Olivia Lasarsky

English 111

Professor Williams

September 27, 2020

My Literacy Journey

Reading and writing are always going to be essential parts of your life, especially

throughout school, so it is important that you find the genres and types you like the best. When I

was younger, I always saw reading as a chore and something that my parents and teachers made

me do. Since I never wanted to do it, I was never able to actually get into reading and enjoy it.

Now that I am older, I have found that I can really find what I like because there is such a wide

variety of reading and writing. There have been several experiences in my life that have taught

me that they are both enjoyable and that I can learn to love them.

The earliest memory I have of reading is from when I was

around two or three years old. As a part of our nightly routine, my

parents would always read my older sister and I a few books. A

few of our favorites included Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and If

You Give a Mouse a Cookie. My parents felt strongly that it was

important to get us into reading at a young age (Reading to your

kids) to prepare us for school. Having parents who made reading such an integral part of my life

when I was young helped with the development of my reading skills throughout elementary

school. They also helped me to discover that I enjoy reading fictional books. Since I wasn’t a big
fan of reading when I first learned how, finding that I really liked fictional books was a big

stepping stone for me.

When I began Kindergarten, I had never read anything but picture books. Throughout my

Kindergarten year, my teacher helped to transition my peers and I into reading chapter books.

Once we started to get the hang of reading chapter books, every Wednesday the book Mobile

would come to the school. My teacher

encouraged me to pick out a few

chapter books each week to see which

genres I liked (Book genres). I was

optimistic every time I walked onto the

Book Mobile, but it always seemed to be difficult for me to find books that I found interesting

and enjoyed. I occasionally would find a really good fiction book that I liked, but many times I

would just get frustrated because I couldn't find anything I was able to get into. The book mobile

showed me that there certainly are books out there that I will love, I just have to find the right

ones.

Each month throughout my 1st grade year, I received a reading

chart to complete. It was hard for me to find books to read for this chart

because I didn’t enjoy reading at all. I asked Mrs. Campbell, my teacher, if

she had any suggestions; she recommended the Junie B. Jones series (Junie

B. Jones). By the end of the first chapter, I found myself reading every

chance I got. There was something about this series that I was just so

intrigued by, and almost every day after school I would ask my mom to
take me to the library to check out another book of the series. Reading the Junie B. Jones series

in 1st grade truly gave me a glimpse of what it was like to be completely captured by a book.

Fast forward to my 6th grade year, my teachers Mrs.

Amos and Mrs. Noftsger assigned my class ‘creative writing

prompts’ at the beginning of each period (The importance of

Creative Writing). The first day of school, when they

announced that this is what we would be doing each day, I

immediately felt anxious and concerned. I had always thought

of myself as a bad writer and I never enjoyed it because I thought it was just boring. By the

second week of school, I found myself eager to go to English class. I learned so much about both

my writing and writing as a whole in those first 15 minutes of class each day. I realized that

writing doesn’t have to be so boring and that I was able to be as creative and unique as I wanted

to in each of my writing prompts. I would write about a variety of things, anywhere from my

personal life to all types of fictional stories. By the end of the school year, I not only found

myself to be a better writer with more confidence, but I also learned that writing wasn’t as bad as

I had previously thought, and that there were ways I could enjoy it.

Furthermore, writing is a subject that is a very integral part of most English classes at

Lincoln Charter. Since I have been at this school since Kindergarten, writing has been something

for me that I have grown to like. For my 9th and 10th grade years, I had the same English

teacher, Ms. Gillam. There was a good amount of writing involved in English 1 and 2, and after

my first paper in English 1 was graded, Ms. Gillam told me that I need to expand my writing and

not make it so generic. This really spoke to me because it helped me to realize that I needed to
work on making my writing personal and unique. Along with my English classes, I often had to

write many essays in my World History class. My teacher, Mrs. Black, really helped to expand

my writing, as far as my vocabulary and how to make something like History seem interesting.

On each of my essays, she would write a review of what I needed to improve on, whether it was

my vocabulary, sentence structure, or anything that seemed to be missing. Before this, nobody

had ever really reviewed any of my writing pieces, so this helped me to realize that my writing

was very correctable. All in all, these teachers both pushed me way outside of my comfort zone,

and I am a better writer now for it.

Reading and writing are both very essential parts of our everyday life, so it is important

that we each figure out what works the best for us. Personally, growing up it was hard for me to

find my interests, as well as push myself to write to the very best of my ability. My parents,

teachers, and events at school all helped me to get to where I am and developed me into the

reader and writer I am today. I have learned that there is always something out there for you, you

just have to find what it is. It is beneficial to have an open mind to reading and writing because

there are so many layers to it. New parts of English are always being discovered, and your

feelings toward it may surprise you.