Alyssa Finkelstein

UWRT 1101- 007

April 7, 2015
Literacy Narrative
How it all started
Reading and writing is something that is excellent to know how to do. Some people
appreciate it while others cannot stand it for reasons such as it is boring and takes too long to do.
I adore reading and writing a lot and that love for it started when I was a child. Before I was able
to read or write on my own, my parents introduced me to them. My mother and father enlighten
me with a story every night right before I would go to bed. They would read me books like
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Brown and Pat Hancock, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, and
fairy tale stories. I remember how I was really fond of listening to them read to me. It made me
happy and relaxed. It also brought out my curiosity more because I would ask my parents
question while they were reading the books. I was already a curious child growing up; I would
question what I was doing and play around with anything I could get my hands on.
Before I turned five, I remember my first experience with writing. I started with tracing
the alphabet and numbers from a learning book that my mother bought me. From there I only
increased my ability. I learned how to write simple words such as cat, mom, dad and
love from tracing books and books I read with my parents. Writing was not an effortless thing
for me to do. It took me a while to figure out how to spell words and be able to write words
legibly. Writing sentences were also not something I was exceptional at in the beginning. I often
used the incorrect words because I thought I was spelling the words right. Thankfully I grew out
of that habit fairly quick and learned how to construct better sentences, which came in handy
when I started elementary school.

Awkward School Days

English classes went on and off with being my favorite to least favorite class during my
elementary and middle school years. The reason why it was not consistent was because of the
type of assignments I had to do. Some of the my English classes focus on the one topic that I do
not like at all, which is poetry. Analyzing and writing poetry does not fascinate me; it rather
makes me question my actions. In middle school poetry was a big focus for me, it was touched
only slightly when I was in elementary school. I had to be able to understand a poem and write
ones in my middle school English classes. I did not enjoy the structure of poems and how they
are not always clear with what the writers wants the reader to understand. In my English classes
in elementary school, I spent a lot of time looking at pictures and creating a story from that
picture. I enjoyed doing that a lot because creating stories is exciting. Making the characters
names and a plot brought out my creative side and had me interested in becoming a writer in the
future.
The novels I read during my years in elementary and middle school ranged from
interesting to dull in my opinion. Sometimes I was given the option on what novel I would like
to read out of a list. I typically picked ones that had a topic that I knew a little about and wanted
to know more or ones that were not history based. At the time I thought the history books were
just all full of facts that did not matter to me. During elementary school I read simple books that
kept me wanting to read more. I did not have the freedom to choose what I would like to read.
Everyone in my class would read the same book and discuss about it in groups. When I was in
middle school, I had to keep a reading log, which is just a paper that said how many hours or
minutes I read during a span of a week. My English teacher, Mr. Kugler was a big on reading
outside of class. He wanted all his students to see that reading could be fun. I had to read for a

specific amount of hours each week, but there were no restrictions. There was one series in
particular that I read quite often when I was in middle school and that was the Warriors series by
Erin Hunter. I read the entire series that was out at the time when I was in middle school; they
are still currently making more books in the series. I also had to read over the summer prior to
going into my next school year. Sometimes I was assigned a specific book while others I was
given rules that I had to follow.
Preparatory Days
While I was in high school, I enjoyed my English classes for the most part; there was
only one year that I really disliked English. The year that I learned the most about reading and
writing was my junior year. My English teacher, Mr. Ponikvar focused on preparatory writing
for the SAT and ACT, which I found quite useful. I learned how to write essays fast and how to
state my opinion without using first person. Starting an essay with an introduction, then making
my conclusion answer question such as so what, who cares? and why? My senior year
English teacher Ms. Laux also helped me significantly improve on my writing skills. This was
the first year I had to write an actual research paper with scholarly sources and a reference page.
I wrote two research papers; one was for my forensic science class about a serial killer and
another was about posttraumatic stress disorder. I enjoy writing research papers because it allows
me to find multiple different websites or books about a topic. Those papers challenged me
because I had to find real sources; I could not use previous knowledge that I had or stuff that I
thought was true.
The amount of books I read while in high school was a lot; they ranged from being plays
to novels. I think I read at least four books each year. I liked the books I read the most was my
junior year. I read Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott

Fitzgerald, and Catcher in the by J.D. Salinger. That year I had to analyze these books very
carefully; it focused more on how the time period impacted the writing style and critically
thinking about the plot or characters. The critically thinking also impacted how I view things
every day because now I look at things more closely and make decisions more wisely. On
another note, I was not a huge fan of reading Shakespeare plays. I read at least one of them a
year and I was never really good at understanding the Shakespearean language. The themes I
thought were valuable, but it took me extra time to understand what I was reading.
Present Day
Since I have been in college, my writing and reading skills have improved significantly.
The amount I have to done for classes is definitely a lot more than what I was used to when I was
in high school. So far this semester I have written a couple of research papers. My research
papers have become more organized and more opinionated since the first two I wrote while in
high school. I pay extra attention to finding sources from reliable websites, citing everything that
I use and paraphrasing. My creativity level has also improved since I have gotten into college.
Last semester I had an avatar project, which is when I make a person who lives during a certain
time period and describe how their life is. My avatar I made last semester was a Jewish male
living in Germany during the 1900s. The research I did for that assignment was endless and it
helped me understand the history better. I was able to get a sense of what it was like to live in
that area during that specific time. It also allowed me to use my research ability on something
that was not just a simple research paper.
The books I have read during college so far have been very challenging. They are not as
easy to understand as the ones that I was used to. I often had to reread lines, multiple times to get
what the text was trying to tell me. Some of the books I have read so far did not have a very clear

plot. They focused on a lot of information that was not always the most significant stuff that I
needed to know. The questions I had to answer about the books also were challenging to me.
They would focus on one little detail that was in a few chapters rather than the big picture of
what the entire few chapters were saying. One of the books I had to read had a lot of charts that I
had to understand well because it played a key role in understanding what was going on in the
novel. These college books have made me realize that I need to focus more on what the text is
saying and looking at things that are not just the text. I plan on improving my writing and my
reading skills as I continue my college days. I want to be able to read faster, but still have the
ability to analyze what I read and to write papers that will interest a reader as well as be
informational.
Rhythms and Tunes
Music has always been a big impact on my life; when I was around the age of 7 I started
to learn how to play piano. The desire to play piano was not enforced by my parents; it was
rather my own choice. My parents used to take me to an Italian restaurant where on some nights
had a pianist come play for the customers, I enjoyed listening to her play and after going there a
few times I asked my parents if I could become a pianist. At first I had a tough time trying to
figure out how to read the notes and rhythms. After a few weeks of playing the same tunes over
and over I figured out how to read the notes on the page and how to use the correct tempo to get
the rhythms sounding good. From learning piano I went to learning how to play the flute in
middle school. That was even more of a challenge to me because I had to learn how to read time
signature, notes, tempo, and volume I needed to play in. I had to do a lot more than I did when I
played piano. I was no longer just a solo player; I had to learn how to make myself blend in with

other players. At the beginning I struggled to figure out how to understand the music language. I
had no clue what things such as 8va and allegro was.
Once I figured out the basic music language I was able to play a lot of pieces. My music
knowledge has only increased from the start because the more and more pieces I play the more
stuff I learn. The amount of time signatures, tempo marking, and notes are endless. I was able to
make in into my top band in high school and go to many band concert festivals as well as get
accepted to honor bands. Going to the completely opposite spectrum of instrument playing I
learned how to play the guitar. I did not gain that desire to play guitar until I was in high school.
The sound of the guitar really fascinated me; how there were so many different types of sound.
There are the warm tone, heavy tone, metal tone, and classical tone; all this depends on the type
of guitar you play and the strings you have on it. For guitar there are two different types of ways
to learn it; one is by learning how to read tabs while the other is learning chords. Definitely, a lot
different than what I was used to. It took a lot of practice for me to understand what the tabs or
chords were having me do. I am still learning more about guitar playing today but I do have the
ability to play a few songs.
Reflection
Throughout my life I went from enjoying reading and writing to hating it, then going
back to enjoying it again. As I got older I gained the ability to appreciate reading and writing.
When I was a child, I just enjoyed reading because it brought out my imagination. Now I enjoy
reading because I use the lessons and facts that I learn from them in my everyday life. Writing
when I was younger was very strict, had a specific topic it had to be on, and it had to be a certain
length. They were often the same type of paper over and over, but on a different topic. Now my
writing has a lot more freedom, I can pick out a topic I like of a few of them given, show more of

my opinion and write a wide variety of different types of paper. Writing and reading is essential
to everyone in the world. It helps them communicate with others and learn new information that
they could possibly use everyday. Each person has their own story about how they were
introduced to reading and writing; that is the start of what shaped them to become the person
they are today.