Literacy Autobiography

Frog and Toad, Pinky and Rex and Ella Enchanted
These are the only books that I remember reading in elementary school. Frog and Toad started it all. Every trip that my class made to the library in first grade, I would pick up the first Frog and Toad book that I could find and take it home. Every adventure they had, I was right there with them. Then one incredibly sad day, all of the Frog and Toad books were gone. Apparently one class was doing a project that required the teacher to check out EVERY Frog and Toad book in the library, I was devastated. What was I going to read now?? Then my teacher walked me over to a new set of books that also changed my life, Pinky and Rex. From then on, Frog and Toad could stay in that teacher’s classroom for the rest of the year for all I cared! As I was reading these books, new ones would come out and I would have to patiently wait for the next one to make its way into the library. The one that I REALLY wanted to read was Pinky and Rex Get Married. I had to wait almost a month for us to finally get it and I was beyond thrilled when it did. Then in 5th grade, my teacher gave me the first book I remember a teacher actually giving to me as a gift, Ella Enchanted. It grabbed me from the beginning and it is the first time that I remember not being able to put a book down. I read it in one night, and then again, and again, and again, and I actually just read it again about a week ago. These three books/series were the books that allowed me to develop my love for reading.

Battle of the Books vs. Textbooks
In my sixth grade language arts class, we had a class reading list. Students were only required to read 5 books off of the list, however, when the year started I had already read over half of the books in elementary school and over the summer. My teacher suggested that I join the battle of the books team. This gave me a list of books that I had not read yet and I was thrilled! I made the team in sixth grade and while the team did not do very well, I had a so much fun! For seventh and eighth grade I was at a different school then I was in sixth grade. There was a battle of the books team there too, however, my teachers were not very supportive of the team and those that wished to join it. The amount of reading that was required out of the textbooks for all of my classes severely diminished my “fun” reading time and I was not able to read as many of the books and I did not enjoy the team as much as I had in sixth grade because I was not as prepared for it.

Grammar
I might be the worst speller on the planet and I am TERRIBLE at grammar. Every paper that I turned in was more red then black when I got it back from the teacher. Because of this, I really disliked writing. When I was in 7th grade, in my AIG language arts class, we began diagramming sentences and my teacher was horrible. Not only was she a terrible teacher, she was a terrible person. She seemed to find one or two students that she really liked and the others, she wrote off as not being worth her time and sometimes not worthy of being in the AIG program. Sadly, I was one of the ones she wrote off and I was terrified of her class every day. I was not good at grammar or spelling, and that made diagramming sentences next to impossible. From then on, I dreaded every English class I ever took. This made the rest of middle and all of high school somewhat stressful considering I was forced to take an English class every year and write papers for all of my classes. To this day, I remember how much damage this one teacher did to me. I have always found it strange how much I love reading, yet hate writing…