Literacy is engaging through communication. It’s the written words, it’s visual, it is also captivating through song and play. Everyone learns to be literate in various ways. In general, individuals can acquire knowledge from exposure through their families, schools, and communities.
Everyone should be compelled and want to acquire the skills to read and write. There’s no other way to survive without these proficiencies. To gain great accomplishments in life, reading and writing for me is major. Now the word Autobiography can intimidate some. I interpret the word as impressively narrating my life’s story. Also, it’s reading about someone else’s life’s story to understand their accomplishments.
As a child, my parents encouraged me to speak by the tones of their voices, words and through play. My dad loved to make up stories and recite them to me at bedtime. Most of the time he involved me in helping him complete the story. That’s where the imagination comes in and provides a bridge to writing your own story. Without knowing, this was reinforcing words and their placement along with sentence structure.
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I was introduced to a Television show on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) called Barney and Friends. The show was so magical with its bright lights and colors, that it captured my attention. Barney and Friends was about a huge purple T-Rex dinosaur who helped kids learn their ABC’s and 123’s. Watching this show broadened my vocabulary with their letters and sounds they made. Barney helped me with my speech and my reading and writing skills. Barney had funny happy little songs for the kids to get into and sing about, like the Cleanup song that played when the show was getting ready to come to an end. I loved singing songs that rhymed and dancing as well. As you see, these are things that are everyday experiences. Literacy is everywhere.
However, the song that I enjoyed most as a kid from Barney and Friends was the I Love You song. My mom told me that I loved singing that song all the time around the house when I was younger. Barney’s I Love You song helped me with my repetition of words which improved my articulation as well. That song was very special to me and till this day I love hearing that song when I watch the show with my nieces and nephews. That song while paying attention to the lyrics motivates them to move with dance while picking up their toys. That particular song comforted me and has always put a smile on my face.
Now that I’m getting older, reading and writing are further important. It allows me to be descriptive and choose the words that best suits me. It helps me communicate and represent my story as I am doing now, albeit with new technology that’s modifying the way we communicate. I adore reading and listening to different genres of music as well. All of this helps to broaden my thinking and vocabulary which strengthens one’s knowledge. Let me not forget writing. Reading and writing goes hand in hand. They both allow you to gain knowledge, improve writing skills along with expanding your vocabulary while providing substantial logical reasoning.
While reading one of the three DALN’s narratives I understood each of these stories, I felt a breath of fresh air. I also came to apprehend how different people have contradistinctive views. With some of the DALN narratives I watched and read, I observed how the folks in the videos and in the few of the papers that I read are overcoming how they feel and how they are able to present themselves.
One of the narratives I read about was by a young girl named Kayleigh Flood. Kayleigh wrote an article called, “Why I Write” The article spoke to me with the pouring of her words and the way her thoughts were organized. Kayleigh used music to help her with reading and writing. She expressed that “Writing, reading, and listening to musicals are not only something I love to do for fun, but it has become a coping mechanism” (Why I Write, Kayleigh, Flood). I enjoyed how Kayleigh talked about her strengths and weaknesses while listening to music and reading Harry Potter books by JK Rowling’s which improved her life goals as well.
When I read Kayleigh’s essay, it introduced me back into the world of reading and writing. It brought to my attention that you can listen to music and become one with it when you are expressing yourself in your reading and writing. While attentively listening to music you are accomplishing these two things. First your mind and body become one and secondly your imagination is coming into light as your creativity is shining out bounteous.
In addition to the DALN narrative “Why I Write” by Kayleigh Flood, In addition to that writing I discovered another titled, Online Identity (“A Discussion About Identity and Online Identity Practices”) by Greg Carnazza and interview by Katherine Deluca. It was a video instead of a paper essay like the one I read before. This video discussed online identity and how it differs from your own personal identity offline.
I can relate to what Greg Carnazza was, speaking about. Announcing how your online identity is very different from your offline identity. Take for instance, the way you look, beliefs, hobbies, your race or occupation. Online identity plays a role on how people view what they assume the type of individual you are and your attitude towards other people. It molds that person’s interpersonal judgement. Those identities are used because of the admirers and the feedback that is given. So much time is spent on social media just wanting someone’s approval.
When I was reading the article called, “From Outside, In” by Barbara, Mellix which was about how Mellix spoke on the way she felt differently when speaking in standard English. because of her enunciation, she felt like she was speaking two different languages. Usually someone defines that brand of English as “Good English”. The well-constructed writing, the well-spoken and compelling usage words that allows you to communicate within society.
As Mellix matured, she began to realize that the standard way of speaking English would open up more possibilities for her than speaking in Black English. This is better known as slang or broken English. Broke English is a specific way in which different cultures combine the two different languages when spoken.
When she spoke in that manner, it seemed others could not understand what she was saying. Mellix sensed others looking down upon her. It made her perceive that others considered her less intelligent. When relatives came to visit her and her family, they would speak in standard English and Mellix would feel embarrassed, “We felt foolish, embarrassed, somehow diminished because we were ashamed to be our real selves” (From Outside, In, 259).
Another issue that Mellix wrote about in this article was how her parents never really drilled speaking in standard English towards Mellix and her siblings. Their forms of instructions were less formal, and she said, when her mother’s approach on formal was different and one of the kids said. “I’m gon to wash my feet off,” then she would say, “All what will you walk on if you wash them off” (From Outside, In, 260)? I interpreted that as when kids were around their parents, they felt safe speaking in their normal jargon ‘Black English’ instead of standard English. Also look at the mother’s humorous response.
In conclusion, I find literacy to be critical to the individual and the community’s prosperity and economic growth. Our economy is strengthened when our society has an elevation in literacy. It is developed through your interactions from childhood. I believe it’s a must to acquire or maintain reading comprehension skills and writing skills. It is a vital part of your growth and essential to being successful.
Before one learns to read or write, literacy begins with speaking, drawing, watching, comprehending and listening. Such as when you were a child, having stories read to you, establishing letters, new words and their sounds. Viewing pictures that are associated with words.
Literacy nourishes relationships and interprets sentence structure. I believe everyone should set aside some individual time to read. Get out and go to the library. Pick out a good book or download one on your eBook. There are a lot of fun opportunities for literacy improvement. Create activities, set up a time and play some board games with family and friends like Scrabble, Pictionary and Connect Four. This will foster literacy and language through play and realize how essential communication is. We must continue to be lifelong learners.
So, take advantage of literacy and celebrate it. With two of the DALN narratives that I viewed and mentioned in this literacy autobiography, I felt these narratives have hit hard with me. It helped me realize that individuals go through a metamorphosis of sorts on how they relate, speak and how they represent themselves to society.
