Tre Graham Literacy Narrative My literacy history has been a journey and its very hard to narrow it down

to something really specific, but if I had to it would be my literacy awareness My awareness and the different types of tools I have been introduce to over the course of my life to help me succeed and become the writer I am today They!re have been many people, institutions, and programs that have sculpted me into the writer I am now "ven though I can not tal# about all these, some are just of more importance to my literacy awareness The definition of awareness is #nowledge or perception of a situation or fact and the definition of literacy is the ability to read and write Meaning that Literacy $wareness is the #nowledge or perception of reading and writing This is just a general description in my own words what I believe literacy awareness consists of My history of literacy awareness started as early as your first day out of the womb and so does everyone else!s this is your first taste to a language un#nown to you $s I got older i started to try to copy the words that people around me said for e%ample pop was the first ever word i spo#e because my mom always tal#ed about popping my older brother and I heard it fre&uently 'hen you are a baby it reminds me of a parrot we try to copy and repeat the words that we hear around us and this process continues until our vocabulary e%pands My mom played a huge roll in my literacy awareness at a young age My mom always had a set time for vocabulary flashcards, where I would pronounce and spell the words listed on the cards It

eventually got harder before i went to pre() because my mom wanted me to be so far ahead of everything that I would be learning I ended up not going to *re() that year and just went straight to #indergarten because I was so much farther ahead $nother major stepping stone for me was getting inducted into the advanced placement program in the fourth grade +chool had been e%tremely easy and not a challenge for me at all until i got into this program, we started to learn more advanced vocabulary, and not just the spelling of words I began to learn definitions, parts of speech, synonyms, and antonyms This step in my literacy awareness was stepping stones for success for the rest of my life in school Throughout the years in this advance placement program I met many friends that shared my same passion for #nowledge and with that my same burning passion for competition I say this because two students in my classes were both really competitive and we always brought the best out of each other 'hether it was competing to get the best grade on a paper or racing to finish our multiplication &ui- we always pushed each other to the limit this really accelerated my literacy awareness because we were all on li#e a ./th grade reading level in the 0th grade which was outstanding 'e also competed in who could read a boo# list faster than the other which really e%panded my vocabulary My literacy awareness has been influenced by my classmates )aylee, and Mar# we always decided to be rivals throughout school $nother step in my literacy awareness was when I was introduce to my 1th grade teacher Mrs 'oodard she really changed my perception and view

on "nglish and communication s#ills +he had an unorthodo% way of teaching and until her class all I #new was by the boo# and we were to never stray away from it 2uring Mrs 'oodard!s class we never went by the boo# she basically said to hell with the boo# and threw it out the window 'e did a lot of creative writing, free writing, and reading, but it was different we read for fun and not just the boo#s she assigned +he would ma#e us personal assignments about our boo#s we were reading for fun and that had never happen to me before +he also never used the 3red pen3 she didn!t believe in it she said that it made students feel li#e they failed and she always wanted to #eep her students uplifted so she used blac# instead +he also provided me with a big step in my literacy awareness by ma#ing me learn how to read and write in cursive 'e re&uired to write in cursive for everything we turned in unless we had a typed paper Learning cursive is a s#ill that I!m still glad I have today it ma#es writing a lot faster than just regular print I also use cursive every time I pay for something by signing when I pay with credit This is a life s#ill and it!s just li#e a spare tire I rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it Mrs 'oodard really enlightened me and showed me that there is not always a certain way to do something there are more ways than one to accomplish a tas# The greatest moment in literacy path would probably have to be my tenth grade year in high(school this is when we were learning how to write a paper that would pass the writing test 4ur teachers pounded into our brains the traditional beginning, middle, end 5 paragraph essay that we are so

accustom too 'e also were drilled on how to correctly plan a paper using different methods +uch as 6enn diagrams, flow charts, and even circle maps you would use the one that felt most comfortable to you 'e were told that if we didn!t pass this writing test that we would be retained in the tenth grade again ne%t year this added a ton of pressure onto the nervousness of standardi-ed testing +o after all the planning and preparation the big day was here and there was no loo#ing bac# 'hen i read the prompt I felt so rela%ed because it was a topic I felt great writing about This was a time assessment so their was a little bit of urgency in the room I had wrote about a page and a half and the time was winding done as i rushed to get my last thoughts on paper the teacher and proctor both had call time and to immediately place down our pencils I was worried because I didn!t get to finish my last thoughts and I thought that i would be penali-ed greatly for it, but it turned out I made a 0 out of 0 on the test so it had a lot more to do with content I also forgot to mention that I later came to find out this e%am had nothing to do with anybody passing or failing it was just something that was said so you could try your best The moral of this event related to my literacy awareness is that when I got the highest score on the test I became a much more confident writer, which made me enjoy writing a lot more than I did before I too# the e%am My teacher Mrs 'illiamson was proud of me because I had got the highest score in the class this also gave me confidence because I was never the best writer growing up through school I actually disli#ed "nglish and writing until this monumental year

I saved the last moment for the most inspirational moment in my literacy awareness path it also maybe one of the most important and that would be my transition to the eleventh grade and the influence my $* "nglish 7 teacher had on me My sophomore summer we moved from 8alifornia to North 8arolina and this is where I had to start all over I did not #now anyone I had no friends and it was a brand new start I felt li#e an immigrant because no one #new me and I had no #nowledge of how things were in this area The hardest part of adjusting would have to have been the slang they used and how they spo#e I also had to find a group that I fitted in well with which was e%tremely hard for me I didn!t not do this until about half the year was gone when I made the bas#etball team and the guys on the team basically became my best friends This was a big step in literacy path because it made me step outside my comfort -one into hostile territory which is not always easy to do It also made me learn a new way of living that was different than my own This helped me in many different ways I became less nervous when doing public spea#ing activities, or spea#ing in front of groups It also made it a lot easier ma#ing friends in the future because I wasn!t scared of approaching people $lso when I got to North 9runswic# :igh +chool I met Mrs 8ollins who was my $* "nglish III teacher This was the first time I ever felt overwhelmed in a "nglish class we had huge wor#loads and short amounts of time to complete the assignments this class was the best class in preparing me for college 'e had three papers due on the same day and we had to create our own test which was a uni&ue

way to e%press #nowledge of a novel we had read I had long nights all the time when I had that class because of my procrastination This class taught me how to stop procrastinating and try to split up the wor# load so it is more manageable +he also helped me become the writer I am today always criti&uing my wor# and helping me become a more fluent writer I mean she made it so my writing and wor#s flowed and wasn!t as choppy Mrs 8ollins also taught me to be a deeper thin#er as well, we study literary terms and tools to help strengthen our writing ;or e%ample using metaphors, similes, and personification These rhetorical devices strengthened my writing and made it have more feeling and I felt li#e I #ept my readers engaged in my writing In this class I also learned how annotate te%t and brea# it down to solve higher level thin#ing multiple choice &uestions Mrs 8ollins was strictly by the boo# but she had a uni&ue style which made me enjoy learning In this class we were also re&uired to do research and debate on a controversial topic This debate was my first real research project were I did some e%tensive research and had to find evidence to bac# up my arguments It was also a great e%perience because we got to debate in front of a audience I was e%tremely nervous but it was a great a learning e%perience and the more you spea# in front of crowds the more comfortable you get with it This class was most helpful to my literacy awareness because I learned most of my advanced #nowledge about writing in this class Li#e how to connect to an audience, how to #eep them engage, and how every writer has their own style or diction This #nowledge is something I use in all my classes to

produce my best wor# In retrospect we have been on a literacy path ever since we were born I chose to convey this in a timeline of some specific e%amples that I thought were the most monumental in my path "veryone literacy path is different and some people!s paths maybe faster than other or slower but we all start from the same place My literacy awareness has too# me to new heights throughout my life and I have always been trying to #noc#down the ne%t barrier standing in my way of advancement 9ecause it is very important to never get complacent with anything you do in life not just literacy 9ecause if you get complacent with where you are you will never strive to reach the ne%t level