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LaVell Williams Professor Lynn Raymond English 1103 Writing Prompt 1 10 July 2013! The ability to read and write are necessities for surviving in society today. Without these skills many communication barriers would occur and education levels would be minimized. I can hardly recall my first encounters with literacy, however, I can recall the most significant moments. As education and literacy was very important in my family, I was enrolled into a private academy at the age of three. My preschool experience was useful in creating a head start in my education by allowing me to familiarize myself with the alphabet and learning the basics of reading and writing. By the age of four I was learning phonics which allowed me to develop awareness to hear and identify phonemes.

By the time I reached the third grade I had been removed from the private academy and began attending a local public school. I fell in love with reading through the accelerated reading program which this school offered. Since I have always been competitive I continued to read and take the exams on books to gain AR points. My favorite books to read were the Goosebumps series. By gaining more AR points I was able to attend school sleepovers,pizza parties, and win prizes. Each year for the remainder of elementary school I continued to read in the attempt to gain knowledge and be competitive. During the fourth grade I was admitted into the A.I.G. (Academically Intellectually Gifted) center which I attended every Thursday in a town twenty

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minutes away. This schooling helped me stay advanced and perform work on a higher level than my regular classes. We performed work on middle and high school levels by doing dissections and creating web pages.

My love for writing was discovered during my attendance at the A.I.G center. My creative writing teacher was continuously coaching the class and critiquing the work we presented. Each time I turned in a piece of writing she would cross out several things and instruct me on how to improve the work. I would usually have to go through about four revisions before she would find the writing acceptable. The work would get very frustrating, however, once the it was finished and I looked at the original version I was amazed at the transition. The feeling of having pride with a work was satisfying and worth the effort put in. This method is still prevalent in my writing styles today.

My final year in elementary school definitely had an impact on my initial literacy narrative. Learning about poetry grew into an intense interest which I still enjoy doing. I have had my works published into a poetry book in which my teacher made the class submit. Since only one other student had their poem published into the book I felt as if I had found something I was good at and really liked. The ability to rhyme words while making sense of a passage was something I found simple and gave me a sense of cleverness. As of today I write songs and still use techniques in which Ive learned throughout my childhood schooling.