MY LITERACY

AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Brooke Wiestling
WHEN I WAS YOUNG
Growing up my parents both read to me before
bed each night. My favorite books were the
ones with flaps that I could lift up to reveal
more pictures. These were some of my
favorites!
When I was young my grandmother
would come to visit every summer for
two weeks. She loved to read so she
made my brother and I read for 20
minutes each day. At first I thought
it was really boring, then she
suggested I read Nancy Drew. This is
the first series that I fell in love with!
I would sit and read for hours with
my grandmother.
WRITING IN SCHOOL
Elementary school: I could express my ideas fairly easily through
writing. However, my penmanship sometimes made it difficult for my
teacher to read those ideas!


Middle School: I struggled with grammar and creative writing. In
eighth grade I started honors English and that helped me improve my
writing.

High school: I was in honors/AP English all 4 years. My sophomore
year I had a teacher who had extremely high expectations of her
students. That was one of the most challenging classes I took in high
school but I finally learned how to write an essay that has a clear
argument and uses analysis to back it up.

Elementary school: I was able to comprehend most of what I read but I
was a slow reader. Since my reading assignments took me a long time I
tended not to enjoy them.

Middle school: The first assigned book that I loved was The Outsiders. It
is still on of my all time favorites.

High school: I had many reading assignments in my English classes so I
learned to skim in order to increase my reading speed. This came in
handy while reading books such as Crime and Punishment.

READING IN SCHOOL
READING MATH
When I started taking upper division math classes in
college I needed to read my math textbooks for the first
time.
It was like trying to learn a new language.
I would have to read everything multiple times because the
information and writing style was so difficult to
understand.
After a few semesters, reading math became easier.
However, I will never consider a math textbook an easy
read!
WRITING MATH
When I became a math major I had no idea that my
homework would be pages and pages of written work. I
thought I would be solving equations, but in some upper
division classes the only numbers I saw were my scores
written at the top of my tests.
I was intimidated when I found out that I had to learn a
whole new style of writing. In proof writing it can be very
challenging to express abstract and complex ideas.
With practice, I eventually learned how to write clear and
concise proofs. I also now admire the eloquence and beauty
of an excellently written proof.