Running Head: FINDING MY VOICE IN BOOKS: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY

Finding My Voice in Books: An Autoethnography

Tania Galluccio
McGill University
EDTL 508

What's past is prologue (Shakespeare, trans. 2008, 2.1.253-54).

In deciding to study English Literature and Classics in university during my undergrad, as
well as to teach, my mother has played a significant role. When I was a child, my mother read
books to me almost every night and, whenever she ran out of stories, she would fabricate her
own; therefore, I have always credited her for my interest in writing and reading fiction, and in

FINDING MY VOICE IN BOOKS: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY

teaching. Like many literature students, reading and writing are two of my most recognized
passions. Expressing my personality has always been easiest through writing, thus allowing it to
become my medium of expression. More importantly, ever since I was able to hold a book in my
own hands, books have been my escape.
From the moment I started studying English Literature at Dawson College, I recognized a
sleeping passion I had for discussing books and for sharing my love for literature with my
teachers and peers; however, I did not always feel comfortable in a school setting. Throughout
grades one to four, I was emotionally distressed every night by the thought that I had to walk into
a classroom in the morning. Today, my mother reminds me very often about how much I used to
hate going to school, and that I would cry every night to my parents, in fear that my French and
math teachers, each year, would call on me to speak and answer their questions. Although my
parents and teachers chalked my attitude towards school up to my shyness, I still do not fully
understand why I chose to keep quiet whenever in the classroom for those four years of
elementary school. Also, I was raised in a very large Italian and Portuguese family, and I usually
kept to myself during family gatherings. Sometimes I would be able to last an entire evening
with my family without saying more than a hello and a goodbye to my aunts, uncles, and
grandparents. I remember adults telling me I was such a nice, quiet, and respectful girl, but,
really, the only reason why I chose to stay quiet in large groups is because I did not think I could
say anything worth hearing. To many, my introvert personality might not seem to mesh well with
my decision to become a teacher; however, I have to thank my grade five teacher, who was
actually my kindergarten, as well as grade six teachers, for helping me find my niche. Ms.
Dawn signed me up to be a reading buddy to a grade one student in my school, and it was the
first time that I was able to share my passion for reading with someone who, albeit young, was

Running Head: FINDING MY VOICE IN BOOKS: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY

happy to hear my voice. Sharing my favourite stories with someone else branched into joining
reading and writing workshops in the summers of grades five and six, which allowed me to find
my voice in my own works of fiction and poetry, and gave me the growing confidence to speak
to a number of students, teachers, parents, and friends.
From the young age of ten, after partaking in the Reading and Writing Workshops, I have
set my heart on becoming a teacher, specifically an English Language Arts teacher. Then, in the
tenth grade, it happened. By it I am referring to the moment when I decided that literature is
my greatest passion and knew that I will excel in any career related to the Arts. I can only thank
writers for making their stories, ideas, and voices public. When I opened my first Shakespearean
play, The Merchant of Venice, I was instantly enamored by how words can sound like music
when reading. Until grade ten, I was convinced that I was going to be an elementary school
teacher, but it was not until I had to memorize and to recite Juliets balcony monologue to my
grade ten English teacher, and watch my classmates do the same as though it were a chore, that I
realized that teachers have to make their students active participants in shaping the curriculum
and in their own learning processes, and they have to find innovative methods to teach the texts,
in order to awaken a hidden passion that I discovered a little too late.

Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is
acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind (Plato, Book VII).
My own experiences in elementary school and high school have taught me that students
cannot be expected to share their voices in the classroom until they find their own ways to
connect to the material. As a novice teacher of English Language Arts, it is my personal goal to
encourage as many students as possible to simply get excited about reading, and to expand their

FINDING MY VOICE IN BOOKS: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY

vocabulary and cultural capital. I believe, wholeheartedly, that stories can play an eminent role in
the lives of many. As an English Language Arts teacher in my own classroom, I would like to
focus on the idea of integrating various modes of communication and literacies especially
surrounding technology within the discussion of the Classical texts, in order to increase literacy
rates and address issues of reading comprehension. My idea for such a goal stemmed from a
personal experience tutoring my cousin who, as a grade eleven student, realized too late in his
education that he lacks reading comprehension skills. His learning process in his English classes
had, unfortunately, been hindered, because he had never been given the opportunity to grapple
with the texts in another way besides simply reading and responding to the text at hand. In
discovering different ways to change and modify the structure of my classroom, I would like to
place an emphasis on the students voice, as well as allow my students the opportunity to offer
their own ideas and opinions on how they would like to engage with the text, because I believe
that teaching the basics for the sake of passing does the students personal growth a severe
injustice.
By allowing my students to participate in class discussions, and in helping shape some
aspects of their own learning processes, just like my own teacher did when encouraging me to
become a reading buddy, I hope to give room for my students to find their voices. Maintaining an
Idealists perspective of education, I believe it is important and necessary to share with my
students the Classical literature because, out of a selfish endeavor, it is my desire to help students
achieve a strong understanding of the English language, so that they share my passion to read
such texts, in order to simply expand cultural capital. Unlike my own grade ten teacher, who did
not wish to hear her students voices but rather a regurgitation of Shakespeares, I, as a teacher,
will aim to incorporate my students voices in response to the texts in my classroom, and I will

Running Head: FINDING MY VOICE IN BOOKS: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY

integrate self-expression through various modes of media technology, such as fanfiction,

blogging, voice and video recording, and more.
In discussing the importance and the integration of the students voice in the classroom
environment, Michael Fielding asks, Do we require a formal language which earns students the
right to dialogue or do we accept a more diverse discourse that betrays different standpoints and
preoccupations to our own? (2001, p. 102). Traditional Idealist education places emphasis on
the requirement of the teacher as a guide; however, with the advent of new media platforms in
the twenty-first century, we, as teachers, ought to consider what we can learn from our students
who are engaging with media and new technologies on a daily basis. In grade ten, my sole task
was to reiterate Shakespeares language and words, which further silenced my unique voice, and
placed emphasis on Shakespeare as the sole authority of his texts. However, in my own future
classroom, I will allow my students the opportunity to get creative and inspired with literature,
by adapting the authors words to touch upon new issues, much like what Shakespeare did with
his own work. Evidently, I place great importance on the study of Classical literature but, in
studying such texts through a twenty-first century lens of digital media, I hope that my students
can appreciate the fact that authors like Shakespeare, for example, are no longer the sole,
omnipotent, voices of their texts. A significant facet of my work as a novice teacher is that I hope
to break down the barrier between formal and informal languages in order to get to the important
aspects of the text, which are the content and an authors creative voice.

FINDING MY VOICE IN BOOKS: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY

Bibliography
Fielding, M. (2001). Beyond the rhetoric of student voice: New departures or new constraints in
the transformation of 21st century schooling? Paper presented at the Forum for
promoting 3-19 comprehensive education.
Plato. Book VII. In B. Jowett (Trans.), The Republic. Retrieved from
http://www.literatureproject.com/republic/republic_17.htm.

Running Head: FINDING MY VOICE IN BOOKS: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY

Shakespeare, W. (2008). The Tempest (Stephen Orgel, Ed.). New York: Oxford University Press
Inc.