Exploring Literacy Narratives: Rising Cairn

While reviewing some of my colleagues literacy narratives, I came across an interesting theme in the majority of them. Most of the experiences in the  literacy narratives all boil down to one thing; an unfortunate or otherwise bad experience with a teacher trying to teach the person to read or write. For most of the students, their problems started at a young age in grade school, where they thought the teacher was mean or unsympathetic to their learning needs and abilities. And because of these experiences the students took that dislike for reading or writing with them through the rest of their life. I think that a good impression of reading and writing at an early age is vital for a student to continue to want to learn and grow in their literacy journey  throughout the rest of their life. From reading these other literacy narratives I realize how important that first impression can be. Those students who had a bad experience with reading early on took that bad memory and turned it into a dislike and in some cases even a hatred for reading and writing. However, in other cases some students, such as myself, took a good first impression or memory of reading and writing, and used it as a motivation to better themselves in the literacy field for the rest of their lives. For example, in my literacy narrative “Saving Pages”, I talk about how at a young age reading with my uncle helped me escape into the fantasy that books provide. I then used books later in my life to escape and help heal my depression, and eventually reading and writing helped to save my life. These first impressions that children get from reading are so important because in actuality they are what eventually molds the minds and opinions of our young generations deals and attitudes towards their literacy, and how they wish to proceed with it.

One thought on “Exploring Literacy Narratives: Rising Cairn”

  1. Teagan,
    Great observations. It’s interesting how one experience can shape your whole outlook on reading and writing. Your story of reading and writing saving your life is incredible. A question to ponder might be: how can literacy save a life? I’m thinking about many things here (knowing the right Discourse to “succeed” in life, knowing that you are not alone by connecting with stories, etc.). Good work.

Comments are closed.