Multimodal Literacy Autobiography

Earliest Memories

Some of my earliest reading memories at school were when we would do Bag A Book. Looking back, this was a good way to get the families involved in the reading practices of the student and a good way to see their child's literacy progress. I remember always being excited to show my parents the new book that I was bringing home and being excited to read it to them.

Earliest

Memories

Some of my earliest memories of reading are with my older sister, parents, and Grandparents. Since my sister is two years older, she always loved to practice reading to me as she was learning. I remember having a large abundance of books in our house at all times and spending a lot of time reading them. Reading was definitely a core part of my development and something that was always fun to do.

Being Read to as a Child

Reading as a Child

I clearly remember being read to as a child often. Since my sister was older, she loved reading to me whenever she could. I also remember my parents reading to me often at various points throughout the day. Television wasn't a large part of my life growing up, so we spent a lot of time reading together. As I grew up, my mom and I would often read chapter books together. She played a huge role in me learning to read.

Pretending To Read Books

Pretending to Read

I definitely did pretend to read books before I was able to read. I think this was mainly because everyone in my life around me could read and would do it often. I feel like I always desired to read before I could since it was a huge part of my life. I remember pretending to read the book "Toad on the Road," since it was a simple book with good pictures. I had also partially memorized the book, since we read it so much, so it was easy to pretend to read it.

The books that I would pretend to read would always have good pictures that tied along well to the story.

Literacy Habits Over Time

Literacy

Habits

My literacy habits have definitely changed much over time. Reading was a huge part of my life growing up and something that I did often. I started to fall out of the habit of reading throughout middle/high school when it became more of a chore. I feel like this was also because we were told what to read and rarely given a choice. Ever since I have had more "free time" in college, I have started reading for fun again and it is something that I do often and encorporate into my daily schedule. Now, once I am able to get into a good book, I often choose it over my phone as I am winding down for the evening.

Required Reading for School

I was required to read certain texts for school and it diminished my desire to read for fun. I never really enjoyed the books that we had to read. I remember having to read Shakespeare, books about mythology, history books, and other various types. It was always hard to get into a book and enjoy it when teachers were making you read it and pay attention to every little detail. Having to do this in school really took the love of reading away from me.

Required

Reading

What I am Reading Now

I am currently reading two books; one for a class and one for fun. Thankfully, the one I have to read for my psychology class I enjoy. It is called "The Body Keeps The Score" by Bessel Van Der Kolk and it is about the impact that trauma has on the body. It is so far very interesting.

The other book I am reading is "Reminders of Him" by Colleen Hoover. It is a very fun and cheesy romance novel that I can relax and read since I do not have to pay attention to specific details.

Current

Reads

Reflection

Looking back on my literacy memories, I can see how important the family is in developing literacy practices in students. Yes, I know I mostly learned to read from my teachers, but the memories I most remember were from my family. This motivates me, as a future teacher, to try and get the families involved as much as possible in the child's literacy journey.

I also remember how I wanted to learn to read mostly because I was taught and shown that reading was fun. I want to develop the love for reading in my future students. I want them to see a purpose in reading and to see that reading is fun!

Reflection