Hampton

Allison Hampton

Professor Marcum

English 1103-Section 052

2 February 2016

Literacy Narrative

I remember learning to read at a fairly young age, or at least faster than most of my

peers and classmates. I feel like reading sort of came naturally to me or was fairly easy for me

to learn to do. I don’t ever remember having trouble with learning how to sound words out or

read sentences, but I did have a bit more trouble with learning to spell and and eventually how

to write. Writing also seemed harder to me because with writing, unlike reading, there are no

set rules and guidelines that you must follow, which made it harder for me to grasp.

Throughout most of my life, my feelings towards reading and writing have varied

dramatically based on what I was learning in school as well as the purpose or reason for why I

was reading or writing.

During most of my life growing up, I hated reading, especially throughout elementary

and middle school. I remember first starting to hate reading when I was in about the second

grade. That year we mainly focused on reading and reading comprehension. During that time, I

usually felt as if reading was a chore and most of the time I found it boring. I typically read very

slow and would fall behind in class because of it. We were often tested on our reading

comprehension and during timed tests, I very rarely finished because most of what was

assigned to read was very boring to me so I read very slowly. I believe my problem was that I

was never able to find anything interesting to me in anything that I was assigned to read in

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school and most of the time found what we were reading was boring and unexciting. This is

what I believe prevented me from reading outside of school for many years; because I thought

it would be the same way.

Throughout high school, though, many of my teachers began assigning readings that I

found actually interested me. I still had the initial dread when a teacher would give a reading

assignment, but I learned to keep an open mind when reading these assignments because most

of the time I found that I would actually enjoy reading these assignments. I learned that you can

usually find interesting and relatable things in most books you read, you just need to be willing

to find them.

One of my favorite books came from an assignment I did for my senior year AP English

teacher. The book that was assigned was interesting and had many elements in it that were

relatable. I found it hard to put the book down until I finish reading it because it was so

engrossing. Since completing this assignment I have reread this book several times because it

continues to influence me on a daily basis. Because the book had such a unique way of dealing

with things that everyone goes through in their lifetime, my perspective of life has been

completely changed. I believe that I think, act, and live life differently because of this book, and

I feel like this change is a positive one. I definitely look at the world in a new way. I intend to

read this book again because I feel like I have learned and discovered something completely

new and different each time I have read it, and I won’t hesitate in the future to read other

books because of this possibility.

Now, I no longer hate reading, but my feelings for it vary depending on the reading

material. I enjoy reading only if what I am reading is interesting to me and unlike when I was

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growing up, I find myself reading a lot in my free time. Reading for me acts as a form of escape

or a way to decompress after a long or busy day. I still have trouble reading if it is assigned to

me because I sometimes find it difficult to read things that I may not find interesting. If I am

given an assigned reading for a class, I usually dread reading it until I find something in the

reading that sparks my interest. Through learning to give reading a chance I have also found

that I sometimes become interested in things that I had found boring or uninteresting prior to

reading an assignment.

My feelings about writing have typically varied throughout my life depending on why I

am writing or what I am writing for. If I am writing on my own I usually like it because it allows

me to be expressive and creative in a way that is different than any other medium. I use writing

as a way to vent my emotions or thoughts. For me, writing is also a way for me to get all of my

ideas down on paper or in one place.

My earliest experiences with writing were very positive for the most part. Although

writing was a bit harder for me to pick up initially, once I finally got the hang of it, it started to

become easier for me. I was pretty successful with writing in elementary and middle school and

through out most of high school. During both my freshmen and sophomore years in high school

I had English teachers that were both extremely passionate about writing and allowed my

classmates and I to explore writing with a lot of freedom. Some of my best writing that I have

ever produced I wrote in these classes. The instruction and feedback I got for my writing was

inspiring and built my confidence up as well as gave me good foundation to build from in my

future writing endeavors.

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Although I do love writing, and have for a long time, there are a few instances when I

was not as fond of writing. If I am assigned a writing assignment, my initial feelings are not

typically pleasant. When I am writing for a class or in a situation where other people will be

reading my work I get very self conscious and it is hard for me to allow myself to be creative

and express myself fully because I am not as comfortable with others reading my writing. I have

never liked feeling like others are judging me for anything, so allowing someone else to read my

work is extremely hard for me. I feel like I am very timid with my writing because I fear writing

in a “wrong” way or in a way that others do not like.

I believe that these feelings stem from my writing experiences during my senior year of

high school. Most of my AP English class during my senior year was dedicated to writing essays.

Even though in past English classes I had done quite well with writing, I struggled with the

essays that were assigned for this class. I found that no matter what strategies I tried using in

writing these essays, I never did very well. With each essay I wrote, my scores stay the same, I

never got better or worse, but I was never satisfied with my grades.

Aside from my experiences with writing during my senior year of high school, most of

my experiences with writing have been fairly positive. Throughout most of my education I have

been fairly successful with my writing. Throughout most of high school I wrote many stories and

papers that I consider to be my best work I have ever produced. Although I do still struggle with

expressing my thoughts and being creative, I also enjoy writing outside of school and on my

own. When I am writing in my free time or on my own, though, I seem to have a much easier

time being creative and allowing myself to fully express my thoughts and emotions. It is

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definitely much easier for me to write freely when I know that no one will be reading what I

have written, so the fear of judgment seems disappear.

My worst writing experiences were in high school in my senior year AP English class.

That year, we focused mostly on writing essays and we typically wrote at least one essay each

week. I seemed to really struggled with these writing assignments because they were typically

very hard and had extremely specific prompts.

Although I never completely missed the mark on any of them, I still never made the

kinds of grades I was used to on writing assignments. I always received passing grades, but I

was never truly satisfied with the grades I was making on them. Because of this I struggled to

figure out what to do differently in my essays that would improve my grades on them. It

seemed that it didn’t matter how hard I tried to make my writing better, I never improved and

mostly received the same grades consistently throughout the course of the class.

Writing these essays were always extremely stressful for me because I feared that my

writing would not improve or that I would not completely understand what the prompt was

asking for. I wanted my essays to be creative and fresh but most of the time I felt as if I fell

short on creativity. I believe this was mainly because I feared that taking a risk with my writing

would result in my teacher not liking what I wrote. I feel as if this caused my writing to be very

safe or boring and lack creativity. When I did try to be creative and write my essays, I found that

it would usually backfire and result in my teacher telling me that I was missing the points that

the prompts were asking for. Anytime we would receive our grades on these assignments I

would be left feeling defeated and discouraged. These experiences were extremely

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embarrassing because it seemed most of my friends would make higher grades than me and I

felt like I was falling behind.

I definitely believe that these experiences, positive and negative, have affected my

growth and development within reading and writing and have influenced my likes and dislikes

when it comes these fields. I feel like my education of these two subjects have also greatly

influenced what styles I gravitate more towards and what I find interesting and how my

experiences with these subjects will result in the future. I enjoy writing, but I still struggle to

allow myself to be creative when others will be reading my work. And I love reading, but not

everything I read interests me or allows me to relate to it.

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