https://padlet.com/jennifersiechert/59gn3p5mwwfwel23 en-us 2022-01-27 03:57:24 UTC 2022-01-27 19:59:31 UTC hello@padlet.com jennifersiechert https://padlet.com/jennifersiechert/59gn3p5mwwfwel23/wish/2015017462 My parents are both teachers and they both pushed the importance of reading and books on me from an early age. Our house was always loud because of my two younger sisters, so my parents would often watch the television with the volume muted and subtitles on. I eventually would start trying to read along with these subtitles and, according to my mother, was extremely frustrated that I was not proficient at reading immediately.]]> 2022-01-27 04:02:41 UTC https://padlet.com/jennifersiechert/59gn3p5mwwfwel23/wish/2015017462 jennifersiechert https://padlet.com/jennifersiechert/59gn3p5mwwfwel23/wish/2016681479 In school I was always on or above grade level for my reading skills and devoured books at a rapid speed. However, I remember that many of the books I read contained vocabulary that I did not hear used verbally around me. While I was able to figure out the meaning of these words from context, this resulted in me mispronouncing plenty of words at this age, as I had only ever read them. ]]> 2022-01-27 19:47:50 UTC https://padlet.com/jennifersiechert/59gn3p5mwwfwel23/wish/2016681479 jennifersiechert https://padlet.com/jennifersiechert/59gn3p5mwwfwel23/wish/2016688652 At this age, while my reading skills were still more than proficient, I had some trouble with my writing skills. While learning cursive was fun in class, I struggled with the repetitive homework assignments our teacher would give us to practice as I would invariably make a mistake somewhere and have to start over. One particular memory from this age that I can recall concerns having to respond to discussion questions from a book our class was reading. I preferred to make my writing to the point, and would not include part of the question in my answer as I did not understand why I needed to do so. I eventually learned to do so, only because of low marks, and no one at the age tried to explain to me the importance of doing so.]]> 2022-01-27 19:51:39 UTC https://padlet.com/jennifersiechert/59gn3p5mwwfwel23/wish/2016688652 jennifersiechert https://padlet.com/jennifersiechert/59gn3p5mwwfwel23/wish/2016695870 During this time period, I felt very restricted in my reading and writing at school. Most books or texts I read were assigned in classes and when writing essays we all had to follow a very specific template and use certain sentence starters or we would not receive credit. I feel that while structure in writing is good to learn, having this many years in my schooling not allow me to write in a creative manner was draining and made it difficult for me to write at a higher level when I got older.]]> 2022-01-27 19:55:48 UTC https://padlet.com/jennifersiechert/59gn3p5mwwfwel23/wish/2016695870 jennifersiechert https://padlet.com/jennifersiechert/59gn3p5mwwfwel23/wish/2016702645 It was at this time that I really felt that my writing skills grew to what they are today. The most clear and impactful memory from this time period is the first day of my AP Language and Composition class. As soon as the bell rang our teacher passed out an essay prompt and we had to write an essay on the spot describing the rhetorical devices used in a certain text. None of us had ever even heard of the rhetorical devices that we were supposed to write about. While it was a momentous task to attempt to write that essay, it really set the rest of the year in that class in context, as we learned and grew as writers, and became confident enough to write on the spot essays.]]> 2022-01-27 19:59:31 UTC https://padlet.com/jennifersiechert/59gn3p5mwwfwel23/wish/2016702645