Category: Unit 1 (Page 16 of 30)

MY FIRST WORDS

Being born in an educated family, the first thought that clicked my parents when they saw me on ultrasound was to get me a degree. So the struggle began there and then. Before I came to the world, it was decided which school and university I’ll go to and eventually it happened the same as they thought. Many of us who are born in Asian families can relate to it somewhat directly or indirectly. My grandfather was a teacher so I believe it started back then and this trend made a way down in generations to come.

Now coming back to my first words, I started school when I was 3 years old. But even before that we had a bookish environment around us. I was familiar with books and alphabets to some extend. I knew how to hold a pencil. So starting school was exploring a new horizon of learning for me. I still have a blur image of the worksheet I was provided at the admission test. I was supposed to color the objects on the paper and I knew that sun goes yellow and the leaves go green. Most probably I had observed those colors and objects around me. I still remember this and observed the same behavior in my kids. Most of our learning take place while we observe the things around us and this is very first learning starts.

For me learning to read and write was never just copying the worksheets or staring at blackboard, it was actually reading, listening, writing or most probably just exploring my hand gestures while learning to hold a pencil. I used to read whatever I found, it could be a random piece of newspaper or a billboard. Mostly in our household, a lot of emphasis was laid on learning English. So my parents were really focused on polishing our written and spoken English skills. I remember my mom discussing with my teacher on tips to polish my English and all she advised was to just make me read and make us speak in English. It did improved our spoken and written skills.

We had a library session every other day in school and that was my favorite part of the day. We used to listen while our teacher read us a book or we were made watch an english movie once a week. I believe listening at that age also help us learn a language, at least it did for me. I still remember the way our teacher read us the book accompanied by her hand gestures and body language always left an impact on my mind. I would later on pick up pieces of those stories I listened in the library and put them in my writings. From the very start in our school we were supposed to write independently and then correct any mistake we make on our own. All I remember in my early grades was writing and reading.

While writing this assignment an incident made me smile, I was in 2nd grade and we were writing something. I used the word ‘meadow’ instead field while writing a passage. My teacher was so overwhelmed that she rushed to the library teacher and showed my work. She appreciated that single word so much and told me to never stop reading because it is somewhere is those readings or listening where we start learning our first words.

How I learned how to read and write takes me back to elementary school where I first learned how to read. Which was reciting/memorizing my alphabets and putting those letters together to hear how it sounded. Learning how to write was about the same because to learn how to write it starts with learning your alphabets and knowing how to sound them out from capital to lowercase then putting it together to make a word. It of course wasn’t easy for me at first because English isn’t my first language and in my household my parents would always speak French and made sure I also learned French and remembered so English was definitely confusing to me when I got to school and a little harder for me to learn compare to other students who were only Focused on learning English. I remember when my elementary school teacher Ms. Gomez went from teaching me my alphabets to teaching me how to write my first, last name and age until I became a pro eventually it was the start of writing for me.

Seventh grade was the first time I realized I’m more of a Visual learner due to the state exams I was taking and more because I honestly don’t like to read nor a good listener. That’s when I realized Visual learning suits me more plus I enjoy organizing information and communicating with people. I believe everyone has their own way of processing information.  And the specific way of reading and writing. It’s just that mine is visual learning. Others may be kinaesthetic learners, people who prefer to be hands on, or Auditory learners people who enjoy hearing information and or reading/writing learners those who prefer text. The kind of education I have had until now is formal education because since elementary school I’ve been going to school full time until I’ve earned my high school diploma and I’ve never been home school. That being said my teachers had the most impact on me although my biggest supporters were my parents. 

Each and everyone of my teachers taught me a skill that I still use today I first remember in elementary and middle school my reading teacher would always teach me (WWWWH) when reading She would tell me to look for WHO(person), WHERE(place),WHY(reason), WHEN (time of the event), and finally HOW (method) this technique is one of the techniques I remember. Even understanding the title of the article is a technique because it gave me an idea of what the article will be about. Another technique is annotationing which I still use today every time I read a paper. Another technique is reading the question before answering the text because it gives you an idea of what to look for in the reading. All of these techniques helped me become Who I am today and helped me become a better learner/student which I am grateful for. I’m definitely not saying my reading and writing skills are the best today due to english not being my first language and all but I can definitely use new techniques to better my reading and writing.