My literacy experiences happened when I was still in elementary school.

It is not the fact

I hated to read or right Reading, writing, and even language learning have a central development
to being a reader or writer. My experience happened when I was still in elementary school. It was
not that I hated to read it was the fact I never found an interest in reading or writing. I remember
in fifth grade I would be sitting in class surrounded by other students reading, laughing, and
enjoying their books. However, I would sit there and play with my hair or daydream. It was not
until sixth grade along with my senior year in high school when reading and writing had changed
my mindset on how to understand the text.
In elementary school Mrs. Irvine, my sixth grade teacher, had recommended a non fiction
book titled Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan. The book had opened my mind as I had felt the
pages come to life to make it seem as if I were actually there. To me reading became more than
just made up characters, words on paper, or made up ideas, reading had helped me escape reality
and enter a new one. After awhile I had challenged myself to read more difficult books. I began
to understand that there were multiple types of books, authors, ideas, and stories to be told. I
started to see things differently which lead to my understanding in books, reading, and even
writing.
Another experience that had altered my views on English itself was my senior year
english course. My teacher, Mrs. Thomas, had made us read a lot of boring texts yet somehow
always made them interesting. We had to dissect each text by finding the meaning, tone, and
even the purpose of what the text was about. Many of them had been difficult to uncover, but by
doing so we learned that more about the passage along with what the author was trying to say. I
learned a good way to annotate and connect with the text was to reflect on your life tofully

understand the passage. Annoying and dissecting papers, texts, poems, and letters came easy
after awhile and gave me a deeper understanding of the author or message to relate to. Along
with reading and annotating she had given us many papers to write. It had been difficult most
times, however, the annotations and looking deeper into passages had helped me to not only
improve my writing skills, but also gave me a broader understanding to the meanings of many
distinct texts.
My experiences have helped me grow into the reader and writer that I am today. Over the
years my views have changed tremendously. I am now able to understand the message of
different texts, and cannot seem to put a book down once I start reading it. I was able to apply
my learnings to what they are today. English is always growing and not just based on a book or
an author. English has a deeper concept and my experiences over the years have had a great
impact on my learning process. Reading and writing have come much easier to me over the
years, and still are my escape from reality.