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Nicolas Manrique
Ms. Grant
UWRT
September 3, 2014
Literacy and Culture: Three Vignettes
Literacy and Culture: 3 Vignettes
Throughout our lives we go through many experiences that help us develop our literacy.
Whether it be learning the alphabet through the means of a song or writing how your summer
went on the first day of class. Teachers and parents alike want children to develop their literacy
skills to excel and learn as much as they can in life. Every student or child, however, is different.
They dont always grasp concepts like another students, sometimes they simply take a longer
time to develop. Take for example my experiences. The ones I most distinctly remember were
through my years in elementary school. To me the stages of when you go to kindergarten until
you pass 5th grade are very crucial to your literacy development. My experiences have showed
me just that; that is why they impacted me so profoundly.
My first memory or snapshot of when I was learning to read and write was when I was in
ESL back in kindergarten. At that age I spoke very little English and could barely understand the
teacher. I had only been living in America for two years and hearing so many people speak
different from what I experienced in Colombia was very confusing for me. It caused me so many
problems that my teacher had a conference with my parents and they decided that ESL was the
best choice for me to help me learn. I didnt know about that until weeks later so I just assumed I
was being put in a different class. Despite me being so nave at first, I quickly realized that I was

somehow inferior to the other kids because of that class. The ESL class I was in was very small
and many of the kids in there could barely write or read in English or simply understand it
altogether. I remember running home from school after the first day of ESL class and begging
my mom to take me out of ESL. She told me that it was only temporary and that it would make
me a smarter kid in the long run. I took her advice, sucked it up and began to go.
At first it was really difficult on me because I felt ashamed whenever my friends Chase
and Henry, my best friends at the time, would ask me why I always left class early and I would
tell them I was just leaving early. I truly felt like an outcast. On top of that, I was still struggling
in my normal class. Having to stay afterschool to ask questions and get additional instruction
frustrated me more. Nevertheless, my mothers words stuck to me and I just kept working as
hard as I could to get out of ESL. Little by little I begun to see results. I could now read books
like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? And Dr. Seusss Green Eggs and Ham, easily.
To most those seem easy but I struggled consistently with those. The instructor in ESL made a
point/reward system for us. To motivate us to work hard, she would show us prizes we could
buy with the points we would earn when we passed a test or read a book out loud. I recall one
prize in particular, a yellow and red raincoat. It was one of the nicest things I had ever seen and I
was determined to get it. For days I practiced writing every word in those two books and read as
many books that were in the ESL class. It was when I had finally gotten the necessary amount of
points to get the yellow jacket I realized how much I had grown. I had learned how to read and
write in English so well that I was taken out of ESL early. Yes, I had gained literacy but I also
gained confidence in my abilities and was excited to go to school each and every day from then
on. ESL might have been one of the most difficult times for me but it paved the way for me to
continue learning and growing.

Even though I had learned to read and write English I still wasnt as proficient as some of
my classmates. I wanted to be the best. Anything less meant I was wasting my time. This was a
quality I gained over the years watching my dad work. For me to be the best meant getting
straight As and getting as many achievements as possible. Second and third grade proved to be
too difficult to reach this goal due to the fact I moved so much during that time and couldnt
really establish myself in school. It was in fourth grade where I vividly remember taking a big
step toward really developing my literacy.
During that year I had just transferred to Smithfield Elementary and recall them really
emphasizing on reading books. For students to do just that the school promoted the Accelerated
Reader learning system. It basically consisted of reading the book and taking a test that, based on
your score, showed you had actually read and understood the book. Once you passed the test on
the book you would get credit for that book. I always saw that the smartest kids in the class got
these red and green medallions. This meant that they had read many high level books and gotten
enough credits to be recognized as Accelerated Readers. To me this meant being the best and
to read as much as I could. I made it my primary focus to earn those medallions and be
recognized as one of top students. Reading, quickly became my main hobby. Hatchet, Tangerine
and Shiloh became my all-time favorites. It eventually lead to me becoming a very active reader
and my efforts finally paid off when I earned a green medallion at the end of the year. I was very
proud of how great of reader I had become and finally had something to show for that. But what
really made me realize just how much my literacy had developed was when I got my report card
at the end of the year. I had earned straight As for the first time in my life! All that reading
resulted in me being able to comprehend and understand the other materials at a higher level. I

was just so caught up in earning the medals that I never really paid attention to just how clearly I
understood the material in school.
Fourth grade was my best year and I went into fifth grade knowing that my literacy skills
had grown in a big way thanks to all the reading I had done. The next year proved to be a year
where I gained literacy through much adversity. Fifth grade was a dramatic change in my life
because I had just moved and I was going to attend Winget Elementary, a brand new school.
Leaving all my friends was difficult but the fact that I was going to have to adjust to a new
environment, teaching system and classmates made it very tough. I had been so successful in my
previous school that I knew going somewhere different would cause me nothing but difficulty.
There were only four fifth grade classrooms due to the fact the school was in its first year. I was
in the class with the only male instructor. Although it doesnt sound so different, I had been used
to my teachers being women and thus being very kindhearted and helping during my previous
years. This teacher, however, made it clear we were going to be on our own and was going to be
somewhat strict. As a result it made learning the material much more difficult. I was too nervous
to ask questions because I didnt expect he would help me all that much. When I did ask he gave
me generic answers that only confused me more.
I had begun to take a music class and we were all learning to play the recorder. I
understood very little toward what was on the sheet music and how to even play the recorder. As
time went by, I felt so illiterate in practically everything in school. I didnt even understand how
to play football when we would go outside for recess. A complete change from fourth grade.
With so much adversity I felt overwhelmed and alone. But one person that helped me through it
all was once again my mother. She would always ask me for help with her English and what a
certain phrase or word meant. It made me feel confident that I had some type of literacy skills

and that I could get pass all this difficulty. I began to pay more attention in class and listen more
carefully. If I didnt understand something I would write it in a note and remember to ask my
grandma, who had been a teacher before. Practicing the recorder and watching sports quickly
became something I did every day and before I knew it I had been moved to the higher level
math class and watched the Carolina Panthers play every Sunday. Once again I was seeing my
efforts pay off and my literacy expand and flourish.
In those five years I developed my literacy and gave it its fundamentals to prepare me
for middle and high school. Even now I many of my methods to study can be traced back to what
I did in fourth grade. My experiences may be completely different from what say, the person
reading this, but it doesnt mean one is more intellectual then the other. It just means were at
different stages in literacy. Silvia Scribner tried to make this point to many scholars and used
various metaphors to convey that. Even though I may face upcoming adversity previous
experience have shown that I can get through it, I just need the right mentality and people around
me.