Category: Unit 1 (Page 5 of 17)

The saying “It takes a village to raise a child” is something that my family seems to live by. From since I remember, everything in my family has been a group effort. Mainly my aunt taught me how to read since she was home with me, but my mother also taught me. Everyone in my family used to read to me since I was born, my father, grandparents, my aunts and my cousins. My aunt used to read to me and teach me words from a young age, but I learned how to read at about 2 or 3. My aunt was and still is a very active reader. She used to read all the time and she still does. Then I was put into daycare where I further learned how to read by my teacher. I remember having a close bond with my teacher, Ms. Greene and the principal Mrs. Spencer. I truly believe that the bonds I held with these people helped me retain the information I needed to know.

       When I was younger my aunt used to take me to the library every week. I used to read a lot and build my vocabulary. Due to this, I was advanced in my reading classes in elementary school. I remember when we used to get book baggies to borrow books from the school library. I used to be in the library so much that the librarian knew by name and eventually let me assist her in the library at lunch time and when I had a substitute teacher. I used to love reading, I would stay up past my bedtime reading books and get in trouble for that. The only person who used to understand was my aunt, but she still used to make me go to sleep so that I could wake up on time for school in the morning. 

I used to read all the time by myself and with my aunt, so by the time I reached to the first grade my teacher recommended that I take the gifted and talented test. I passed it my first time and went straight through to eighth grade in the gifted and talented program. When taking the state test, I always got higher scores on my English exam and not the math. I always understood English more than math and that resulted in me having a vast vocabulary.

As I got older, I stopped reading in my free time as much as I used to. I only read books and texts that my teachers/school required. I still read now but I cannot remember that last time I picked up an actual book for my own personal benefit in this age of technology. All of my reading has been on a computer, phone or kindle. Now that I work with children, I guess you can say I read books all the time, since I am constantly reading to them and reading their worksheets to help them with their work. Without my family, I would not have made it this far with reading, so I thank them.

Jose Rodriguez

Prof. Sarah Schmerler

ENG 1101 OL40

My Reading Dilemma

Growing up I had different life than most of the kids in the US because I was born and raise in a country that has different points of view for everything, not only from the school system we have but also for the way life is developed in here, that Country is Venezuela, located in South America, consider one of the nicest places in the Caribbean.

Going back into my memory hasn’t been an easy task, I’ve been trying and trying but it seems almost impossible, I which somehow our brain could have an USB port on side that we can access with a memory card I get all that information stored for years and years or like in the movies, that we can put our bodies into a rest mode, eyes close and then all the videos and memories start showing as a movie inside our heads. Finally, I got some flashback memories from my childhood m, I believe it all started when I was 6 years old and that was about the time, I was in 6th Grade, which I actually don’t know what the equivalent would be here in United States because the names here are so different compared to my country, perhaps it is what they call here as Elementary School.

I did all my learning at the same school, from kindergarten all away though High School, I never had to experience what would it be going to a new school, being the new kid, making new friends and knowing new place. The majority of my friends were together with me from beginning to end, some others joined our school at different times and grades, but we were always a nice and close group. Besides that, some of the came even to Dental School with me.

After too much thinking I finally found a memory of one of my favorite professors from 1^st grade, her name was teacher Mirian, she was one of the most difficult and terrify teachers from my school, everyone had something to say about her, she was very strict and correct as a person that all my classmates and I were so scare to even make jokes during class, I recall that like it was yesterday. Luckily, she was very nice with me and she taught so much that I still remember the sound of her voice ringing into my ears. The worst part from the day was getting into that class, every Monday after the first break, me and my friends were always tire and sweaty from playing soccer the entire break time and we need it to be on time for her class, she use to call us one by one to go to the blackboard and read out loud in front of everybody at the time when we all were so scare to make a mistake because we were learning how to read, how to letters together and memorize the sound it makes, it was a very uncomfortable moment for me and all my friends. Every time my name was called, my legs started to shake immediately, I felt like I was about to pee my pants, I was so embarrassed to make a mistake in front of everybody.