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Elizabeth Bennett

English 111

Professor Williams

Due date: Oct 9, 2022

Reader to Writer

Literacy in my life has been a constantly changing thing from first learning to read and write, to

then honing those skills. My reading skills developed much faster than my writing. Once I set my

mind to it reading was very easy for me and I enjoy it. Whereas writing has been more of a

struggle and still a struggle for me, it just never came as easily.

Literacy in my life had a somewhat rocky start. In second grade just about the time I

started to learn to read and write my teacher, Mrs. Harold would assign our class thirty minutes

of reading every night for homework from a book we were given. Second-grade me refused; I

don’t remember exactly what I hated about the homework so much, maybe I didn’t like the book

or wanted to play with my friends instead I don’t know, all I remember is that this assignment

was like the end of the world for me. My parents would try to make me do my homework as

most parents would, and I would throw a tantrum getting into screaming matches, and crying, it

was awful. I remember one time my mom told me I wasn’t allowed to come out of my room until

I finished the magic treehouse book I was supposed to read. So I sat in my room for maybe a

solid 7 minutes then I marched my little self to the kitchen and tell my mom I finished it.

Obviously, she didn’t fall for it, there was no way I could have finished the rest of that book in
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that short amount of time. There was just no way I was going to read I had a terrible relationship

with reading at the beginning of my literacy journey.

Second grade ended and I went into third grade my teacher was Mrs. Beam and at the

start of the year she was my worst nightmare; anytime we had free time she would have us read.

Finished a worksheet, read. Done with a test early, read. Finished your book, pick another. It

was constant. At the start of every week, Mrs. Beam would take us to the library and we would

pick out three or four books each for the week. I never found interest in any books, I would just

pick a couple randomly and pretend to read them. We had AR reading at my school, we would

read a book take a test on it, and get points; at a parent-teacher conference Mrs. Beam brought up

how low my AR points were and I finally confessed that I just didn’t like reading and didn’t find

interest in the books I read. Next week comes and Mrs. Beam takes us to the library like normal

except this time she pulls me aside and helps me pick out a book, asking what I was interested in

and what story I thought was cool. Finally, I settle on the Boxcar Children. Unlike the other

books, I gave this one a chance, and I loved it. This launched me into reading I would read at

home in my free time I loved it. I was reading all the time so much that my school counselor

bumped me up to a higher reading level, a fifth-grade reading level. Mrs. Beam and my parents

were so proud of me; this gave me so much confidence in my reading abilities and made me

want to keep growing.

I kept reading pretty constantly up to fifth grade. This was the first year I moved to

Lincoln Charter. Lincoln Charter was a lot harder than the school I was at previously this new

school moved faster, had more classes, and more responsibility. So my focus shifted from

reading to trying to keep up with my maths and sciences. Around the time when I finally felt

adjusted to the new school my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Lineburger started reading the book
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series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians to us. There was a time when I was out of school for a

week; I had gone on a family vacation to Disney world one February. Mrs. Lineburger had sent

the book Percy Jackson and the lightning thief home with me to get caught up. Instead of just

getting caught up I read the rest of the book that night. That one book caused me to fall back in

love with reading. I was reading even more than I was back in third grade. I took so much pride

in my reading ability and I was coming out with the highest AR points every quarter. By the end

of the year when I graduated fifth grade the awards were being handed out at our graduation

ceremony and I can in 2nd place for the highest AR points; I had lost by 0.3 of a point. I

remember not caring about coming in second I was so proud of my work to win that award after

such a hard year in school.

All through middle school, I stayed constant with my reading; but this was the first time

teachers expected us to write. All years of middle school and my first year of high school it was

pretty much the same story I was expected to write, but I never really knew how. It is hard to

explain. I remember in the eighth grade being asked to write an analysis on Dr. Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde but having no clue even where to start, what a thesis is, what a theme is, what it was

supposed to look or sound like. I never asked for help though I just powered through the

assignment, turned it in, and hope for the best. That was pretty much the story of my writing

career through middle and part of high school.

Finally, in tenth grade my English two teacher Ms. Chase saw where we struggled. She

went through each step of the writing process, giving us examples, and most importantly gave us

assignments to turn in then gave us very specific revisions to help improve our writing skills.

This was a huge help for me in understanding what writing should look like and I wasn’t so lost

anymore.
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Of course, I still struggle with the writing part of literacy and I have much room to

improve but I finally understand more and see growth in how I write. Reading will always be my

favorite over writing but I have had an overall improvement in my literacy and hope to still grow.