Literacy Autobiography Assignment

My earliest memories of being read to where snuggled up in bed with one of my parents reading to me just before they tucked me in the for the night. If they skipped pages or even sentences, I would immediately point it out and make them go back and read every part so I could savor it! That is my first lesson that I have an auditory learning style. I would also insist on expression and animation in reading. I still remember my favorites – Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go, Little House on the Praire, and later when I could read myself, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

Although I loved to listen to books, I don’t remember being completely hooked on reading until my parents confiscated our TV from the garage due to excessive watching. I now had hours of the day to fill and I quickly turned to books. Reading was primarily my loner activity, but I do recall lolling around my friend’s living room, reading aloud to each other between gales of laughter from Shel Silverstein’s book of poems. Later, in middle school, we might share a title of book that we really loved.

In second grade, I learned that I could read aloud from our textbooks and sound like a really great reader. The meaning of what I read, however, was completely lost. I was so focused on saying the words correctly and loudly, that my brain did not engage on any of the meaning. This pattern grew, unfortunately, and made learning in other subject areas very difficult. I relied heavily on my auditory learning – picking up on conversations and lectures. In middle school, I came across The Diary of Ann Frank and was mesmerized. It was the first time I learned of the Holocaust and I was both horrified and intriqued. It was a book I did understand because something hooked me. I reflect on this phenomenon now as an adult. I needed to be engaged before the comprehension component of reading clicked; otherwise, I was just going through the motions of reading words through my mind- retaining and understanding nothing.

After reading Ann Frank, I sought out every historical fiction about the Holocaust and WWII that I could find. I read about the events in encyclopedias and asked my parents about it. Part of me felt horribly wrong to even read of such horridness, but I was fascinated nonetheless. In the process, I realized that I loved to read a good, gripping story. Gradually, I branched out to other topics and found that I could disappear into a good book. In high school, I had far less leisure time to read and didn’t much. College was the same. But my old habit of reading and not engaging with the content persisted. I had to learn to outline chapters and create mnemonics to learn information from textbooks. If I simply opened up to read, my mind would wander. However, if I could just pick up a great novel and get through the first chapter, I was in another world until I finally finished it! During college, I read Gone With the Wind on my own. A class on the novel and it’s historical and social contexts was going on at my school. Several friends were lucky enough to be taking it. I decided I’d read it on my own. I became so involved in that book that I was constantly thinking of Scarlett throughout the day, trying to see things from her perspective. I could hardly wait to get back to reading each evening. I’m sure I let a lot of assignments slide during that time so that I could read every chance I had.

If I had any creative writing assignments in grade school or middle school, I certainly don’t remember them. My first memory of writing and enjoying it was in high school. I attended a Catholic school and was taking a marriage class. We were to describe our ideal spouse. Somehow I took that assignment and wrote it as a want ad for the newspapers. I had so much fun with it and got so involved in imagining my perfect spouse, that my teacher read it aloud to the class. I was quite proud of it and I could tell she was too. Turns out I kept that paper and when I married my husband, my maid of honor found that paper and read it aloud at our wedding reception. And it described my husband to a tee!

One summer of college I took a creative writing class. Classes met at our professor’s home in Omaha, NE. I enjoyed this class immensely and was challenged to write some of my favorite writings to date. One piece was to write about our hero. I wrote about Betty MacDonald, author of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, stating that she taught me how to be a kid and how be with kids. At the time, I had no intention whatsoever of becoming a teacher! I kept those papers and may even have them somewhere. I used to pull them out and read them to whoever was around late at night and bored.

Being able to recognize a reader who can’t comprehend because he isn’t engaged has been a valuable tool in my teaching. I have seen myself in some of my students and try hard to find that one book that might just hook them. Nothing is as rewarding as seeing a child so absorbed in a story that he is oblivious to anything around him. I treasure that experience even today. To loose myself in a book temporarily is one of the greatest vacations!