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Michael Babcock Dr. Jan Reiman English 1101 February 12, 2013 Literacy Narrative: Who Likes Titles Anyway? In the earliest years of my education, my mother tried to teach me handwriting. In fact, since I was homeschooled, my parents taught me most of what I learned back then. One of my earliest memories of writing was the time I kept switching hands to write my first letters. My mother would hand a pencil to my right hand and try to help me figure out the lines and loops of letters, and then I would immediately switch the pencil into my left hand. I think she probably just thought I was being stubborn until she realized I really was better with my left hand. This was probably when we first discovered or at least confirmed I was truly left-handed. Since then, my handwriting has always been messy and while I tried to improve the appearance of it, it slowed me down so much I soon abandoned my attempts. After I had figured out the basic letters and could write words and sentences it was time to work on cursive handwriting. I had thought regular handwriting had been difficult enough to learn, but cursive was especially onerous. Im not sure you would understand unless you tried to write in a rightslanted flowing way with you left hand; it doesnt work out well. My hand actually ached after practicing sometimes. In many ways, these early experiences also began my somewhat adversarial relationship with writing. I find it can be hard to like and enjoy things Im not particularly skilled at and writing seemed to be the epitome of such things within my education. Why spend time and effort on writing, or why should I care about writing? I thought, when there were so many other
Comment [JE3]: Dont put quotations around thoughts, rather italicize them or put them directly into your sentence. Comment [JE2]: Im not sure you... strange wording to me again, and the end of this paragraph doesnt transition well into the next. It seemed like you just cut off and ended. Comment [JE1]: Wording is weird here, makes it sound as if this Is a single instance.

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things I was interested in learning and discovering. Im certain I did not realize then how important being able to communicate in writing would be for someone with ambitions to be successful in this technology centric world. Fortunately for me, I think our culture has moved away from treating good handwriting as one of the keys to a secret and wealthier society like Christiansen talked about regarding the ominous Standard English grammar (Christensen 37). I dont think the way we speak and write holds quite as much weight as it used to. Through all the technological advances that have been made, people have grown more accustomed to communicating outside the confines of traditional Standard English grammar or cursive penmanship. I think we will find that the accepted rules and standards of writing, especially handwriting, may not hold much weight as English evolves and as the Internet generation matures. Communicating in my early years was further confounded by a speech impediment, which probably contributed to my introverted nature and made me avoid talking with people outside my family for fear they wouldnt understand me. Im thankful that at this point in my development I wasnt in a school with students who would have made fun of me. I vividly remember the feeling that the right sound for a word or syllable sounded wrong in my head when I said it. For example, wouldnt it be confusing if I said to you, no, rat isnt how you say rat, its wat. Can you say wat? I wonder if my anxiety over sounding strange held me back from picking up the right sounds in a similar way to the affective filter referenced in Delpits essay No Kinda Sense. Delpit quotes Stephan Kashens description of his concept of affective filter and explains: The filter operates when affective conditions are not optimal, when the student is not motivated, does not identify with the speakers of the second language, or is
Comment [i7]: I found this to be a really good example of personifying exactly what you meant. It clearly explained what it was that you were trying to portray and made it very easy to understand. Comment [JE5]: This pertains more to the evolving of the English language and how it is used rather than your own personal accounts of how things have changed and formed your personal development. Comment [JE6]: Try to refrain from using this such as probably, maybe, I think Comment [JE4]: Try using technologically instead, it would flow better.

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overanxious about his performance, [creating] a mental block [which] will prevent the input from reaching those parts of the brain responsible for language acquisition. In other words, the less stress and the more fun connected to the process, the more easily it is accomplished. (Delpit 113) I think this experience with not being able to talk the correct way gave me some insight into the struggles for acceptance that people who dont speak the accepted dialect of English may have. Luckily, by second or third grade I had all but eliminated any evidence I hadnt been able to use the right sounds with the help of a wonderful speech therapist who was able to help me talk the right way without feeling dumb. I think these struggles to communicate led me to dive into something I was good at, reading. Reading just seemed to fit my curiosity and fulfill my imagination and creativity in a much greater way than writing had or ever could. I excelled far beyond my grade level in reading skills and comprehension. One particular time, I remember shocking my mother with how fast I had finished a book so much so that she didnt believe I had actually read it and she tested me with questions that I easily answered. My affinity for reading and my reading comprehension skill has enabled me to teach myself things I want to learn and not be dependant on someone else to instruct me. Although I did read plenty of books that were assigned for their classic status or their traditional station as books you read in school, I found myself further exploring the world opened up in books with a ravenous curiosity; I basically cant put down an interesting book. Reading was and is my gateway into the world of learning and I wonder how this might have been different if learning to read had felt as forced or tiresome as learning to write felt. I credit my homeschooled education for giving me the freedom to pursue the things I was interested in.
Comment [i10]: This is a really good thought, one of which I think you might want to elaborate a little more on. You could do so by reflecting on how you think your literacy would be different than it is today had that been the case. Comment [JE9]: Maybe write one time in particular instead Comment [JE8]: Wording makes this difficult to read, also the English dialect part is good, but only if it is expanded upon a little bit. Also it as given as a fact, as if youve been through it, elaborate so that it makes sense.

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Another interesting facet of my homeschooled upbringing was the general lack of grades and numerical feedback on my writing and other assignments. In a very similar way to this course, the feedback I received was descriptive and qualitative in everything except, perhaps, mathematics where you are basically right or wrong anyway. I hardly completed any assignments just for the grade, and I learned early on the power and value in true learning. Alfie Kohn writes in his article teachers who can give a child a better reason for studying dont need grades. (Kohn) For the most part, my mother embodied this statement and made learning interesting and challenging without numerical standards. She wasnt interested in my passing or failing but in whether or not I understood the concepts I needed to learn. Within reason, I could take as much or as little time as I needed, so I was never left behind or bored to tears as I might have been in a class full or students of various abilities. Perhaps, the largest strength of this free structured learning system was also its greatest weakness. Since I had some amount of freedom to choose how and what I learned or spent time on, I could avoid practicing subjects, like writing, that I disliked. Interestingly, I did actually enjoy the grammar and mechanics of English and I remember discovering and mastering the principles right alongside my teacher. From gerunds to infinitives and word usage to diagramming, my mother and I discussed and explored the intricacies of the English language through a book called Our Mother Tongue: A Guide to English Grammar. Something about the ordered rules and functions of words in sentences appealed to my analytical engineering nature. I felt like I learned a lot about how to say things the way I wanted and could actually make myself sound like I knew what I was talking about. While I learned from and applied myself to the study of grammar and usage, I avoided larger writing assignments like the plague. In the last few years before I went to a real school, I dont think I had enough writing practice or experience and I
Comment [JE13]: Rather than saying you could sound like you knew what you were talking about try saying and could actually portray the messages in an effective way. Comment [JE12]: This paragraph is good at showing what your personal experiences are and how they are different from others. It is much more impactful and easier to read than the previous paragraphs. Comment [i11]: This statement at the end of this sentence has a lot of power behind it. Perhaps you should signify and further explain what exactly you consider true learning to be. I think it is a great thought that could really add another powerful aspect to your memoir.

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was the only one to blame for it. In the end though, this realization and ownership of my own learning lead me to be a much better student once there were grades involved. Sadly, in the same way we code switch our language to fit the situation were in, I found myself pulled toward switching to a grade-centric focus when I went to my local high school in tenth grade. I stressed over and strived for the best numbers I could produce, with less regard to how much I actually learned. Conversely, this more rigid structure and numerical way to force me to do work actually benefitted my writing at the time. I tackled the larger and more involved written assignments for the sake of scoring well. For a time anyway, the graded structure helped my less disciplined self to work hard, if only for fear of failure. Eventually, I learned the system and became proficient at the game of weighing assignments by their point value and gauging my effort accordingly. Except for having a more rigid structure and less free time in a day, public school actually became easier and I hardly spent time outside of school doing work. It would be really interesting to see how the learning environment in schools would change without a rigid grading structure. It could spell disaster and a large scale shirking of responsibility and hard work in schools, but from my experience on the small scale we should at least consider the possibilities that could open up from a constructive feedback based education system. I think classes that teach writing could especially benefit from this radical style of teaching, since writing has always been a subjective expressive beast rather than a quantitative gradable one. In particular, I remember working most of my first semester in college researching, writing, editing and perfecting a research paper only to receive a 192 out of 200. I guess that must mean I could write, right? While I did learn a lot in that class, Im not convinced I learned as much as I could have, since all a number grade told me was that I was good enough to get through and made no mention of what I could have done to improve. This has continued to be
Comment [JE14]: Hard to see how this contributes to your personal literary development, drifts off of that topic.

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the case in my writing intensive engineering lab courses, which emphasize a completely different form and function than typical prose. Despite having never fully grown out of my childhood disinterest in all things writing, I have at least grown to understand and appreciate the creative process involved in composition. My journey through varying learning environments, graded and ungraded, has taught me a great deal about English and how I learn best. Looking back, I have a much larger appreciation for the work my mother put in to give me a solid foundation to build my education and literacy skills on. Her example has given me an admiration for the role of teachers, so much so I may even try to become one someday. At the very least, I hope to be able to pass on the things I have learned and my experience to benefit my own childrens education and adventures into learning. What does all this have to say about me? Im not sure, but Ill never stop learning or striving to improve myself. At its core then, writing has become a tool for me to expand my understanding and knowledge as well as a way to effectively communicate what I believe and think.
Comment [JE16]: Try and end a little stronger. Comment [JE15]: This is a strong opening sentence to the conclusion.

Comment [JE17]: Try to refrain from using so many personal pronouns throughout the writing (I, me, my) Im not saying not to use them, however they are in almost every sentence of the paper once if not multiple times. Comment [JE18]: The Memoir as a whole seemed to be very wordy and at times drifted off topic. Starting at mid way on the third page the essay works well to the prompt and is easy to read. However before that point, the writing seems a bit choppy and lacks flow between sentences and paragraphs. Try reading the paper aloud to yourself and see if it makes sense, this also works for adding commas and omitting words.

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Works Cited Christiansen, Linda M. "Teaching Standard English: Whose Standard?" English Journal Vol. 79, No. 2 (Feb., 1990): 36-40. JSTOR. Web. 10 Feb. 2013. Delpit, Lisa D., and Joanne Kilgour. Dowdy. The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom. New York: New, 2002. Print. Kohn, Alfie. "From Degrading to De-Grading." AlfieKohn.org. High School Magazine, Mar. 1999. Web. 10 Feb. 2013.