Megan Judd

COMM-101-01

Professor Michel

17 July 2023

How People Around Me Impacted My Literacy

Reading is shoved down our throats starting at a young age in the United States. Starting

in elementary school, teachers push their students to read not only in school, but out of school. In

my personal experience, teachers that try and force me to do something that I did not want to do

would only cause my education to suffer and sometimes has lasting effects. In elementary

school, I was forced to read and write, and it caused me to hate reading and writing, which made

my education suffer. However, in high school my junior and senior year, Mrs. Favazza changed

my outlook on reading and writing, which has immensely helped my academic education and

professional work experience. Furthermore, in my AP English Literature and Composition class,

I was surrounded by people that exceled in reading and writing, which pushed me to become a

better reader and writer. Overall, the people around me had the biggest influence on my literacy.

In elementary school we had these weekly calendars in which we had to fill out if we

read a book or wrote something, such as a letter to a loved one, and how long we worked on this

task for. It was expected that we would work on this for at least twenty minutes daily, including

the weekends. I dreaded filling out this paper every week and frequently lied on it because I felt

forced to read or write for what seemed like forever to a seven-year-old. Reading and writing

was no longer fun to me and was more like a tedious chore. This resulted in me only doing the

bare minimum in language art classes and I did not progress at the same rate in reading and
writing anymore. This not only made my language arts grade suffer, but I sometimes struggled

overall academically, as I could not always comprehend what was asked nor communicate my

questions. The summer before junior year, I worked at a law firm as an administrator, and the

documents and language used in the office seemed like a foreign language to me. This resulted in

me taking longer to complete tasks because I had to look up or ask someone what a word meant,

or what the document was saying, but in simpler words. This made me feel like deadweight in

the office and that my literacy level was much lower than everyone else’s.

My junior and senior year of high school I had Mrs. Favazza for English 11 and AP

English Literature and Composition. Mrs. Favazza was very straightforward in class, which I

appreciated. She was very transparent about what each assignment was trying to get us to

practice and learn. Most importantly, Mrs. Favazza never pushed us to read by making it seem

forced, instead we often read together in small groups or as a class. If we did have a book that we

had to read on our own, Mrs. Favazza used more positive connotations regarding reading. To

encourage us to read more outside of class, Mrs. Favazza read off the list of benefits of reading

to us as a class. Then she made note that it was not important to be reading a college-level or

academic book, but rather we read a book that we enjoyed so reading would become a

sustainable habit. At the end of this conversation, Mrs. Favazza added that it was not mandatory

to read, but it was highly encouraged. By taking the pressure off reading, I began to read again

on my own slowly. I started with shorter books that often had a movie to go with it that I could

watch. This helped me improve my reading and comprehension skills at such a rapid pace, that I

was able to take AP English Literature and Composition my senior year. Today, almost two years

later, I am reading full series of books and I enjoy reading even more. Additionally, I see many

other benefits in my life that reading has caused. For example, I look forward to reading every
night before bed as it is a good stress relief for me. Furthermore, I can read at a much faster pace

and at a much higher level, which has helped me immensely in my education and in my

professional work experience.

In AP English Literature and Composition, I was not only with Mrs. Favazza, but I was in

a class with people that loved and exceled in reading and writing. This really pushed me, unlike

any other English class I had before. I was driven to not be the deadweight in my groups, which

motivated me to work much harder. I really tried to focus on not only reading what the text was

literally saying, but what it was also indirectly saying. Furthermore, working in a group helped

me jump ideas around and listen to input from others. By listening to others’ ideas, I was able to

learn things that I missed in the text. Additionally, we had to write papers by hand and only had

one class period to complete our essays. At first, I felt like my essays would never be perfect

with such little time to complete. However, I quickly learned little tricks to help me write faster,

such as not worrying about each sentence being perfect, but rather focusing on the overall

content and flow. Mrs. Favazza also asked me to volunteer in my school’s Writing Center my

senior year. By editing other people’s papers, I learned what were very common mistakes people

made in their writing, which made avoiding those mistakes second nature to me. By the time the

AP exam came around, I felt much more confident in my reading, writing, and comprehension

skills. All the reading, writing, and editing I did paid off, as I passed my AP English Literature

and Composition exam.

As I have gotten older, I have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by people that

enjoy reading and writing and put a positive connotation with them. My literacy suffered when I

felt forced to read and write when I was younger. However, as I got older, I rapidly improved my

literacy as I no longer felt forced to read and write and I was surrounded by people that excelled
at reading and writing. By improving my literacy, my education is at a level that I truly would

have never imagined being at. Additionally, I never feel like a deadweight in my work as I rarely

need assistance with comprehension or writing. Having a much-improved literacy has improved

my education immensely, and it is mostly because of the people I was surrounded by.