Literacy Narrative: Cover Letter

The progress done during this course is progressively improving. These months, some
new aspects from English language have been faced; as any other multilingual writer,
the task of learning a new language is not an easy process. First, I will be developing the
course goals presented the first week of class before talking more deeply about my
writing assignment.
On the one hand, the grade of awareness I have achieved to understand the shaping of
other communities literacy has increased. Working with more multilingual students
from different cultures has shown me new cultures, and new keys for writing.
Moreover, being surrounded with other multilingual students is a good tool for learning
new things every lesson: getting help from each other, the different ways to correct the
assignments, etc. On the other hand, the fourth goal of the course (compose rhetorically
effective texts, informally and formally, in a variety of mediums or genres) is somewhat
I am getting used to. The use of rhetoric was quite unknown until I got at Sacramento
State due to the lack of teaching of this term in my previous studies. Furthermore, I am
still learning how to write properly in an objective, unattached style. The reading
responses done in this course have made me improve this type of style, as well as the
exercises done for working on the unattached style.
These points are shaping my figure as a writer. Nevertheless, writing in a more
subjective way makes me feel more comfortable and confident. Writing about personal
experiences, and about things I have faced during my life is one tool I like to use in the
writings. In addition, I also enjoy writing adding details to make the essays more
original. An example of this can be found in my Literacy Narrative assignment: as it
was required to talk about our personal experiences related with literacy, I found it a
nice task to go through. Generally it was a decent writing, but some aspects needed to
be changed: in my second draft I developed too much the idea of using speaking as my
English literacy. I understood that the speaking was considered as literacy too, so in the
third draft I removed some points based on the speaking to add more information about
my actual literacy. If this assignment had to be done again, I would probably focus even
more in some aspects back home that made me built my literacy. Moreover, now I have
more acknowledgment about English literacy, so I could be able to explain even more
points. For my future assignments, this essay is going to help me to know how to create
a strong subjective piece, as well as proper example of how using citation and
paraphrasing. Also, in this third draft I have seen that by asking the doubts that can
appear it is a great help for doing the writings. I am not used to ask the problems I have
while I am doing tasks, so it will be something I will try to use more often.
Finally, I think that the task could be published in my ePortfolio. However, I would
probably prefer doing a fourth with more comments and suggestions to follow. The
writing can be improved in grammar, and maybe I could add more information about
my literacy if it is needed.
 Experiences are more valuable than books
Someone rang my doorbell. I didnt have any idea who they could be, maybe my
brother? No, why would he ring the bell when he had the keys? The postman? When I
opened the door, I was surprised to see my neighbor Pablo. He was an old, kind man
who lived near us, so the first thing in mind was he wanted to talk with my mom about
neighborhood issues.
Hello Pablo, Im sorry but mom is working.I told him.
Hi Estel, how are you? It wasnt your mother who I was looking for.
Maybe I should specify that what I said was in Catalan, my native language. The
response I got was in English. Why was he talking to me in English? He had lived in the
U.S for twenty years, but he spoke a perfect Catalan. Well, he was getting old, so maybe
he was starting to mix languages.
Excuse me? I answer him again, in Catalan.
I dont understand you if you speak to me in Catalan! Your mother phoned me
yesterday and we talked about your English course in High School. So, I think that you
will have to call me Paul now.
My face turned white when I heard the words English and High School. To be
honest, they were the only words I barely understood. I got the marks the previous day
and they were great, except from English. I failed it. So, I started putting two and two
together. The following classes with him would help me in creating a literacy, which I
am still building now. Moreover, what my literacy has been made about is not only
books, but interaction with people

The lessons with Paul were not the same as in high school. We would sit in a table and
talk about the latest news, the weather and after, he would see my assignments.
Irregular verbs? That is so easy my dear! Ok, now we are gonna sing a song to
remember them.
Paul taught me tricks to remember grammar rules by using songs. What I liked from
him was his positivity. He would always motivate me to do the most boring homework
and to study the most difficult things
. By using speaking I got a basic knowledge of English before building a consistent
literacy. When I felt that I was able to communicate well in English, I started to get
confidence, and as a consequence, my writing and reading improved. After one month
of class, Paul would lend me old books which were easy to read. Then, he would make
me write what I enjoyed while reading before giving me another book from his
collection. Every week my writings about the readings were better; he told me I was
doing a big improvement, so he started to teach me things in advance.

But Paul, we are not doing this in class.

It is nice to learn new things in life. You will see its not difficult!
At high school I became the one who would sit at front row in English. When my peers
saw I started to get good marks, they would sit next to me to ask for help. Homework at
high school was used for working harder in my grammar; in some points tasks were so
easy that once I was the first in finishing the assignments, I would rewrite the sentences
in different way, just to practice sentence transformations.
The other foundation of my English literacy was my eldest brother. He would check my
essays, making suggestions and corrections. He did as Richard Stramb said in his article
Responding-Really Responding- to other students. He pointed to problems in a constructive
way for improvement (Stramb, 17). He was critical in a way that was not discouraging.
His criticisms motivated me to do my best, and following his suggestions and advice
helped me to improve my writing.
I find it accurate to talk about why I am in Sacramento State. It was thanks to rowing
(the sport I have practiced for six years) that I had the change to set off one of my
greatest adventures. One day, I received an email from someone called Mike Connors,
who was the head coach from Sacramento States Rowing team. It was a long e-mail
with a lot of information, but at the first moment I knew what was going on. He wanted
to Skype with me in order to talk about my future. Coach Connors was so nice and
surprised with my English. So I started to study for the SAT and the TOEFL, which was
hard, but finally I got good marks, and Sacramento would become my new home. I
think it would not have been possible without Pauls help, who followed my progress
and cheered me on when I felt down and unmotivated. His classes gave me the chance
to have the base of literacy for my future. As Debora Brant state during her writing
Sponsors of Literacy:

More and more people are now being expected to accomplish more and more things
with reading and writing. As print and its spinoffs have entered virtually every sphere of
life, people have grown increasingly dependent on their literacy skills for earning a
living and exercising and protecting their civil rights (Brant, 10).

His tips are also helping me during my classes at Sacramento State. I have used the song
of the irregular verbs more than once just to be sure I was not doing mistakes in using
verb tenses. I brought with me the most important reading comprehensions done to have
a reference while doing analysis of writings. It is being helpful to remember everything
done with Paul, but here I am learning something new while I am taking notes or
preparing my next test. The fact of being surrounded by people who dominate English is
what is helping me to improve my English skills. It is hard facing new things; but as
Paul once told me, It is always nice to learn new things in life.