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Brandon Foster

Professor Raymond

UWRT 1104

25 January 2017

Writing Prompt #1

There are a few memories and events that come to mind when thinking about things that

have impacted my literacy narrative. The most vivid memory I have of building my reading

skills is my mom reading books to me, and then eventually the two of us reading books together.

When I was young, my mom would read books to me before I went to sleep. She read Dr. Seuss

books to me, she read Bible stories to me, and she read childrens books like Goodnight Moon

and The Little Engine That Could. As she was reading, she would point out certain words or

phrases in the books and she would teach them to me. My mom would highlight the

pronunciation of some words, as well as the meanings of other words. Eventually after I had

developed some reading skills, my mom and I started to read books together. At first we read the

Magic Tree House series, as well as the A to Z Mysteries series, and some Junie B. Jones books. I

remember reading with her boosted my confidence in my reading ability. Over time, we would

read books with higher reading levels, and that expanded my skill set in reading and

understanding more words and phrases.

When I was in the second grade, there was one activity in school that really led me to

improve my writing ability and my spelling. Every couple of weeks, my teacher would pick a

student in the class, and all the other students would write that person a letter and they would be

put together in a journal. After the journal was complete, it would be given to the student that

was chosen. The letters could contain funny stories, things classmates liked about that person, or
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many other things. I still personally have the journal I received. This activity in school really

challenged me to improve my spelling and writing ability. I did not want all my classmates to see

that I had poor grammar and that I couldnt spell. This prompted me to go to my teacher and ask

how to spell certain words, and how to word certain phrases. I remember that this really

improved my literacy narrative. My writing became more creative because I felt more

comfortable and confident in the things I would write. That one silly activity in grade school was

truly the spark of improving my writing skills, and led to me striving to become a better writer

and composer.

I have two brothers, Josh, and Nicholas. I am the middle child of us three. My dad has

always taken the lead role on helping the three of us with our writing. My dad minored in

English in college, and he loves helping us write and compose. He is the person that has always

helped me with writing my essays in school and on improving my grammar. Writing is

something I find to be difficult, but my dad has definitely helped improve my writing and my

confidence in my ability to write. He taught me the importance of adding lots of detail into

everything I write, which is something that has really helped my literacy narrative. He used to

say the more you can describe about something, the better. I remember my dad being the

person that challenged me to improve my creativity and my grammar skills in my writing and

literacy narrative.

My parents have both had a major impact on my literacy narrative. They have helped to

improve my reading and writing skills, as well as my confidence in my ability to do both. I

remember them both putting forth lots of time and effort to help me.