Fred Last-Powell 1 TUBE Vlog, Fred Last-Powell CAL i) tea Professor Lynn M. Raymond UWRT 1103- FO! 23 September 2015, nee w Die My Kitetaty| Narrative When I was young my mom taught me to read. | was not very cooperative because | did not see any reason for reading. It was not fun or exciting, At the time, | only really loved playing outside and with my friends, so | resisted my reading lessons. This quotation from Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz probably explains some of my reluctance, “Most children look forward to learning to read and, in fact, do so quickly. For dyslexic children however the experience is very different: for them reading which seems to come effortlessly to everyone else seems to be beyond their grasp.” Slowly we worked through phonics and sight words, | conquered the mechanics but did not enjoy the process, My reading was on grade level and occasionally | would pick up a Pokemon or Star Wars restricted vocabulary reader when it wasn't required. This is a connection with how Sherman Alexie leamed to read, “Ileamed to read with a Superman comic book” -Sherman Alexie. Most often, however, reading seemed like drudgery to me. That was until | noticed my older brother reading books all the time. He always had a book with him from when the sun came up till it went down. He even read at theFred Last-Powell 2 dinner table. Often when | asked him to play with me it was a struggle to get him away from his books.| started to get jealous of his books. | thought, “What could be so fun about reading those silly pieces of paper with those annoying words on them?” | decided that | would do everything | could to stop him from reading. | tried hiding his books all over the house. But that didn’t work, for every book | hid he would start reading another one, so eventually | gave up and asked him why he liked to read so much. He told me that he loved reading because it sent him to another world where anything was possible and he asked me if | wanted him to read one of his books to me. Of course | agreed and so he read his current favorite novel, Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, to me. He would read at least a chapter every day. | was mesmerized, totally entranced by the fantasy world. Naturally, | discovered much later, he had edited drastically as he read! I began middle school as a voracious reader of young adult fantasy and science fiction but as a reluctant reader of much else. I found nonfiction a struggle especially if it needed to be read out loud. My mother noticed that | was having trouble and developed aplan. Part of the problem was that the middle school books had a font which was smaller and closer together than | was previously used to. My mom purchased the sare books in different formats with larger print, more space between the lines and brighter Pages. These strategies helped somewhat. She also included in my studies high interest material. Two of the books she got for me were “Call of the Wild,” and “The Lightning Thief’ they are still among my favorite reads.Fred Last-Powell 3 My literacy challenges have been influenced by dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning disability that is very common, over 10% of the population has it, and it affects one’s ability to break down and understand words. To compensate for my dyslexia my mother has spent a lot of time supporting my leaming. She believes that, “Reading is important for everyone and the more fun you have reading the easier it is to learn and improve.” We struggled through the dyslexia by reading loads of books and eventually | was confident enough to read most words in class. If it was not for my mom | wouldn't be in this class today and | would not be the confident individual | am today. One of the quotes | like from “The Secret Life of Bees” is “I wished she'd been smart enough, or loving enough, to realize everybody has burdens that crush them, only they don't give up their children.” “Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees. My mom was smart enough to realize that. Instant messaging has helped my literacy skills enormously. When | was eight | found spelling very difficult and hated practicing it. Whenever it was time for me to practice | would only do the bare minimum. Then | started playing online games with friends, As we played, my friends improved at communicating through the games’ instant messaging system, while | floundered. My keyboarding skills were growing but my spelling ability did not change. It got more difficult to keep up with them and less fun for all of us. So | decided to put more effort into learning to spell. We worked through several spelling books, to no avail. | still was not improving and | was starting to get depressed about it. One book suggested using visual and verbal strategies to learnFred Last-Powell 4 spelling aloud by looking for the words in your head. Alll of a sudden everything started to make sense and | could spell longer, more complicated words. | started to type faster and then I could play games with my friends again without worrying about slowing them down. Without instant messaging | would not be able to. spell nearly as well as | do today, although of course, spellcheck is my best friend. Instant messaging and spelichecker are both examples of how technology has influenced my literacy narrative.frp Last-Powell 5 Woves Cited ReGoos > Sue Monk Kidd “The Secret Life of Bees” Sherman Alexie “Superman and Me" OWA | Atgavicw) 20 Ee Last Powel Perseal qaste" = DQ Sep. 201s —frsaty shajwitz “Overcoming Dyslexia’ elxile Web 22 Sep. 201