Literacy History- Chinoyerem Opara

 Literacy History 

My name is Chinoyerem, I was born and raised in New Jersey. I grew up with really strict parents and going to college was very important. I really had no intentions of attending college so I joined the New Jersey National Guard. Months after the training and course I took with the army, I decided that going to college would not seem too bad because I had quite a college experience while learning my military job. After completing my training and coming home I applied to college and chose the major of biology. Biology was something that I thought about in high school because I wanted to become a dentist. Now it is my 3rd year of college. My interests are fitness and weight training. Anything that requires getting fit I am interested in. I took this class mainly because I have not tooken a literacy class besides the basics, English since my 3 years of being in college 

Literacy was an important thing in my household especially while I was young and growing up. My first time remembering picking up a book was not until I began school. In pre-k, I was introduced to books with a few words and more pictures. As much as I could remember, I really got into reading in 3rd grade. At that time,  I was able to understand the concept of reading and also figured out that I never really liked reading. This is also when I learned that a book is always read from left to right, one page to the next even if they were pictures in the way of the words. My parents, especially my dad, was the one who encouraged me to read more. Even though I did not like reading, he would always explain to me the importance of reading. He also wanted me to read outside of the school books and homework assigned. I felt that was very unnecessary because reading felt so uninteresting at the time. 

My earliest experiences with literacy was reading in front of the class when it was my turn to read. When it came to my turn to read I would never know what part the class was at. Not liking and avoiding  to read impacted my learning, understanding and speech. Inside of school it was set that everyone had to read a paragraph out loud when we read books and novels. They also had monthly testing on how fluent students were able to read and if they were able to understand what they read. This was the time I was able to feel if I was literate. I had a poor grade in reading because I had a hard time reading the words and reading it fluently without stuttering or stopping. I was literate but my reading skills need major improvements. I was tired of not being able to read well in front of the class. The embarrassment from that pushed me to read more. Not only was that the problem, my speech was being affected because of the lack of reading I was doing. Many teachers believed English was my second language and because of that I had to take an English second-language class to improve my reading and writing skills. 

The class actually did not help me. I found other means to  help me speak better such as tv shows and movies. I would pay attention to how the characters would pronounce words and their sentences. Activities such as word hunt, word search, and missing word riddles were some activities I enjoyed that helped me. I was frustrated about my grades as well. I had plenty of tests and quizzes that involved reading and answering the following questions. It was very difficult to receive a good grade if the stories were not read and understood. I had a teacher that would always help me to read better. I would consider her my role model because she was the only one that went out of her way to make sure I was understanding the readings. 

As of today I feel literate, I am able to read and write efficiently. Literacy is important for the well-being and education of people. It is a different way of understanding. I continue to use literacy in my life to help me become more educated. I am always learning new words and understanding more things. I believe that learning is endless and you always learn a new thing everyday. My future career and just people inspire me in my literacy development. I want to become that person who always has the right words to say in every situation. As I plan on receiving a masters degree and potentially starting my own business I want to be able to talk to people of all ages and learn alot as I progress with my career.