Mid-semester writing: MY LITERACY DEVELOPMENT

I have chose to write my literacy development in the Community domain because I truly believe that the community give you a full of literacy practices.

My literacy community opportunities:

According to the Ms Guofang Lis research the term literacy opportunity refers to childrens interactions with literacy of whatever kind, in whatever form, in the home milieu. These interactions include childrens direct contact with print, chances to observe parents reading and writing activities, exposure to media, and occasion for joint reading and writing practices. They also include occasions to learn something new such as reading books, maps or newspapers; watching movies, building houses shows or anthropology channel; group writing or reading; acting or dancing classes. My parents always encouraged me to be a part of any activity in my life so one day I decided to enter in the choir at church. In the choir, I saw for the first time a music score with musical notes and I had not any idea either how to read them or how to sing them. The church was a Catholic one so some songs were in Latin therefore the most words in Latin I acquired came from there. I had also the occasion to see other choristers playing musical instruments and reading musical notes and to observe others passion can be indicative about your own. Also my friends and I, we used to go together to the public library every Fridays it was the time for us to exchange books, magazines, music CD; to study or read together; or to play games such as Scrabble or figure out the crossword puzzle about fashion things. Additionally we enjoyed taking the dictionary and making riddles about some words. In the librarys building, there was also a movie theater and we often went there to watch plays. Usually the plays were about medieval pieces and it was a source of learning many archaic words. My parents had always been hard workers, even the weekends they didnt take a rest. So I usually spent my weekends at my fathers work and there, I had the chance to use the computer because we didnt have any at home. My parents considered that the computer as a useful tool for people who worked and a source of distraction for students. At my fathers work, I could also use the typewriter, that old machine that hadnt been used many years ago and that I was proud to be the only user. I had also a free access at my fathers newspapers and I would compare the front pages and the headlines of different newspapers so that I could figure out what the similarities and the differences. Simple things such as learning how to drive car, reading road signs, food labels, maps or memorizing license plates were also a source of learning new words.

My literacy Instructions and cooperation:

Literacy instruction refers to direct or indirect guidance provided by parents, to the child through literacy activities such as procedural utterances, pointing, labeling, repeating and completing,

explaining, evaluating and extending. This guidance can also being provided by neighbors, teachers, news presenters, preachers, role models, authors reflections, recipe labels or by yourself. Literacy cooperation involves active participation of the child in literacy-related events, which is reflected in the childs understanding and acceptance of the role he or she plays in activities or she responds to others literacy instructions. I grew up in Christian community and I had participated in a lot of biblical classes. There, they taught me how to read and the most important how to understand the Bible. I frequently read some parts in the Bible without understanding what they meant and then the priest in the biblical class advised me to read one sentence at once, think about it, meditate about it and in final reread the whole sequence I didnt understand. I had seen my parents, my brothers or others at home read the Bible after work especially my nanny because it is the person I used to spend the most of time at home. She taught me some prayers and I even had a book that helps me to memorize them. I tried to teach my best friend those prayers but I failed because there were always a part of them she forgot so I gave up. However, she was a great a writer and she always let me read her stories. One day, she challenged to write at my turn otherwise she will not let me read her story. As a big fan of reading but not writing it was like a punishment. Then, I wrote a story with difficulty, gave it to her and after read it again, again and again she was touched and had even tears in her eyes. I couldnt believe it but to her, it was some imperfections so she taught how to go deep in my thoughts and to sharpen my imagination. We liked to use events in the year such as birthdays, Christmas, to improve our creativity in writing cards to each other, to our relatives or neighbors. In the neighborhood, I used to have a friend who spoke only English. When he was speaking, he sounded smart and I was so jealous about him. Then I began to memorize songs in English without understanding what they meant in order to sound only smart in my turn. I had a notebook where for those songs and I spent entire evenings to look on the web the lyrics, wrote down, memorized and sang them nonstop. I understood those songs during the following years and I passed to the next level of my self-teaching, I began to watch movies in English with subtitles and later without. I liked to watch comedy movies and more I watched them, it had aroused in me a strange feeling that I could do the same meaning to stand before a public and make them laughing. Thus, I entered in a troupe of comedians who usually played at the public movie theater. During the rehearsals, I learned some theaters policies such as never turn your back to the public, always speak aloud and clearly or if you have a memory lapse dont panic and improvise. One day, our troupe manager asked each actor to write a bit of funny piece. I figure out that its more complicated to write if your purpose is to make somebody laugh. Nevertheless, with some advices and articles that they gave me, they helped me to make my piece better. To have roles in plays also improved my memory, moreover it helped to go beyond my fear to talk before an audience and have more confidence in myself.

Socio-emotional quality:

Socio-emotional quality is an affective factor that includes indicators such as the bond between the parents and the child. It can also be any kind of feeling that affects the child during his or her literacy development. I was always been the youngest in my activities. I was the youngest at home, in my class, my choir, my troupe so my peers always tended to treat me differently like a baby and it made me feel like it wasnt my place and they didnt accept me. Although I was younger, I felt that we have the same mind. Then, I adopted a certain attitude to show them that I am as mature as they are and it turned out that I behaved more maturely than my mates and they liked to call me their mother for killing because I behaved more maturely than I should. Despite that, deep down in my heart, I knew I was lucky always to be younger and I cherished that idea as not to be like others, that impression to be special. I also figured out that to be an actor during your teenager years is very dangerous for your identity. In fact, when you are a teenage you are still searching your true personality and I found myself personifying my characters in my real life which made me confused about who I was really.