and Vat reat ay literary development I read Lemony Snicket's 4 Series of Unfortunate Events. This series was by far my favorite series I'v" have tead-se-far. I always found myself rooting for the kids in the book even though the author tells you they are doomed from the beginning and will end up unhappy. Literature is not completely reading, it also includes an abundance of writing, One event in particular comes to me as [try to think of a memorable writing experience, writing my junior Jong and I was very intimidated by the fact that I knew I would have to write it ‘eventually. Early inthe semester my teacher announced we would begin the project the next day. I then proceeded to ask, “Siow long will this paper have to be?", Rix ‘Rages including a works cited page”, she replied. Initially, I had no idea what to write about, the theme was controversial topics, but then 1 started looking at our options and chose one that interested me, concussions in sports. A couple of days into my research on this topic, I realized there was not a plethora of information on it, so 1 decide to switch to a topic that I was sure had quality information from multiple subjects, “the use of stem cells"\ > oyeBefore drafting my-paper, we were required to transfer facts to sixty notecards, each one containing single fact, and they had to come from six different sources, | ended up finding wo ‘ . an ight sourced After obtaining all my information, writing the paper was actually Basy. Although this eg Pe as ee ony yw for-writing 2 paper helped me greatly in writing tit research paper, de-tforotherpapers because it isnot neces alle only other ime that Ihave used this method was when | wrote my seniciescarch Paper. Technology has also greatly influenced my literacy. When I was younger I would watch educational TV shows that, atthe time, did not think were educational but looking back | realize how much they helped me. Later, contrary to popular belief, texting has helped my literacy. However, it has only mostly improved my spelling. Before I was texting, around thirteen years old and younger, | was awful at spelling, | am still not great but I have greatly improved. Words like “apparent”, “conscience”, and definitely “definitely” would trip me up and I had to google them every time I wanted to use them. I looked them up so much that eventually [learned how to spell them consistently. Multiple studies have been performed that support texting helps the literary development of those who d4KA British study published in the Journal of Computer Assisted Leaming founda positive conelation betwen texting nd itracy, comsuding that texting vty ay 7 ¢ development of phopoloyca Epa ing gk in children. PA schotastic .com)*It has also been shown that kids who text actually read more than they did abe HSBY Coys, Lastly, texting can improve one’s grammar because when they use abbreviations such as “m8” it makes them think about the word phonetically (Carter). a ws a ie A % oh UY we + Sa Xe ys \ wT oyWorks Cited Carter, Claire. “Texting Improves Children’s Spelling and Grammar." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 13 June 2014. Web. 22 Sept. 2015. "Can Texting Help With Spelling? | Scholastic.com.” Scholastic Teachers. Scholastic. Web. 22 Sept. 2015. . Couros, George. "Texting Improving Literacy?" The Principal of Change. 21 Aug. 2011. Web. | 22 Sept. 2015. f