Dakota Miller
01/12/2016
Eng. 111
Literacy Narrative
I began reading at an early age. My mother would read for
me from time to time if I asked her too, but more often than; she
taught me the alphabet as well as how to read. The majority of the
books we had were from the Berenstain Bears series. She was
successful in teaching me and before I started kindergarten I read
my first book, If The Dinosaurs Came Back, to anybody who would
listen. From then on I was always reading. It go to the point that I
asked for a headlamp so I could read in the car. The Boxcar
Children, Hank The Cowdog, and just about everything written by
Louis Lamour. As I got older I began to read more non-fiction
books. Especially if it was history, and even more so if it was about
war. I also began reading magazine articles and books about fitness,
rifles, and raising cattle. It didn’t take me long to realize that I could
obtain a lot of information simply by reading.
All throughout school I read books that were not required,
but related to topics we were talking about in all of my classes. This
helped me a great deal in understanding what the teacher was
talking about on a higher level. Because of this I was able to write
better reports, and better answers to essay questions. Reading also
improved my ability to spell and form paragraphs in research
papers. It was also very helpful in my text comprehension to the
point that I could answer questions that had a reading selection,
simply by reading the sentences that applied and not the whole
thing. I am thankful for this skill because I can’t remember any of
the skills I was taught in class throughout the years, or even if we
were taught any specific ones. My favorite thing about reading
however, is that it allows me to talk to many people about many
different topics. Talking to them; I learn new things and make new
friends. All because I read something interesting.
I believe that reading will still play a large roll in my journey
through higher education. In fact, it will probably help me more than
it had in high school. As they say, knowledge is power, and I believe
that the more you know the better off you are. The best way for me
to learn and succeed is to read. However; in order to succeed in
college I needed to learn many new, and better literacy skills.
College composition class was very effective in teaching me these
things.
The past semester has improved my reading and literacy skills more than I could have
imagined. I also dusted off and refined a few that I had not used in quites some time. My
Favorite of the skills I have learned is the SQ4R method of taking notes. Before; I would
read the entire selection and then write down what I remembered. Now I write down what
I don't understand and paraphrase each section as I go. This saves me time because I do
not have to re-read any part of the selection and the notes are already finished. From these
notes a complete paragraph or paper can be written. Cornell notes work nicely with this
method because it allows you to ask questions, answer them, and paraphrase all the
information you have gathered all on one page. What I learned that benefited me the most
was time managment. Although I am still working on mastering this skill it has helped me
a great deal. My biggest problem with doing schoolwork was that I would try to do other
things at the same time. Watching television and playing with my dog being the most
common. We learned that humans do not truly have the ability to multi-task, and in order
to be more productive we must try to focus on one thing at a time. I have found this to be
true for myself and it is a skill that I truly hope to refine over the years. I trust that what
I've learned in this class will continue to aid me in my college journey. I am thankful for
the knowledge I've obtained, and hope that my future classes teach me as much.