Raines 1 Abigail Raines ENC 1102 23 January 2013 Literacy Narrative My Literacy Story Ever since I can remember,

my mother was always reading. She either read the paper, a book, a magazine or was reading aloud to my sister and I. As a young child I saw my moms enthusiasm for reading and started to gain that enthusiasm for myself. I then had a sudden change in my enthusiasm for reading and my opinion of it changed greatly for the worse. When looking back at my literacy past I see how my past experiences have greatly affected my literacy. Factors such as materiality and literacy sponsors have helped my development of my literacy to what it is today. My earliest memories of me reading are of my mother coming into kindergarten to do reading workshop with the kids in my class. She always pushed reading in our house and wanted us to know the importance of being a good reader. She, like Deborah Brandt (a researcher who wrote about literacy), knew that literacy is very valuable. My mom is a professor at a community college in my city and she therefore could see first-hand the importance of having good literacy so that later on in life I could go to college and then start a career. To sponsor my literacy, my mother bought many books and constantly read to my sister and I. She also took us to the local library weekly. While the years of my learning to read were influenced positively by my mother, it was when I got to elementary school that my opinion of reading changed.

Raines 2 When I went into the first grade, my school started a program called Accelerated Reader. Accelerated Reader was based on a point system where you read books at a certain level, took a quiz, and then was awarded a certain amount of points that went toward you goal for the month. In theory, this should have promoted reading and encouraged it in the classroom, but for me, it made me hate reading. My first grade class was the guanine pigs for this system at our school and the selection of books for the program our school library had was very small. Each month I was forced to reach a certain point goal, but the books that were in the program did not interest me. I was a first grade girl, I was not interesting in reading about bugs, or sports, or detectives, I wanted to read about princesses and puppies, but my school did not have tests for those types of books. Consequently I was forced to read books (what I called boy books) that I did not like, making reading more of a grueling activity than a fun activity. I had to continue this process through eighth grade. As I grew up, I still did not find reading enjoyable because I was forced to do it so that I could pass reading class. If I would have enjoyed reading growing up, I feel like my vocabulary would be much better, my writing would be much better, and when I was asked to read something for a class, I could do it with ease instead of dreading the activity. Accelerated Reader negatively affected my literacy history. But, this developed hatred of reading can be linked to the lack of materials that I had to choose from. Because the program was new to my school, and the school had few books that were in the program, I was unable to read what interested me. If I had the option to read books that interested me and they counted towards my point goal for the month, I could have enjoyed reading much more than I did and I could have found it as a fun activity. Unfortunately because of the lack of books that were included in the program at my school, I have been permanently hurt by the materials that I did not have access too.

Raines 3 Materials are not the only thing that affected my literacy. My literacy sponsors helped me develop my literacy as well. A literacy sponsor, just like a commercial sponsor, is someone who helps and supports someone during throughout their literacy (Brandt 165). I would consider my mother a literacy sponsor. She was always encouraging me to read and write, even through elementary and middle school when I didnt want to. She was always a positive figure when it came to reading, she even still is. But, when looking at other literacy sponsors, I cannot forget each of my teachers. While they tried to encourage me to read and reach my point goal for the month, it was my teachers who put the pressure and the limits on my reading. I am not sure if sponsors can be negative, but I feel as though in this instance, Accelerated Reader was a negative literacy sponsor for me and I am thankful that I had a strong literacy sponsor at home. While I still do not really like reading today, I wish that I could have had a better experience with reading while I was growing up. I feel as though if I would have a better experience with reading growing up, my literacy would be very different today. My writing would be stronger along with my reading, I would also be able to escape into books as I see many of my friends doing.

Raines 4 Works Cited Brandt, Deborah. "Sponsors of Literacy." JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan 2013. <http://links.jstor.org/sici=0010-096X(199805:2<165:SOL>2.0.CO;2-D>.