https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7 An account of significant factors and events that have contributed to my development as a reader and writer. en-us 2021-06-01 00:50:45 UTC 2021-06-01 02:08:01 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f4d6.png abetz16 https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574737803 My mother played a significant role in my love for reading and writing. My mother ensured that from when I was born she was conversing and speaking to me to start my exposure to literacy. My mother's parents did not do the same for her, seeing how they moved to American from Italy and spoke broken English. My mother struggled with reading and writing growing up, so she wanted it to be different for my brother and I. I was fortunate enough that my mother read to us often and as much as we pleased. Reading books together was a scheduled time in our day and books were valued as much as toys were in my house. My mother began a small library of books for my brother and I, and it grew throughout our childhood. I remember one of my favorite books as a toddler was "The Kissing Hand" because my mom read it to me before my first day of preschool. She then read it to me on my first day of school every year after. ]]> 2021-06-01 00:57:36 UTC https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574737803 abetz16 https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574755383 As stated before, my mother played a huge role in my literacy development at an early age. This had to do with my mother's own struggles with literacy, and also the fact that she was an elementary teacher. Everyday after attending preschool and prekindergarten, my mom would have her own literacy instruction using the program "Hooked on Phonics". I remember loving this program because it consisted of a game board that you had to complete while reading leveled texts. At the time I had no idea that I was learning how to read! I thought it was a fun game that my mom and I got to play after school together. ]]> 2021-06-01 01:05:41 UTC https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574755383 abetz16 https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574769249 I remember Kindergarten being where I really enjoyed writing. My kindergarten teacher had us keep a journal throughout the school year and I still have it. This is when I was able to start to articulate my thoughts in my writing. In addition to having a journal at school, I started my own diary at home. I had a Hello Kitty diary that I would write and draw pictures in. Looking back at my writing now, the pictures that I was drawing helped me to plan and understand my own writing as a child. My kindergarten teacher inspired me to keep some kind of journal or diary each year of elementary school, even if it was something I wrote in sparingly. ]]> 2021-06-01 01:12:12 UTC https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574769249 abetz16 https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574783877 In elementary school is where I started to experience some failures with literacy.  As a child I did not have trouble with reading and writing, but when it came to literacy in the content area of math, I struggled. I remember taking a math test in 2nd grade and getting to the end of the test where the word problems were. I could not understand what any of the word problems were asking me to do. I remember crying at my desk and my teacher coming over to help me. All she did was read the problem to me again, but the issue wasn't that I couldn't read it, it was that I couldn't determine any importance in it. I ended up getting every word problem on that test wrong. I will never forget my 5th grade teacher taking the time to teach me how to read for relevance in a word problem. She gave me different colored highlighters and showed me how to identify the important numbers, the operation we needed to use, key words, and what exactly the question was asking. My 5th grade teacher influenced my literacy journey in more than one way. This teacher always allowed for choice in our content area projects. This was the first time I remember a teacher ever doing this. Any time there was a social studies or science unit that would typically require a paper to be written, she let us display our understanding in a variety of ways. This was when I first was able to use literacy in multimedia and technology. ]]> 2021-06-01 01:18:54 UTC https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574783877 abetz16 https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574809161 A piece of writing that I will never forget doing in middle school was a persuasive essay. Our english teacher asked us to choose a company that we loved and used often. We were then given the assignment to write a real letter to that company persuading them to send us either free samples of the product or a coupon. I remember this being such a fun writing assignment because my teacher took into account our interests. I wrote to the sneaker brand converse and although it took months, they replied and gave me a coupon! 
Middle school was also the time that I remember technology really playing a significant role in my education. We were using computers more frequently at school for research and typing purposes. This was also when technology such as cell phones started to become a part of my life. ]]> 2021-06-01 01:30:02 UTC https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574809161 abetz16 https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574822965 In high school I developed a love-hate relationship with reading and writing. I found high school to be very challenging. Each night, I had around 3-4 hours of homework to complete along with playing a varsity sport every season. My english teacher was also my coach, and while I loved her as a person, she was the toughest grader I have ever had. My freshman year was her first year teaching and I remember being terrified to hand any paper or project in to her in fear of what my grade would be. We had pop quizzes often on homework readings and pop vocabulary and spelling tests as well. Any time that we had off of school, we were required to read a book and when we returned we had a test on it. This included summer reading, where we had to read 5 books and be tested on them. All of these assessments surrounding literacy started to leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. High school was the first time I started to doubt my ability in literacy and believed that it was no longer my best and favorite subject. 
One thing however, that I loved doing in english class in high school was any time we got to act out our readings. I will never forget one year we were each given a scene from "The Crucible" to act and record with a group. This was one of the most engaging projects I have every completed and truly helped me understand the text. ]]> 2021-06-01 01:36:25 UTC https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574822965 abetz16 https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574851716 In college, I was required to take an abundance of literacy and teaching elementary literacy courses. There was one course, however, that stood out to me. In this course we were required to read "The Teacher Who Couldn't Read". This was a book about John Corcoran, a teacher who struggled his whole life with the skills needed to read and write. I found the book so interesting, especially when it discussed how he tricked and slid his way through school. This book opened my eyes to the real challenges struggling readers face everyday in our classrooms. ]]> 2021-06-01 01:49:00 UTC https://padlet.com/abetz16/mxyrs9oyqvkynns7/wish/1574851716