Emilio Medina

UWRT 1101
02/02/2016

Literacy Project First Draft

(Dont need this title any longer,

but good switch on the format)

Literacies of Someone you Know

Literacy, what is literacy for me? Well when I was a boy I thought literacy was
to be smart like Leonardo Da Vinci, and be able to read many books, and write many
poems like if you were William Shakespeare, but I was really wrong the actual definition
of literacy is the quality or state of being literate, especially the ability to read and write.
As a boy my Grandfather was my literacy sponsor, he was a politician in the party call
APRA (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance) (Good acronym and
definition. Maybe define it and then put the acronym in the
parenthesis )and he also was a doctor. I always saw him with respect, he was always

reading a book, and he even had his own library. I have memories of him teaching me
how to read, even though my parents and teachers also teach me how to read and write,
but I remember better learning with him, for example I remember when he made me read
Clifford the big red dog, It was the first book that I remember, when I finish reading
Clifford I felt so Intelligent that I thought I was able to read those gigantic books that he
use to read, but those books were so difficult to read that at the moment I didnt even
understand what the heading mean, other thing that I remember is how he helped me with
the letter that I was writing for my Mother.
In my literacy memories, my grandfather was a very important person, he was
very busy, but there was a time of the day where he usually talk with me, he was always

Emilio Medina
UWRT 1101
02/02/2016

talking about how read and write help you to be a smart person, sometimes he use to talk
to me about medicine, and how important is to be healthy, and our body is so incredible,
that everything that we have is there for a reason. When I enter to their room, there were
at least 4 books in his desk beside his bed, and in his library, there were at least 400
books, two big pictures one was of Cesar Vallejo who was a famous writer and poet from
Peru, and the other picture was of Victor Raul Haya de la Torre who was the founder of
the Political Party APRA. His literacy affect my relationship with him, in the way, which
I didnt want to sound stupid when I talk to him, and also my grandfather literacies
affected me in how desperate I was to read more, I want to know as much as he knew,
because he always had the answers of my books, he always help me with homework, or
give me books to read, but the didnt work I still didnt like reading and writing.

Writing Inventory.
But most of the time I didnt like to write and read, especially in school, because
the I didnt choose the subject, since I start school I usually wrote essays, sometimes we
write an email, for my personal experience, I have wrote a journal entry, email, lab report,
essay, research paper, poetry. (Not needed )I like to write for me, not that I write in
second person, or I send my emails. I like to write about my experiences. I write a lot
more since I went to the amazon when I was 13 years old, I didnt have a camera and I
didnt want to forget how the place was, so I started writing about how was the place,
what things I did during my vacations, later I started writing about more things, not just
about my trips or vacations, I also wrote about my thoughts, how I was feeling, my point
of view of how to solve poverty, or to solve global warming, things the people talk about

Emilio Medina
UWRT 1101
02/02/2016

everyday, after one year, I read everything that I have wrote, and it make realize how
much a person change, because they learn more, or they have a experience that change
their lives.( Sentence is running long. Break it up) Well based in my writings I
think Im a person the think about the humanity, I always write about injustice, poverty,
politics problems. And I think I write this because Im from a country where there is a lot
of injustice, and I have travel a lot, and I saw how people think, how education is very
important, and is one of the reasons why people is poor. I also realize the I like to keep
my thoughts for my self, because I feel more comfortable, its not because Im shy, Its
because I like it.

Your reading Process.

For the other part, reading wasnt fun for me; Im more a visual learner, I like to
learn watching videos, but sometimes I use to read books about adventures, or short
stories. I remember when my grandfather told me that reading was very important
because you can find everything in books, smart people like Baldor, Shakespeare, Gabriel
Garcia Marquez are people that wrote interesting things that could help you to understand
many things during your life, But still I didnt like to read books from my school, most of
the time they give me a boring book, but still Im not the kind of person who is always
reading, I dont have a book most of the time, but sometimes I hear that a book is
interesting and I read it and I remember my grandfather, or documents that Im interest I
read then. (Running long again, break up into multiple sentences )For the
books that I like, I dont have a reading process, I usually read then in my bed, or when
Im eating, I just seat in a comfortable position and I start. But for the books, lab reports,

Emilio Medina
UWRT 1101
02/02/2016

journal entries, etc., that I dont like to read, I have to by in a desk, or a table, when the
article or the book is in English, I have to read it two times, and I always have my
translator, sometimes when the text is so difficult I write a summary, or words the help
me remember, reading in English is very boring and difficult, a book in Spanish that I
usually read in three hours, take me usually five hours if is on English. For the most part
books and articles are the most difficult things to read, emails and Journals are easy, but
sometimes I get nervous when I read an email because Im afraid that I dont understand
it, this usually happen when the school insurance, or the bank send me emails. Reading is
difficult for me, I come from a country where reading comprehension is a big problem, so
I always have problems.

Worst Reading Experience

Reading about my background literacy you can already tell that is not the great,
and everything got worse when I came to the United States, Learning a new language its
very stressful, especially when you come to the country that speak another language and
you dont even speak a world, well this happen to me, I didnt knew that I was moving to
this country, My father told me that I was coming with him to life(Live) here one month
before. So I didnt have any time to learn or to practice. This disadvantage cause
(Caused) me to have my worst writing experience and also my worst reading experience,
first let me tell you about my writing experience, Since I was a kid writing was difficult
for me, I remember my bad grades, because I didnt have good grammar, I never took the
time to practice my writing skills, other problem about writing was the I didnt know how
to express my ideas, but it wasnt the bad, until I came to the United States.

Emilio Medina
UWRT 1101
02/02/2016

My worst writing Experience was when I went to my first English class in the
United States, the teacher didnt know the it was going to be my first time writing in
English, she thought that I already knew English but I was still having problems with
grammar, so she only give my a translator, So I try hard, I made my first sentence, and
the my first paragraph, I was trying to make to make sense, to dont sound stupid or
uneducated, but I fail(Run-on sentence) . When I present my work the teacher give my
an F, and she told me if I was joking with her, by the time I didnt know how to respond
so I stay quiet. Next day I put the paragraph the. I wrote in the translator and I felt bad,
because I didnt make sense at all. I was ashamed about my self and I didnt want to go to
the English class again, but after thinking for a awhile I decide to learn more words of
English, my ESL class help me with some of my writing, and I teach my self, I decide
that I didnt want to stay not knowing how to write, so the worst writing experience help
me to work harder to achieve my goals, still I dont write perfect and I have a lot of
errors, but in the future I think I would get better.

Worst Reading Experience

My worst reading experience was very similar to my worst writing experience,
the only difference was that it was more embarrassing, when I came I didnt read, speak
or write a single word in English, I knew how to say words like hello, how are you or red
and black, but still my accent was so strong the people didnt understand me. My worst
reading experience took place in my school, it was the second week going to school, and
I was in my history class, most of the time I was reading the Spanish version of the book,
and I was fine, nobody bothered my. Until the teacher start making the kids read some

Emilio Medina
UWRT 1101
02/02/2016

parts of the book, I wasnt expecting to be choose, so for a moment I was fine, but then I
heard my name, I was suppose to read one paragraph, I was freaking out, I was so
stressful, there where two words that I would always remember, the first one was pearl
harbor, and dangerous. I didnt knew how to say it, and it was my turn, so I start to read, I
was trying hard, but I knew nobody understand me, I saw their faces, there where loss,
and I was lost to. Good think that nobody made a joke or laughed, but I was very
embarrass. After the day I knew that have to knew how to say more words, because I
need to express my self, so I start reading song lyrics, and singing, or I used to put
subtitles in the movies and read then, to know if I was saying it right, or wrong. Now I
can read, I still have a strong accent, but still I read.

Entering a Discourse Community.

During this time I also have other challenges, it wasnt more about reading or
writing, it was about my hobbies, and entering a discourse community, When I think
about a discourse community I think about my soccer team, I came from Peru, a country
where soccer is very important and is everyones life, I was already a part to the
community of soccer, I knew some of the goals that every person that play soccer have.
When I came to North Carolina one of my friends told me about a team that they have,
and if I was wiling to play and by part of the team, I felt a little bit scared, because back
in Peru, the people that was in most of my teams where friends, and we didnt play for
nothing real, most of the time we play to just have fun, but this time was going to be
different, if I did something bad, my team would be upset, and it would affect the team.
But once I knew my team, I was happy, all the team members became my friends, and the

Emilio Medina
UWRT 1101
02/02/2016

coach was really nice, he was also our sponsor, he give us uniforms, balls, and sometimes
food, he also give us technics, and make us learn how to play. He was also responsible to
send us emails about things that would help us, playing better, like videos. We use to
practice every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. One thing that I remember of this discourse
community was their lexis, because it was a group of people for all around the word, we
use to make our own language taking words from the words that we use to say when we
use to play in our country, so it took me sometime to learn this words, but it was very
helpful when we play against other teams. Now I left my team because I came to
Charlotte, but when I go to visit my family I also go an play with my team, there are new
members and its fun to be with my friends.
Writing about this project help me a lot, it help me to realize how my literacy
have change during this years, how important my grandfather was, he was my first
sponsor and the most important, I also know that coming to this country is another
sponsor, the transitions is very important for me and my literacy. And Im sure that if I
have more time for this essay I would write more about my experiences and how
everything has something to do with literacy.