Growing up and learning wasn’t really the easiest for me hence the fact I wasn’t born here. My native language is Bengali, so I had to learn English thoroughly through the ESL program. But the person who helped me focus the most was probably my mother. She disciplined me if I wasn’t on track like any immigrant mother would. But regarding actually reading and writing it was more just any teacher in any school I went to. My parents didn’t really know English to help me learn but they just kept me focused on my education.
Category: Unit 1 (Page 2 of 10)
In my personal narrative I reflected on my past literacy and how I have evolved with my writing. Having different perspectives and influences allowed me to develop techniques and learn who I am as a writer.
Expressions can be represented in many different ways and is an important factor to have in life as it allows others to sympathize and view things from your own perspective. In junior highschool there was and still is one of my most influential writers to push me to my biggest potential, Leslie Riche. She knew how to get her students’ creative juices flowing and did sprint writing exercises where for the first 10 minutes of class we had to write the entire time and not put our pencils down no matter what even if we were writing nonsense. The point of this exercise was to get us out of our comfort zone and let our minds run free. We then would volunteer to share what we wrote and it showed that we all aren’t great writers and it is okay to let your peers read your work. It brings another perspective and context to your words, some of us would write about our pets, families and others about their favorite foods. It didn’t matter what mattered was, how can we all learn from one another and support each other while critiquing what could have been done better. Now going into highschool I entered into my english classes with confidence but also room for growth. Admitting that you have weaknesses in certain styles of writing is admirable and shows you care about your writing and education.
I still feel very conscious of who reads my writing, especially the valuable ones because I dislike making myself vulnerable. A statement an English teacher said which was stated by Maya Angelou that always resided with me was, “you can’t use up creativity, the more you use, the more you have”. It gives purpose to our minds that allows us to keep going without any reasons to stop, writing is never ending and a form of therapy to some. As I continue this journey of writing I try to maintain creativity because having the ability to tell a thrilling, sad, exciting, happy, angry, vengeful, and suspenseful story the list goes on, authors all around the world use writing to tell their stories. Another quote my teacher would say is “a book is a dream you hold in your hand”, meaning every author bleeds their hearts onto those pages for readers to feel how attached they are to their writing. Everyone has different dreams and reading about others gives hope to those who don’t believe they can dream. Writing gives people desire and ambition to be better than they were before, to let their words change themselves through others. I appreciate all the wonderful articles, magazines, books and all other forms of writing because they widen my perception of the world.
My literacy narrative essay focuses on a personal experience that I wrote about and expressed with the help of articles and the internet. I chose this theme since it is something about which I am quite passionate. I genuinely believe that today’s literacy skills are a reflection of the society we live in. I chose to write about my reading and writing experience since it was one that I still remember to this day. When I think of reading and writing I think about the time when I did that essay. I recall the days I spent reading all of the articles and conducting research, and I have no doubt that this experience influenced me.Â
 In my senior year of middle school, class started and I had two periods of english. In the first period, the teacher would explain the topic. And gives us a workout from the book. And second period, there would be a whole class discussion and the students would share their opinions and also write short response essays. This was the usual format for our English class for some days. It was a routine I got used to. But on one particular day, the topic was different. The teacher didn’t go over the book. Instead, she asked us a question, “If you were in a country where there’s war, what would you want to do?” I don’t remember the question clearly but I heard the word “Refugees“.Â
Refugees, which the teacher mentioned were people who had to leave their own country because of war. They had to leave their homes, their jobs, their loved ones, and even their name. They had to start a new life somewhere else. The class discussion went on for a long time. Some students shared their opinions. One student mentioned how the refugees were like strangers in the new country. They didn’t know the language and they had no money to pay for things. They were afraid that the people in the new country would not accept them. Then another student suggested that the refugees and immigrants sound the same . They both mean the same thing. But the teacher clarified that the word “Refugee” means “A person who has to run away or leave their country because of danger or war.” while immigrants are people who come to a country for better or for new things. They are not forced to leave their country. They have a choice.” Before the bell rang, the teacher handed us several articles and instructed us to write an essay about “Refugees,” referencing quotes.
Thank you, and please feel free to comment on anything that comes to mind.
