Isela Pena

I. Introduction
A. I remember as a child my mom turning on the T.V and putting on our favorite
shows Teletubbies and Barney and Friends early in the morning. Me and my twin
sister loved these shows and now realize why my mother turned it on for us. As a
mother who didn't speak nothing but spanish tried to help my sister and I to hear
what the English language sounded like. Many people argue that the best way to
teach a child a language is to speak to them; however, not knowing english made
it impossible for both of my parents to teach it to us. For this reason, my first
language became spanish and caused me to struggle when going into school.
B. Thesis: Growing up as a multilingual student made me challenge myself more and
has helped me become a better reader and writer.
C. Introduction of reading and writing
1. Spanish
a) Spanish was my first language
(1) Parents taught me
(2) Spanish was learned from home where I live with my
parents and other family members who only spoke spanish
at home
b) Going to Mexico and learning more spanish
2. English
a) TV shows was one of the first things that introduced me to the
english language
b) Preschool/Kinder
(1) Learning the alphabet
(2) Counting in english
(3) Learning how to write by tracing the alphabet letters
c) Doing the packets in kinder
(1) Remember using the writing paper that had 2 parallel lines
with a dashed line in between.
(a) This allowed me to improve on my writing
d) Story time (Reading)
(1) Sitting in the colored carpet in alphabetical order for story
time
(2) The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
(a) Educational book that taught the days of the week,
fruits, counting and more
(3) The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
(a) Shows kids the importance of sharing
D. Elementary
1. Teachers required us to read
a) I remember that I struggled a lot in grammar and greatly affected
my writing
(1) Writing was something I struggled a lot with as a child
 (2) I felt behind compared to many of my classmate s
(3) Started feeling embarrassed from being behind
b) I remember on my report card that my teacher would always
advise me to read more.
(1) My mom would take us to the library near our house to
read books.
(a) I would do an activity in the library where children
were required to complete certain hours of reading
and in the end would be given a prize
c) Placed in English Language Development (ELD)
(1) Program that helps students advance
(2) For students whose first language is not english
(3) It s focus is to teach language
E. Highschool
1. Summer after 8th grade was the start of International Baccalaureate
a) IB was the program I was in throughout high school
b) Freshmen- sophomore year (MYP)
2. Junior
a) Hardest year in highschool
(1) English
(a) Teacher was strict and picky
(b) Did a lot of annotating
(c) Read many books
(d) Required to do an essay every week of the length
1,500 to 3,000
(i) I felt like I struggled a lot in my writing but
doing this made me get better
(e) Program required us to do (IOP and IOC)
(i) IOP: Individual Oral Presentation
(a) Had to do a 10-15 min presentation
on a text we read in class
(b) Allows students to think critically
and understand the text better
(ii) IOC: Individual Oral Commentary
(a) Had to annotate and reflect part of a
poem given in class. (given 20 min
to do this)
(b) After had to do a 8-10 min
presentation to an examiner
meanwhile being recorded
(f) This year in high school was very difficult for me
that required me to pull a lot of allnighters and
work extra hard
 (i) Made me think that I was not good enough
and was embarrassed of sharing my work
II. Conclusion
A. In conclusion, after seeing my progress in Literacy it has made me seen how my
struggles is what has helped me push myself and become a better reader and
writer.