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Kirk Mans
Ms. Eaker
UWRT 1103-018
September 24, 2014
A Personal Literacy Narrative
My reading and writing literacy is a product of my childhood and the literacy sponsors
that had an effect on me as a child. My parents, teachers, and friends all have changed the way
in which I read and write, making me the literate student person I am today. The biggest factor in
the shaping formation of my reading and writing literacy level would have to be mybe my own
nature and the way I spent my childhood and education. The way in which yourones literacy is
formed, comes from the people who have influenced you in your upbringing, your experiences,
and moral development., and the struggles and triumphs that have shaped you as an individual.
In all of this, the reading and writing quality you have can be described by the way in which you
can effectively comprehend and communicate a language through any type of medium. The I
believe that the literacy of an individual can also be shaped through the social experiences and
independent activities you participate in and the effective outcomethat allow for growth that
which in effect changes the way you read or write.
One specific memory I have regarding the beginning of my literacy development
occurred when I started reading Harry Potter as a young child. I was probably in 3rd grade
when I started reading the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. This book made
me not only desire to read, it progressed my reading and comprehension skills farther than most
of my teachers could have. As the books went on, they got progressively longer and increased in
complexity. In particular, the fifth book was about 900 pages and including many passages that
had underlying meaningsvague descriptions of social interactions and left much of the movie to

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be implied by the viewer. In reading this book, I was constantly asked to interpret the reading
and translate it into an understood message, which was an important activity to help me
understand difficult texts. This helped me utilize my skills in comprehending text and rhetorical
understanding of hidden themes and messages. After reading the first book, I became eager to
read the next seven books, which got progressively harder and more insightful. These books
were my primary source of literacy practice and increased my vocabulary, reading speed, and
overall understanding of dialogue, which proves highly useful in the later years of education, in
particular my writing and engineering classes which that asks me to write a structured and
professional paper on many occasions.
A literacy sponsor is something or someone that positively or negatively affects the level
of literacy that one has. One important literacy sponsor for me was my mother. She would make
me read in the summer as well as keep a journal, and doing that effectively increased my writing
competency. The type of writing she would have me do included free writing, reflective writing,
and journalistic writing. The act of constantly writing my daily activities helped me become
more comfortable with writing and after reflecting back on each day, developed my ability to
recall information. This was a major step in expanding my writing skills and led me to increase
my writing ability daily. Some days I would have to write about what the book I was being
forced to read was on and what the motives of the main character wereSome days my mother
made me read a book and write a short description that demonstrated and understanding of the
plot and setting in the book. I would then have to analyze the main character and discuss my
view on him as a villain or hero. I would also write about Charlotte having this web and
Charlotte befriending some Pig. This mind-numbing activity helped me to blossom as a free
writer and increase my literacy level to a point where I was able to read moderately difficult

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books. At the young age of eight, the task of reading books and writing thoroughly reports of
narratives makes you think of details and in return allows you to practice your comprehension
skills which will prove to be very useful in the latter years of education.
To sum up my experiences as a reader and writer, I cant leave out my 6th grade reading
experience that started me on a more intellectually challenging reading level. The path down aI
took to becoming a more literate reader started when my friend asked said since because you
love animals, you would probably find The Life of Pi intriguing. I immediately assumed that it
was some boring book and that I should politely reject the offer. But alas, I took him up on the
offer. The next day he brought in the book that looked as though it belonged in adults hands. I
assumed the book would require a more advanced reading level than I was currently at. After
deciding to give the book a chance, I set off to read this phenomenal book. It started out as a
slow read but slowly turned into one of the most interesting reads of my life. Its plot hooked me,
and before I knew it I was done readinghad finished the book . This book challenged my reading
skill with words and situations that I had never encountered previously. The book started threw
situations on me inducing religion and the morals accompanying some of them; this was new and
had me analyzing each religion and searching for reasoning behind it all. The book was a
difficult read because it included many religious discussions which I had never attempted to
understand before. The main source of benefit I received from this was the critical thinking skills
I developed as a reaction of analyzing each religious debate for a deeper meaning. This book also
taught me a new way of reading and writing that included the use of specific and vivid details
that may at first seem boring, however but in the sum of things add on to the stories elements and
effects change the effect on the reader. What I mean by this is that when you have a copious
amount of rhetorical meanings and hidden understandings that may at first seem irrelevant, as the

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story develops, they usually progress the character development and add a new understanding of
the stories plot. It was after reading this style of writing; that I was inspired and tried to replicate
and utilize the same style in my writing in English class. I effectively became a more literate
reader and writer through the struggle of reading a book that contained many subjects beyond my
understanding and the path I took to replicate the mature and sophisticated writing style found in
the book. All of the experiences I went through while reading this book made me the literate
individual I am in the aspect of my reading and writing success I havecapabilities. today.
I have had my struggles when it comes to academic literacy. A negative literacy sponsors
in my life was my 7th grade English teacher, who hindered our my creativity and limited
ourstunted my overall writing capability. The teacher would tell the classus to stick strictly to
the a prompt and not let our wandering minds find their ways into our writing. This really put a
halt on my writing literacy and the progress I was making to become a more effective and
imaginative writer. As a child, I preferred writing about things that drew from my imagination
and the experiences that in enjoyed as a child. This teacher had us write about government
policies and the way they would affect us as middle school students. As a 7th grader, this was
boring and taught me that writing was lame and particular in and the only purpose of the writer
was to incorporate trivial details of and facts that nobody should take the time of day to learn
aboutmost people do not know anything about. The worst of all was that none of this was of
interest to a student in the 7th grade; 7th graders want to write about thrilling stories and writing
about the government is not something the typical 7th grader gets excited about. The outcome
produced by this teachers unambitious motive was an unmotivated middle school student thats
view on writing was that it was a horrible exercise. This teacher taught me that writing was never
not supposed to be a creative or entertaining activity,imaginative activity but rather a dull and

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tiring school practiceEnglish excersise. In the grades that followed, my inclination to deviate
from the socially accepted norms led me to break free of her drudged writing style as I started
writing from my imagination and expanding on the script to topics other than those strictly
mandated. To conclude, I have had positive and negative literacy sponsors that have shaped
transformed the way I read, write, communicate, and comprehend in day to day life.