Literacy History

 My name is Anna Henriquez. My major is Elementary Education with a minor in history. I am currently a Junior at NJCU. I enjoy gardening in my spare time. I took this class in order to better understand education reforms and understand in depth how politics contribute to education.

My mother didn't speak English and my father was always working. The only person who helped me with my academics was my older brother. My older brother is sixteen years older than me, he was the one who took over and would buy me books in order to practice my reading. One of my earliest memories is holding one of those books that you press on certain buttons for a sound effect. I remember reading that book every night with my brother when he got home from college. It was a memory that I hold very close to my heart. I was always encouraged to read, even if I mispronounced certain words, my brother would always correct me in a gentle way. In school, I was timid and didn't like to participate much in reading in front of the class. I reached a point where I would absolutely dread the time in class that we would read out loud that I would ask to go to the nurse every day. 

I began to feel literate when I reached first grade. I enjoyed reading a lot and would play teacher with my cousins and would read books to them while I would pretend they were my students. I enjoyed writing, even though my spelling was off and I couldn't form comprehensive sentences I enjoyed writing in a diary. I kept a diary every year until I was about ten years old. It was my form of expressing my thoughts and feelings. Something that frustrated me was grammar, when we began to dive into grammar at school I was very confused and struggled with forming sentences and doing essay questions. My role model was always my older brother. Since he was in college when I was in elementary school, I would see him working hard doing his papers late at night and I would sit beside him writing in my diary so I could look like I was working just as hard as him.

I feel passionate about literacy. I believe it is essential in expressing yourself in terms of writing and reading can almost be like an escape to most people. I use literacy daily, I enjoy reading books and since I work at a school I am constantly helping students with their grammar, reading, and writing. My students continue to inspire my literacy development because I try my best every day to educate them in the best way.