LITERACY NARRATIVE

Literacy Narrative
Joel Abad
University of Central Florida

LITERACY NARRATIVE

Growing up in a third world country not having many materialistic things to enhance
your literacy skills is tough, my parents went through this their whole lives until coming to the
United States not knowing one bit of English. When I was born the only language I learned was
Spanish, I barely knew any English and there wasnt a big need for it since Miami has a large
population of Spanish speaking people. My parents didnt bother teaching me English since they
knew when I started school I would learn it and they didnt know much English themselves to be
able to teach it to me. After years of being in the United States education system, it allowed me
to learn English fluently and be literate just by going to school every day, after years of being in
school the way that some teachers taught did not necessarily enhance my literacy skills and made
me hate whatever the teacher was teaching. Other than that Living in the United States and being
in the education system it has to offer enhanced my literacy skills and allowed me to get those
skills to a high level.
Literacy is not just being able to read and write, The Workforce Investment Act of 1998
defines literacy as "an individual's ability to read, write, speak in English, compute and solve
problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual
and in society." (Workforce, 1998). When my parents came to the United States they did not
know much English but in order to find jobs they had to learn English and become literate. My
mother started learning English when she got a job, as well as my dad both jobs had programs to
teach the employees English. When I entered school at the age of four I did not know any
English, I couldnt communicate with some of the other kids and it made me stand out, this made
me mad that my parents didnt teach me English since I couldnt make many friends, I could
only communicate with other kids that spoke Spanish. After being in school for a couple years I
became fluent in English, I understood it as well as spoke it perfectly. Now as an adult I realize

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that what my parents did was probably one of the best things that could have ever happened to
me since I am now fluent in two languages which will benefit me when I go to look for a job.
After being in school for a couple of years I came across some positive and negative
sponsors. According to Deborah Brandt who is very well known and wrote the article Sponsors
of Literacy she mentions that sponsors are The figures who turned up most typically in peoples
memories of literacy learning. (Brandt, 1998, p. 167). This could mean anyone who ever had
any influence on your literacy skills like your mother, father, or teacher. Positive sponsors are the
sponsors who had a positive impact on your literacy skill. For me, most of my English teachers
were positive sponsors, I enjoyed being in their classes and made the subject fun. Whatever was
taught in their classes I picked up pretty easily and my literacy skill improved. The negative
sponsors happened to be some of the other teachers I had throughout school that made me dislike
what I was learning and give me busy work just to get by. For example, my senior year of high
school I had honors English and I can honestly say I did not walk out of the class knowing more
than when I came in, all we did was write essays and watch movies and take notes on the
movies. The teacher gave us busy work from the textbook like read the story and answer
questions in the back of the book. After taking this class I walked out with a hatred for English
and busy work. Some other negative aspects were getting assigned a list of books I had to read
even though I had no interest in them whatsoever I would much rather read something I enjoy
rather than being forced to read something I dislike and not pay attention to it. Malcolm X was
able to become the person he was because he was able to be in an institutional sponsor which is
an institution that influences your literacy skills and him being in that prison allowed him to get
hands on the dictionary where he taught himself how to read and write just by memorizing the
whole dictionary. (Haley, 1965, p. 2).

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A persons literacy skills have to do with their sponsors and the materialistic resources
that is available to that person. I was fortunate enough to grow up where many resources are
available to me like technology and many positive sponsors that helped me increase my literacy
skill. Unlike my parents that didnt have many resources to increase their literacy skills they
managed to do it with what they had just like Malcolm X. All throughout my life I had more
positive sponsors and many resources to be able to get to the level I am now when it comes to
literacy skills and I know eventually I will have to come across more sponsors to be able to
further my skill since I will need it in my profession.

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Works Cited
Brandt, Deborah. "Sponsors of Literacy." College Composition and Communication. 2nd ed. Vol. 49.
National Council of Teachers of English, 1998. 165-185. Print.
Haley, A. (1965). Learning To Read. In The Autobiography Of Malcolm X (pp. Rpt. 1-5). New York
City: Grove Press.
"Workforce Investment Act of 1998." Department of Labor. August 7, 1998