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AJ Stein

Professor Pinkerton

English 1510

1 February 2019

The Long Journey to Literacy

My journey to literacy took a lot longer than the average child. I was unable to fully

comprehend what I was reading and struggled with writing. At an early age I was giving an IEP

for reading and writing because of this I had to work extraordinarily hard to achieve success in

what other people seemed to achieve easily. I was always behind in my reading “skills” and self-

conscious of my abilities to read

My first memorizes of reading and writing were in the first grade. The teacher read a

short story called Biscuit, I immediately loved the story and tried to read all the other books.

Soon to my dismay I started to hate reading because I could not understand what is happening.

I would read the same couple pages over and over and still not be able to say the main events

of what I had read. This made me get frustrated that other students could read and write with

ease and I was the only one struggling. I began to fall behind in school and my grades were poor

so tested me for a learning disability. This had various negative affects with only a few positive

ones.
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From the first grade on I got into different classes with some of the other kids that had

English learning disabilities. This meant that they had to pull me out of the “regular” classes

other kids were in. I would end up not having a math or science because of this and it would

continue to spiral down. This made me fall behind in other departments as well, but it

increased my learning of reading and writing. They would work on my comprehension every

day of school my having me read a paragraph and then repeat what I read.

Ms. Mckinly was the elementary school teachers for fourth and fifth grade. She would

help me with English classes that I had with other people that had learning disabilities. She

would always do anything that could have possibly helped me achieve success within the

classroom. Wither it be a see-through reading screen that would be colored to attract my eyes

or have bigger font.

After being able to comprehend what I have read it became an issue of not being able to

read long without my eyes straining themselves. I still remember how difficult it was to read

more than a couple chapters of a book without my eyes starting to wonder off. I went to an eye

doctor where I was told I needed glasses. Along with the glasses I was told I needed eye therapy

which also worked on my reading comprehension.

It was not until middle school that I would begin to start to be able to read a couple

chapters and relate what happened to someone else. I would still struggle with reading
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longevity and so when I got my first book that was required to be read in school it would take

me hours to read a couple chapters. This lead to poor grades and many hours spent on simple

tasks. I began to give up on school because of the struggle in every class from a simple thing of

just reading.

After the first year of middle school or sixth grade I transferred into a private school. My

parents thought this would help me learn at a more individual pace and that it will catch me up

in my academics. Testing into a private school was almost impossible because of the entrance

exams but I would finally pace one after 3 attempts. The private school’s curriculum was very

useful for me. The English classes would focus on your vocabulary with weekly quizzes on about

fifteen words. I began to understand more and more of everything I have read and be able to

read tens or more chapters and a sitting.

The school required many summer reading books, each book was at least one thousand

pages. To my middle school self this sounded like the worst form of punishment. My grandma

who is a big influence in my life would also read with me and help me organize what I have

read. I remember she gave me a trick that I would carry onto today. That is write sticky notes in

books of what the chapter was mainly about.

The first few weeks of high school were a very memorable one. I began to fail horribly in

English which is right on track with my past experiences and I was brought to be tested again
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for an IEP and learning disability. I tested positive once again and ended up with more of the

other people that also tested positive.

This year the curriculum had all freshmen English classes read many books and plays.

Has the year went on I began to understand reading and tricks to being a fluent reader without

and problems for the first time. This was a thrilling experience to be able to finally read and not

have any difficulties.

The very next year I ended up moving states and that obviously means I changed

schools, so I got IEP and a learning disability test once again. Although this time around I did not

receive a low score. It was quite the opposite my reading levels were very high almost a perfect

score on the test. The school recommended me for advanced tier classes of AP or honors roll.

This to me was never something that would never have even crossed my mind to have happen.

It was a very long process that took years of hard work and required lots of help from

teachers to doctors and everything in between. Reading for all of my life has been a chore that I

never found any pleasure in. This continues onto today I still find no pleasure in reading and it is

something I cannot even fathom doing in my off time. To me reading novels or books is

something that only school would require. It is very likely I have yet to find the right book for

me to get inspired to read but it is also just as possible that I am not that type of person.
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