Category: Blog

To begin this, I will introduce myself; my name is Brittany Blum. I’m from Baltimore, Maryland; more specifically, Dundalk, Maryland. Dundalk is only a forty-five-minute drive from Stevenson University. I moved to Dundalk from Baltimore City at the age of four years old. I lived in my mother’s parent’s home originally. My mother had me at the age of twenty, and we lived with my grandparents for four years. My mother since I was younger was always very diligent with me, and my grandparents helped my parents raise me. I was, and still am, close to my grandparents. Once I moved to Dundalk, I attended the elementary school close by my house, attended middle school that’s ten minutes away from home, and attended the high school, I of course, graduated from. I attended Dundalk High School, which of course I graduated as the Class of 2016. I applied to Stevenson University the Summer of 2015; I got accepted and was pondering if I wanted to attend or not. When I visited Stevenson the Summer of 2016, I automatically fell in love with the environment. I immediately made the decision to attend here. I felt right at home, which is funny since my home is close by. My parents agreed with me to attend Stevenson since they wanted me close to home. However, this is not my life story, but rather how I got to this point of my life; through skills in reading and writing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To get to college, and my pre-college days, I had to learn to read and write at a young age. My first memory was when I was three years old sitting in my grandparents’ dining room with my mother, on my child-size board, which had a one-sided chalkboard and the other was a whiteboard, and writing the alphabet along with numbers and words. My mother made me continuously write it over and over again until it was perfected. I must have written it so many times that it was imprinted in my childlike mind. I was very attentive and made sure it was perfected. I look back to when I was younger and remember all the times I sat there as a child and would complain that it was no fun at all. I would beg my mother to let me play with my dolls or play house. My mother would let me take a break, and go play; as all children need. My mother might have been stern on her first child to perfect writing, but she knew when playtime was needed. As a year went by, we moved into our new house and I was preparing for my future in school as a Pre-Kindergartner. I was ecstatic! I was finally attending school with new people, and I didn’t have to have my mom play as teacher anymore. My first day of PreK, I was four years old, fresh minded and ready to learn. It was an afternoon fall Class of 2002. I walked down the wide sidewalk to the big, double red doors and stood outside with my mysterious classmates. I stared at all of them in childlike wonder, and tried to get to know names. I was very shy and quiet, so it was harder for me to reach out to my peers. I got to know a couple of names. The teacher finally walked outside and brought us into the building for class. For the 2002-2003 school year, I learned new words, learned the alphabet, learned the numbers, and learned new colors. I was also learning to write all of this new knowledge on a piece of paper. Pre-K was definitely a new experience, but it was an eventful experience that would help me with future academics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I gained a lot of skills and knowledge on reading and writing throughout my years of education. There are a couple memories that I remember throughout my childhood to my teenage years.When I was from the ages four to six, anytime I went out with family members, they would have me ready almost everything. I had to read it, say it, and keep saying it until I learned exactly what it said. All my family members were very helpful in that aspect of my life. Another was middle school, when my reading level was starting to really increase. During my sixth grade year, my English teacher Mr.Sapp, he got me reading higher level novels and understanding vocabulary. I also got to learn how to analyze a text, and go a little in depth of what a book was telling us, as the readers.He was one of my favorite english teachers in middle school. He made reading, writing, and learning very fun. It wasn’t like I was in school, but much rather back when I was in elementary school and learning with fun and colorful objects. However, middle school was coming to a very fast, close ending and high school was right in front of my face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally! The last four years of my secondary education is here! It was my senior year; the year everyone said was supposed to be fun. Boy, were they very wrong. My senior year was hectic. I had college applications, grades, dances, events, and so much more. My senior year I learned the most in life, and in literacy. My twelfth grade english teacher was very helpful with my reading and writing skills. She taught me to analyze a text and see what an author is trying to say. She taught me to look more in depth while reading any kind of text. She taught me how to write better essays and research papers. I learned a lot from my english teacher. I also got some college advice from her, and what is about to come. My english teacher wasn’t the only one who helped me, though. My best friends were also very helpful. My one best friend, Gia, I met her in Pre-K. She helped me a lot over the years. She helped me with life advice, and anything education based. We were the type of best friends that if one of us didn’t understand something in class, we guided each other through the work. We made sure there was an understanding. My other friend, Heven, she helped me pronounce words I didn’t know how to pronounce and would help me study. Both of them were my guides throughout high school. They both have been there through a lot in my life; educational and personal. I became very grateful for having these people in my life; my teacher, my best friends, and anyone else who guided me along the way.

In other words, me learning to read and write from family, friends, and teachers, has helped me throughout my education and my life. All of the skills and knowledge I acquired will help my with my future goals. I want to become a forensic pathologist, so I need to know how to read and write. To understand any medical information about the victim, and to write whatever I find. This all will help me with my future goals, and what is expected of me when I start working, and just finish up my college education.

Daria Mosley

Have you ever been given a difficult writing topic and thought to yourself “How am I going to write this paper?” Well that’s my life in a nutshell as a college student enrolled in English 151. January 26, 2017 my English professor; Allison Licastro assigned my class the task of writing a personal narrative of how we all learned how to read and write. Sounds broad right? My first response was a little sarcastic because it’s obvious everyone learns to read and write naturally just like how we’ve learned our first language. However, thinking deeper that’s not how I learned to read and write, yeah I knew a lot of words when I was a child but that doesn’t mean I knew how to spell them or even how I broaden my vocabulary. Throughout my journey many people, classes and internet sources have played a role into my academic success. Surprisingly as most would think my journey started in Kindergarten.

At the age of five I attended Abundant Life Academy, located in Syracuse New York. If you assumed it is a Christian school, your right, yet I have no memory of learning anything related to the bible. To me, the school seemed more similar to a public school because I had one teacher who taught basic subjects like English and Math, and in between we’d have snack time, nap-time and show-n-tell. Nevertheless, going back to the matter of learning how to read and write my teacher, Mrs. Suzie did indeed teach me. My class was a pretty small size, I’d say there were about fifteen of us and all our desk were divided in rows. Mrs. Suzie’s desk was located in the back, but she always positioned a chair in front of the class when she taught. During English, she would write one syllable words on flash cards and together the class would repeat the term aloud. I clearly recall learning the words my, me, day, be and to. She taught us how to say them and how to properly use them in a sentence. Later came the two syllable words such as, Monday, seven, picture, music and apple. She taught us two syllable words visually by giving us pictures of the word and we would have to write and spell the word under the picture. I feel that method was very effective because not only did I know how to spell and pronounce the word, now I also knew what adults were referring to when the words were said. I must admit Abundant Life Academy was an impressive school. Not only did we learn how to read and write sentences, we also learned how to write in cursive. I always had seen cursive around the house for instance, letters on the kitchen table, papers on my Dad’s night stand and sticky notes on the refrigerator. Although, I seen it everywhere I never understood what was actually written, so I just figured it was some weird kind of adult language. All students were given a blue book that was devoted to cursive. The beginning consisted of writing out the alphabet from lowercase to uppercase letters then came writing basic sentences like “The dog is brown.” My cursive was not in any way the neatest especially the letters S and Z but after Kindergarten I never had to write in cursive again. Until this assignment I never realized how beneficial Kindergarten actually was for my reading and writing journey. However, after reading book Tyrell by Coe Booth the way I viewed literature changed forever.

Throughout elementary and middle school I was an active reader. I loved books from Roald Dahl and Judy Blume in fact, Are you there god? Its me, Margaret. was one of my favorite books for a long time. Every night I dedicated at least an hour or two, to reading chapter books. Plus they would help me fall asleep. Every book I read had a similar storyline. Either the character was going on a quest where at the end he or she would have learned a lesson, or the character was a female who would soon find a love interest and from there a story would form. After reading mostly every book of my shelf I relocated to where my mom kept her books. She suggested the book Tyrell was a good read, but after looking at the cover I felt a little intimidated because for once the character on the front was not animated. Despite the appearance of the book, the summary on the back seemed interesting so I decided to give it a try. The first line of chapter one was “When I pick Novisha up from school, she actin’ all weird and shit” I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Not only did the character curse, but he used slang that I used too. Also Tyrell main goal was to provide for his brother because his mother was in and out of their lives. The book’s language was so current that I didn’t even feel like I was reading a book, more like I was there. I couldn’t put the book down,  I finished all 307 pages in three days. It never occurred to me that authors could express sexual events and inappropriate words in literature until I read that book. I was always under the impression stories had to be appropriate so everyone could enjoy. Now knowing that writing didn’t have to be relatable or suitable to everyone I was open to reading more controversial stories that could change my way of thinking and writing.

Finally, I want to fast forward to my freshman year of college to explain how public speaking reinforced the way I wrote. I know what you’re thinking, “how could public speaking possibly strengthen my writing” well behind every good speaker is a great writer. In this class we had to do an informative speech, argumentative speech, commemorative speech, a debate and an inspirational speech. The first rule my professor John Castagna taught me was to write a speech that my audience would relate to, so my informative speech focused on the importance of sleep for college students. I informed them how a lack of sleep could impact their lives, socially, mentally and physically. I even gave my class advice on how to improve their sleeping habits. In addition, I learned how to write attention grabbers in the introduction and depending on the topic I needed to establish credibility immediately. The class taught me how to make my writing conversational so the students would not feel obligated to listen to me, but they would gain knowledge every time I spoke. Also, I learned how to deliver a message persuasively by using expert opinions, comparisons and considering the opposed point of view, then giving an alternative. Public speaking molded me to keep in mind why should the audience care. What’s the point of telling a story or relying a message that the audience will not remember? So now, I try to write in a way that’s memorable and to choose topics I am most passionate about to I can display that energy in my writing.

All in all, this assignment wasn’t as hard as I thought. Many other sources contributed to my reading and writing skills such as, dictionary.com, TED.com, Web articles and critics from previous English teachers. Ultimately, I feel Kindergarten provided me with basic knowledge, Tyrell allowed me to view literature with a different perspective and public speaking influenced me to write with a purpose. Considering I am only a freshman, I have much room for improvement, so I’m hoping taking this English course will enhance my critical thinking and polish my writing.

 Normally, most who live in the U.S speak, read, and write in English their whole life, but growing up, English has not always been the language I spoke, wrote, and read. Throughout my life, I have learned the Russian language, as well as English. It has been a very long and difficult journey of learning especially the English language. Coming to the U.S. and having no knowledge, to then becoming fluent within a year has shown a lot of work and dedication on my part. I am as fluent in the English language as I can possibly be, and I carry no accent. But as for Russian, I no longer have as much knowledge as I used to due to getting so used to reading and writing in English. My vocabulary grows each and every day.  To this day, I continue to expand my vocabulary and improve on my reading and writing skills.

For the first nine years of my life, I grew up in Russia in a small town by the name of Pskov. I lived with only my mother and three of my siblings. My father passed away when I was about a month old so getting by things was difficult at times. The town I lived in was financially poor. It was hard to find money to have an education, which is why I was never afforded the opportunity to attend school. My mother did not have a job, so she was basically getting money from others to support her four children. The way I learned my original language was by picking it up from others, especially my mother. I don’t remember ever being in a classroom until I was taken into the orphanage, where I finally began reading Russian books and writing my own name on paper. In the orphanage was where the transition from Russian to English began. To begin with, we would sing songs in English to practice pronunciation. From pronunciation, it progressed to trying to write and read but I just couldn’t for the simple fact that Russian was too fresh and English was difficult to remember. Putting that with the fact that I had never attended school made it even harder.

When I reached the age of nine, I was adopted and ended up moving to the United States. After moving to the U.S., I began going to elementary school to learn how to speak, read and write in English. I still to this day remember the name of the teacher that taught me how to speak, read and write, and it is a name I will never forget. Mr. Fulton.  This is a name I will never forget because it was the most important event of my life. It was a huge stepping stone. It is very true when people say English is the hardest language. I remember it being extremely difficult to grasp the different meanings of all kinds of different words. It was difficult to begin reading and writing in a language I did not recognize. As months passed, I began trying to put words together in speaking, as well as on paper by using several flashcards. These flashcards would have certain words written in Russian, and on the back of the card would be the translation. This helped me recognize what the word was and what it looked like in the English language. I spent hours on end studying and practicing the English language in school, as well as at home. I remember it being extremely difficult to communicate with my parents at home because they spoke English, and I did not. They would help me learn by labeling certain objects in the house and I would walk around practicing to read and recognize the words. This helped me a lot because I could learn English at a much quicker pace. Learning at a quick pace also comes along with craving to communicate with others. I wanted to have conversations with others but I just could not because my English was not proficient enough. I began paying close attention to how others spoke around me and I started to pick up on it. I remember a specific incident when a student asked me to speak in English. At that point, I could understand what others were saying to me but at the same time, I was still learning how to communicate back. So I said the one word I knew best, that word “hello”. Others were so shocked I spoke in English and I can still, to this day, remember their exact reaction. The reaction of jaws dropping and wide eyes.  The process of communication became easier and easier as time went on.

   As more time passed, words turned into sentences and sentences turned into paragraphs. I began writing papers for classes and each grade on each paper went up each time. That’s when I knew my hard work was paying off.  It took me about a year and a half to fully learn the English language. I continued going to classes that helped me become a better reader and writer, one specific class was English for Speakers of Other Languages, ESOL for short. ESOL helps foreign students learn the English language. It was a class I attended every single day and was tested on speaking, reading, and writing. Because I was not able to read and write at a proficient level, I was held back another year in elementary school. I have always been behind other students. The number one subject I am behind on and will always be behind on is English. Though I have learned how to read and write correctly, I still struggle at times on difficult assignments.

My whole life has been a long and difficult journey. Going from knowing no English at all, to becoming fluent within a year is an amazing story to me, as well as others around me. I am now able to have an education, which I never thought I would have. And now that I know the English language fluently, I am able to have a bright future and pursue a career that will make me successful in the long run. The journey that I have been through will open up new opportunities for me in my future career as a doctor.  

Reading and writing are vital elements for any human being to have, especially in modern society. Being literate means having the ability to read and write. Do you remember the first time you learned how to read and write? Or even thought about who or what tools helped you obtain an adequate reading level?

My name is Jewel Bowlding, I grew up in a suburban area in Bowie, Maryland. I went to grade school ten minutes away from my house called High Bridge Elementary School. It was an old small elementary school because I have a cousin who attended the same school thirty plus years ago. The school taught kindergartners all the way up to fifth graders, and I had a great learning experience there from 2^nd grade until the time I had to leave and go to middle school. Personally, I loved reading new books. I never read before, especially books that had illustrations.

Although I had a rough time in second grade, I managed to succeed. Second grade was tough because I could not get my reading and writing levels high enough to where they needed to be in order to progress into the third grade. In the middle of my second-grade year, my teacher Ms. Parker had a meeting with my mom and grandmother to warn them that I was in danger of failing, which would force me to stay back. As a result, I was given a reading helper, known as Leap Frog to assist me in increasing my literacy skills. Ultimately, this lead to me improving my reading capabilities by being able to read books that are more advanced.  Also receiving an award for good writing and reading skills. Leap Frog was useful to me because I could put the pen over the word as many times as I wanted, especially if I did not understand the word. I utilized the Leap Frog twice a day. I utilized it once to assist me better with my homework, then a second time just for extra practice, which I completed on my own time.

Finally, after many hours of putting in work onto Leap Frog, it paid off. We had an English test and when the results were in, I scored higher than all of my other reading tests that I had ever taken. Once my teacher saw my test score, she was so proud of me. I even asked her for extra help even just to make sure I was on the right track. She knew I worked hard to reach my goal in passing the final English test. After this class, I knew I could improve my reading and writing abilities.

Then, when I entered the fifth grade, I had an obstacle to overcome which was reading new information and writing my first essay. It was something I needed my grandmother to help me on because she was sufficient at commenting on my work. My grandmother’s name was Barbara and she was the one person who pushed me to do the best I can do and not stop with just the bare minimum. My grandmother was a sweet woman, with beautiful bronzed skin, short gray hair who wore glasses. She had the most patience when it came to helping me with writing my essays in fifth grade. She sat down with me and broke everything down systematically, taking everything at a pace that I was comfortable with. After I took time out to get help from her, I was able to organize and articulate my ideas more clearly and make an accurate analysis of specific text. By then, it was time to write my first essay. I took advice from my grandmother who told me to take breaks between every couple of paragraphs so I would not become too frustrated or have writer’s block. I would usually become frustrated when writing because I could not get my point across clearly, or my grandmother would tell me it did not make any sense.

I had a rough start first learning how to read and write because my mom did not really help me until after I did it myself first. Then she would provide her input. My mom, whose name is Karen, has light skin, wears glasses, and is about 5 feet and 5 inches tall. Even to this day, I know if I needed help, her first question would be “Did you even try?” On the other hand, she would say, “Baby you can do it,” meaning I barely received any assistance from her. My grandmother made me write words and sentences repeatedly to improve my writing. It was also to make sure I did not forget what I learned. After all, repetition is beneficial when it comes to memorizing information. Writing words down and reading, the words multiple times actually helped me remember words in order to understand them better. This was a way of studying for me when I learned new vocabulary words or even tried to keep my mind actively engaged.

Following the first essay, I wrote, I moved to the sixth grade, which brought me a new tool that would help me improve my reading and writing skills.  The tool was audio books. I first used audio books when I had to read the book Holes by Louis Sachar. The book is about a boy “Stanley who has bad luck and a curse is placed on his great-grandfather, he is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention camp, for a crime he did not commit. Stanley and the other boys are forced to dig large holes in the dirt every day” (Sachar). The book was not too difficult but the audio book helped me focus a little more and understand it better. Additionally, listening to the audio helped me expand my vocabulary and understand the story line more easily. To this day, audio books help me read books that are on the difficult side or contain difficult words.

On the other hand, entering college made me realize how far I have come with my literacy. I have experienced two different English teachers, who have helped me with grammar and writing better essays. It really helped me because after I was corrected on some errors my essays became A’s. These teachers helped improve my grammar and my writing to a more college adequate level. After those classes, I have continued to expand my literacy. In this class, I expect to expand my reading especially with much more difficult text. Expanding my literacy in this class will prepare me for readings that are more difficult.

In the future, I plan to continue to expand my literacy. I will be successful in my career especially expanding my literacy to a more professional level. I have a couple more years to expand my literacy each day. Expanding my reading and writing skills will show how much I grew from the time I first started to learn how to read and write. Learning how to read and write made me realize how important it is to improve my skills. Being literate will always help you get through many things in life such as a job application, scholarships, and many more things. I personally think if you do not know how to read or write in modern society you will not be as successful compared to if you were literate. Being educated is the key to your dream job. As for me: a physical therapist and a photographer.