Literacy Narrative Draft 1

Shunyou Huang

Do you speak English? was asked to me so many times back in fifth grade, when I first arrived

at Sacramento, traveled thousands of miles from mainland China. I couldnt understand what my

classmates were speaking and they didnt understand me, as if we are from different eras. So my aunts

accompanied me to school for the first two days. To manage for survival, there were a few English words

that I learned here: China, California, Sacramento, Caroline Wenzel, Mrs. Russell (my fifth grade teacher),

excuse me, and a little bit. I was amazed how 26 alphabets can make so many words and this is how I

start my journey of literacy. The transition to United States and experiences of adopting English

Language has significantly impacting my literacy today.

What happened in elementary school didnt stay in elementary school; instead, I brought it

along with me. For my fifth grade year, it went pass like a dream without remembering it. Even Mrs.

Russell commented that I was staring around, but I still wanted to learn something. Because math is my

strongest subject, I was proud to be able to finish my math homework with the help of my aunts: they

were my sponsors of literacy according to Deborah Brandts definition: sponsors seemed a fitting term

for the figures who turned up most typically in peoples memories of literacy learning: older relatives,

teachers, priests, supervisors(3). My aunts translated words to Chinese in exchange for my

understanding of math problems. Examples of words I learned in math problems are: calculate, sum,

mean, median and mode. The transition to sixth grade was interesting. I used too many Is in essays

and in conversations. For instance, I like to eat cheese cake, I am going to school and I have a tree

were the simple sentence structure I used. One hilarious recall was how I was pronouncing girl

incorrectly, like girrrrr, until my friend corrected me to curl my tongue and say girl. I knew I was

taking baby steps in writing with the help of my aunties correcting my grammar. Later in the year, I
achieved a full score in writing prompt about going to Disneyland as a best place for vacation. In the

writing because I inserted many childish fantasy words from Disney stories. However, I still couldnt

catch up to what they were reading in the text book.

In middle school, there were lots of competition and self-motivation that helped me to improve.

There were more students around my age and I have the thought of not being the one with the worst

grade in class. Because of that, I have a boost in reading books, started from childrens books: Cat in the

Hat and Junie B. Jones. As Malcolm X explained, Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the

new world that opened (190), I found a door to a new world. There were new discovery about

imaginary peoples action. The books built up my vocabularies, a lot. That was when I began to have

access of library. Deborah Brandt mentionedliteracy as a resource becomes available to ordinary

people (10) and library is a resource for everyone. Aside from reading, I also listened to conversations

instead of being involved into it. I rarely talked and some of my classmates thought I was muted. This

was because I was trying to listen and pick up some new vocabularies. In eighth grade, history was a

headache to me. I struggled with full text of words but I see an improvement in reading that I started to

understand meanings in textbook. I had more opportunities to read novels like The Hunger Game by

Suzanne Collins.

Moving into high school was a wider community which equaled chance of reading and writing. I

joined the PACE (Program in America California Exploration) program for four years in high school and it

was similar to GATE program in middle school. During freshmen year, we formed book clubs and had

discussions. I received tons of perspective narratives and other formats of writing in geography class and

with the help in Honors English class which trained my grammar skills very well by practicing in class and

homework outside of class. These were work by force. I have contacts with fictions: Fahrenheit 451.

Having to learn five odd vocabularies each week, I learned more typical vocabularies that people dont
use in life. As Malcolm X mentioned, I woke up the next morning, thinking about those words (190)

because I have vocabulary quizzes weekly. I had my first taste of college style writing in my last year of

high school made me improve. The Writing formats were to analyze texts ((isolation, repetition,), big

picture of texts, and find authors purposes etc. Having to read more advanced writing like: The Odyssey,

Macbeth and many other poems was an eye opening experience for me. I had the impression of how

these writings really exist in the world! The skills of dissecting a text had greatly contributed to how I

should understand the authors purpose. I learned statement needs to be supported by evidence for

example, when I have a claim, I need to have evidence and connection to my claim: I always think about

evidence when I write.

Word are important, they can build up a whole story. My transition from Chinese to a bilingual takes

effort and time as shown by my school experiences. Learning about vocabularies offered me a gateway

to reading. It may be hard to learn something new. We all start from toddlers that fell onto ground

many times and stand up to walk again. A quote I come up today is: dont be afraid of falling because it

hurts; embrace it because it teaches you a lesson. A universal truth I learned in senior year is: hard work

always pays off. Learning matters.