Destiny Hall Project 1 Everyone, whether they are aware of it or not, has a literacy sponsorship.

Brandt explained that it is any resource that has/does/will contribute to your reading and writing skills. At first, I thought this just meant our learning processes that we have been through, but Mrs. Eda made me realize that there is more to it. She explained that it isnt just about the times where you actually learned and furthered your education, but any experience in your life that has made an impact on you. Any event that has made a difference in your life or sticks out as a significant experience that helps shape you into the person you are today. With this being said, this is what I have come up with for my literacy sponsorship. It all began with my parents. I was born into a family that school was expected, as well as good grades. Also, my parents always encouraged me to excel above the standard. So, their encouragement definitely started it and plays a big role all the way up to the present. Specifically my mom played an even bigger role, because she was my kindergarten teacher. Being homeschooled doesnt give you anyone to compete against as far as learning to read or write before them, or even to work in groups with, but thats okay! My mom, sister, and I would stay home all day doing school and stuff around the house while my dad went to work. Because I got a lot of her attention, we got a lot accomplished in a good amount of time, so I was able to learn fairly quickly. Having my mom for my teacher really made me try harder, and made it have even more meaning when I learned something new. She would be so proud of me! So when I began learning to read, it was a great feeling! My favorite part about it was that I could now read to my baby sister. I enjoyed that a lot. I felt so big to be able to do something for the baby, even helping

mom out sometimes by distracting her with my reading while mom did housework. Sometimes, though, being alone got very boring. So, on Fridays I would go to a kindergarten class with other students. My church had a private school that allowed me to join only on Fridays and during field trips. The teacher there would be more and more surprised each time I went at how quickly I had learned a concept that my mom had introduced that week. After reading Debrah Brandts Literacy Sponsorship, I learned that this is in fact a part of my literacy track. She explains in her article that yes, learning to read is a part of this process, along with the resources that were on this path that contributed to this accomplishment. Once school let out for the summer, I didnt want to stop. I was very interested in learning as much as I could. So, mom and I did not stop school for the summer, we kept going. Some days that my aunt was working, my cousin would come over and hang out with us. He was the same age as me, so I enjoyed doing school with him. He, on the other hand, did not enjoy it so much. He just didnt want to learn like I did, and I didnt understand why. After getting through about half of the first grade materials, it was time for public school. Mom says I was very antsy. Always ready to go, never wanting to just sit around, and always acting like a social butterfly, but with no one to socialize with. Therefore, mom made the decision to enroll me in public school. I started first grade at the same time all of the other students did, just already with about half of the years work already under my belt. Although I was nervous starting out, that didnt last long. My teacher, Mrs. Lee, was very warm and welcoming. She always had the biggest smile on the outside, and the biggest heart on the inside. She was a wonderful teacher to begin public school with! She quickly realized that I was academically ahead of the group. She got me started in a program like GT (gifted & talented) that was for first graders. I loved it! I met so many new friends and they challenged me

more than the regular classroom did. Mrs. Lee was more than a teacher, but acted as our friend. She came to my dance recital, and taught us a special creed that we recited everyday in her class. This made it feel more like learning for my mom again, rather than a teacher. Mrs. Lee pushed us to keep up with the work. I enjoyed her class so much and learned how to read very well! When the end of the year came, I was very sad to be leaving Mrs. Lees welcoming classroom that now felt like home. But I didnt let that stop me. I was ready for second grade! While my new teacher was an awesome lady, she did not at all compare to Mrs. Lee, no teacher did, and no teacher ever will. Over the next few years I had great teachers that taught me more and more about reading. Some parts came easy to me, others not so much. Nothing extremely big happened, just went about my normal day to day routine. Until the summer between my 3rd and 4th grade years, when we moved to Texas! Once again, I was nervous about having to start a new school in Texas, and having to make all new friends. I made a few friends at church during the summer, and was very relieved to see them in the same class as me on meet the teacher night: I already knew people in my class! I had three teachers that year: Mrs. MacDonald (math), Mrs. Luce (English/writing), and Mr. Dowell (reading/ social studies). Mr. Dowell was my first male teacher. I was nervous at first about it, but quickly realized there was no reason to be nervous, he was great! Mr. Dowell was very good teacher and encouraged our reading. What I enjoyed about his class, is that we would do class readings. We would all have a copy of the same book, and take turns reading out loud together as a class. I specifically remember reading Sara, Plain and Tall. We read it as a class, discussed it as a class (and

sometimes in smaller groups), and we even watched the movie together in the end. Not being the only one reading a book really helped me. For one, I think I would feel a sense of accomplishment when I was able to read aloud in front of everyone, sounding decent. I think I also enjoyed it because I learned more that way! I got everything out of it that I did reading alone, but also, we got to discuss it so I got to learn things about the book from my peers in the class. In this same year, I got a lot of encouragement and self-motivation from my English teacher, Mrs. Luce. She had us all write an essay about what we do if we found a pair of shoes that had super powers. Little did we know, she was using these to assess our writing skills to select a few students to go into a writing contest for the state. Guess who she picked? Thats right, me! I, along with 2 other students got chosen to write an essay for the state about the San Jacinto Monument. We also got invited to a luncheon with members from the chamber that our parents got to come to with us. I cannot describe how honored and excited I was to get selected for this! Even though this was writing, it really influenced my reading! It encouraged me, showing to myself that I was capable of accomplishing big things if I set my mind to it. So, I began reading a lot more. The next year, in 5th grade, I was still reading. At the beginning of the year, I decided that I was going to get the most AR points in the 5th grade. I read all of the time, coming to school eager to take the AR tests over the books. This continued all year long. Reading and taking the tests. Sadly, I didnt work hard enough to reach my goal. At the end of the year, I did not have the most points in my grade, but I did have the most points in my class! That was the second best thing to reach. Even though I was let down some, I was still proud.

The next three years were middle school. These were not my favorite years. Not only were they rough, but I did not have any time to read. This is when homework and extracurricular activities started in full force, always giving me something to do! I began to not enjoy reading so much at this point. Since I never got to read for fun, it was more of a chore because it was always for homework. Like Debrah Brandt mentioned in Literacy Sponsorship, its not just the positive things that come your way that shape you, but negative things as well, which I definitely considered homework to be! But, that didnt last very long. I made a new friend on the first day of high school that changed my reading habits all over again. Her name is Joshalynn. She was a senior, and I was a freshman, so it was very rare that we would have a class together. We were actually library aids together though. I remember putting up books with her the first couple weeks of school and her asking about what seemed like every other book have you read this book? It wasnt hard to catch on to the fact that she had read a lot, and really enjoyed it. Well little did I know, she would soon make me become just as familiar with the library as she was. It didnt take her long to start picking out books for me to read and forcing me to check them out. The first book I actually read that she made me check out really changed m views on books. It was Dreamland by Sarah Dessen, and I really enjoyed it. Why did this have such an impact on me? Because its not a book that I at all expected to like. I normally liked the girly, love story books, and while this did have a love story in it, thats not what it was mainly about. This was the first time I read a book of a different genre than the one I knew that I liked, so it really opened up my mind to a whole new world of books! That year, I continued to read constantly. I think a lot of these authors must have either read Tierney and Pearsons article, or they have their own composing process. I never read a book that seemed like it was just typed out without planning beforehand and without going

over it to revise it and make sure it was just how they wanted it! Reading these books, and now adding Tierney and Pearsons article to my knowledge, really helps me in my own writing process! The next book that made an impact on me, was Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. Sophomore year my Sunday School teachers gave it to me one day. I wasnt too sure about reading it, as it was a pretty think book, but little did I know that I would in fact read it and enjoy it! This is by far, the best book I have ever read. For one, reading a good book always just makes me want to keep reading even more to see what great reads there are out there. For two, this made me try to get every girl I knew to read this book! I pushed it at them all, even if they werent big readers, telling them that it would definitely be worth it and change their mind! The next year something happened that I wasnt really expecting. My mom left our family, divorcing my dad, leaving us kids with him. This definitely had an impact on me! At first I was dealing with it fine. I was the backbone of support for everyone else involved. But even the strong people cant last forever. Once the majority of the drama died down from it is when I really let it have an impact on me. I just didnt read anymore, and my personality was starting to change. I kind of associated reading with being a good girl (which is what I was always named). So when I went through my little rebellion stage, I didnt read at all. Therefore, when I finally began coming out of that stage, I tried to start reading again it just wasnt the same. It took some time (and still is) to get back to reading where I was. So far, no more major events have happened that have greatly encouraged my reading, but that doesnt mean I dont have another experience ahead of me! Without these encouraging moments and all of the people and resources I have had in my life thus far, I wouldnt be the

same or feel the same about books as I do today. One big thing I learned is not to give up on reading. I would always get frustrated because I read really slowly, but I have learned over time that the only way to get any better is to read more. I hope my journey does not stop here. I hope to be given all of the opportunities to make it all the way to becoming a teacher and maybe be a part of someone elses literacy sponsorship!