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Jalyn Gamble
Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1101-103
September 17, 2014
In all honesty, my mind was totally blank when I began to write this piece. I had no idea
what to talk about. After brainstorming for what seemed to be an hour, I came up with more
things than I thought I would. I believe I was strong in answering all the required questions, but
weak in elaborating more. Im prepared for the constructive criticism I may face. What do you
like? What do you dislike? Im all ears.
Literacy is The Key
Literacy has been an important part of my life beginning in my early childhood. For as
long as I can remember, my parents always encouraged me to read. Even though I didn't like to
read, the more I was required to, the more it grew on me. Starting in kindergarden when I
couldnt quite read yet, my parents had homework, which was to read assigned books to me and
write it down in a log. When I moved up to the first, second, and third grade, every night I
remember reading for thirty minutes and having my parents initial a reading log.
Growing up, my parents were my biggest literacy sponsors. My mother used to take me
and my sister to our local library in Gastonia, North Carolina every Monday night to pick out
three books each. We always knew better than to choose the easy books with the big words
because she would make us send them right back to the bookshelf. My mother would always say
challenge yourself. Now that I think about it, her strategy helped us in the long run. Choosing
more challenging books expanded our vocabulary and increased our reading level. By the time I

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reached the fifth grade my teachers said that I was on a seventh grade reading level. My sister
became to be the same way only one reading level higher than me.
Another way I remember my parents acting as a sponsor was by a special gift I received
one Christmas in middle school. During that time my favorite movie was The Sisterhood of The
Traveling Pants. I remember opening up one particular box that shockingly made me happier
than all my other gifts. They bought me The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants collection that
contained the books and movies. At that time, I hadn't seen the second movie nor read the book
which is why I was so thrilled. My mother (someone who loves to read books for fun)
encouraged me to read the book first because she always said that the books are better than the
movies. So of course, I took her advice and she was absolutely right.
Along with my parents, there was one specific teacher that had a major influence in my
life. Her name was Ms. Barnwell. Ms. Barnwell was my fourth grade teacher who was so full of
life. She was a tall, slim woman with short blonde hair who never failed to have on a pair of
heels. She had so much faith in me and never liked to see me down. She always pushed me to
read, read, read. Not only her, but all of my grade school teachers did. They did so by offering
rewards to make us want to read.
During elementary school we had something called an AR program. AR stood for
Accelerated Reading. In this program, every book in the library equaled a certain amount of
points. The more challenging the books were, the more points they were worth. When each
student finished their book, they took an online comprehension test on it. The higher your score,
the more points you earned. The teachers had a set amount of points that each student was to
earn within a time period in order to participate in the AR party and/or receive an award. Usually
during the AR parties there was a movie and treats. All the students who didn't earn their points

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had to stay in class and do work while the other students had a good time. After the one time that
I didn't reach my points, I pushed myself harder and became more dedicated to earn my points
every time after that. I believe what motivated me is being left out of the festivities. After
hearing about how much fun everyone had, I never let that happen again.
The Bible is the major piece of literature that influenced me and what my beliefs/values
are based upon. Ever since I was a little, it was important for me to know about God and what He
does. One of my favorite Bible stories growing up was Noah and The Ark. Every time I see a
rainbow I think of Gods promise to never send an earth-destroying flood again. Being brought
up as a Christian, it was important for me and my sister to have an understanding of the Bible
and keep our faith. My grandparents also played an important role when it came to teaching us
about God. Me and my little sister loved going to church with them around Christmas time
because thats how we learned about Jesus and why he is important. Just recently, my
grandmother included a Bible along with my graduation gifts. She told me to never forget about
God and to read that Bible as often as I could while in college. She was worried that I may lose
interest in God and lose my faith while being a full-time college student. I plan on doing just as
she asks because as much as its important for her, its important for me as well.
The Bible was sort of like a book full of life lessons to me. It taught me about honesty,
respect, sin and many more topics. Prayer is an important topic that the Bible and my parents
taught me about. I learned how to pray, what to pray for, and how you can pay for forgiveness.
Growing up, it was a daily routine for my family to pray over dinner and before we went to bed.
For me, prayer is a way of talking to God. No matter where you are and who you are, I believe
that God listens to everyones prayers. Another important topic the Bible taught me was to obey
my parents. In Colossians 3:20 it says, Children obey your parents in everything, for this

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pleases the Lord. I remember my mom telling me and my sister that God doesn't like it when we
disobeyed. Being young, it scared us and made us believe God thought we were bad, which
stopped us from disobeying.
Coming into my very first college English class I became amazed when we read a piece
about Malcolm X. Reading this piece in class made me realize a connection between the two of
us. I found it very interesting how he not only read the entire dictionary, but copied it word for
word. Malcolm X was the type of person who was independent and didn't let anything (such as
being in prison) affect his learning. After copying the dictionary, Malcolm became more
articulate and began reading numerous amounts of books. He would check out as many as he
could from the prison library and read all day non-stop. Mr. Muhammad had a major influence
on Malcolm that was worth it in the long run. Malcolm X began reading many book and stories
on civil rights. Similar to myself, Malcolm was interested in the history of African Americans
and the truth behind all of the challenges they faced. I was pleased when my high school began
to offer an African American studies class. In this class we focused on certain African Americans
such as inventors,who had a influence in the world.It was nice to be in a school that provided a
course such as this one for students to be able to explore black history no matter what race they
were.
While on the topic of African American history and civil rights; I think of what came to
be one of my favorite books in high school, To Kill a Mockingbird. I would always hear about
this book when I was younger but never thought to read it. Finally, junior year at Forestview
High School my English teacher assigned this for us to read as a class. I absolutely loved it. As
said before, learning about civil rights and topics of this matter greatly interested me and To Kill
a Mockingbird somewhat deals with it. This book also opened up my aspect on the legal system.

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Taking place in the 1930s, To Kill a Mockingbird shows the unfair treatment one particular black
man faced while dealing with a false accusation from a white woman. Judging by the number of
awards this story earned, numerous people enjoyed this book. Im glad that To Kill a
Mockingbird is taught in classrooms across the United States because it could affect other
readers in the same way it affected me.
I plan on continuing my literacy development by moving forward with my education and
being a lifelong learner. Even when I graduate from college, learning doesn't stop just because
school may stop. To me, lifelong learning prevents boredom. Many people graduate from high
school or even college and stop gaining any more knowledge. Going into the healthcare field,
that wont be the case for me. This world is constantly changing and pretty soon technology will
be our life. If you aren't putting in the effort to keep up with new things, the skills you have from
years ago wont even matter. I personally know people who have low literacy skills and can
hardly understand their childs homework enough to help them. This is a major disadvantage for
the child who doesn't complete their homework because no one can explain it to them. Examples
like this prove why education along with lifelong learning is important. If you cannot read in this
day in age, you are basically handicapped. Im grateful for all the positive influences in my life.
Those people want me to succeed. Which is why literacy is they key. The key to success. The
key to life.

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