How My Literacy Began

I remember being five years old, looking at the pictures of the first book my sister had read, the
children's adaptation of Swan Lake. I thought all the pictures were so pretty but did not know what they meant. I did not learn to read as quick as she did, I actually did not learn to read until fifth grade.

I was put into special needs because I was illiterate and I remember how much I hated it. I moved to three different towns and went to three different schools when I was little, all of them put me into special needs classes for reading and writing the first month into school. I don't remember them helping much, I just remember not going to art or music because of it so I hated special needs classes.

My grandmother was more help than school. She would keep me up in the living room teaching me proper grammar and spelling, making me read aloud. It was so hard for me and I would cry a lot but my grandmother kept trying to make me read.

It was not until fifth grade did I start to really understand words on paper. My special class was not like the other ones, it was smaller and had people who were like me, could understand the concept of reading just not do it. The teacher was nice and would let me pick what I wanted to do, I would choose story writing. She gave me a notebook and would give me ten words that I would need to put into the story. I loved writing stories.

I took a test that year, a placement test. I did not take it with the other students, I took it privately in a small room with a teachers aid reading it aloud to me. Before school ended my teacher told me I would not need to take special needs classes anymore because of how well I did on the placement test. I was nervous about what would happen next year.

I ended up nearly failing every class in sixth grade and being put into a "help" class. I don't remember much of seventh grade, mainly because I didn't go to school, I ended up going to another school that was kinda like a daycare center. I only went to that school for about half a year, then I moved to New Paltz and decided to try my best to pass everything I could and not end up in another special class again.

I read a lot in eighth grade. After I had learned how to read from fifth to seventh grade I could not stop reading from eighth grade to today. I love to read now, as well as write and I guess I was so good at it I was able to take AP Literature. From that point on, I don't know yet.