Abstract- language and literacy narrative

Within my Language and Literacy Narrative I hope to reach students who constantly feel belittled, being told that their writing is not good enough. As someone who grew up speaking two languages I understand that it can be difficult to feel that your writing is great because there will always be someone who tells you otherwise. However, I want my audience to know that as long as you work hard towards a certain goal, regardless of what others say, it will be much easier to improve on your writing. I personally, was able to reach that goal with the help of my high school sophomore English teacher Mr. Denunzio who had provided assignments to target certain objectives.

Growing up Bilingual

As a child, you are considered talented if you can speak more than one language, however as you grow older people criticize you if you cannot speak the language in the correct dialect. Growing up, I learned English and Spanish at the same time. Although I consider English to be my dominant language, I am also fluent in Spanish. My mother understood and spoke English well but she was not fluent. I watched several TV shows as a child to learn English as much as I could. I would also spend much time with my older sister and cousins who were much older than I was and I believe they had some influence over how I learned to speak English. However, for the most part I had to learn on my own. When I first started kindergarten I was told that I needed to do additional reading at home as the other students were ahead of me. In essence, I had to endeavor in order to get to where I am today.

I remember my elementary/middle school were in two different buildings and one of the buildings was kindergarten to fourth grade. My fourth grade teacher, in particular used to yell at my class because we were the eldest grade within the building. She had expected us at nine and ten year olds to act mature and respond to questions as people who were lets say in the 8th grade would. During the state exam, I had dropped my pencil and picked it up, she had said that I was cheating and sent me to summer school. However, the instructor for summer school had me teach most of the lessons as she did paper work. This had to be one of the moments I had realized that I would always be looked at as a minority. I had realized that my teacher had treated all of the other students of her skin tone equal to her, treating them with kindness. Whereas, she treated other hispanic students including myself as if we were any different from the other students. I felt I was treated differently in particular because everything that I did just didn’t seem to be enough.

In addition, I always knew I did not have the same opportunities as other students did, as those who had tutors to help me out when I received poor grades. I did not always do well in school, it felt as if everyone else was more intelligent than I was. As I was transitioning from middle school to high school, my grades increased drastically. I became a straight A student, but my English still was not viewed as enough by teachers. I never did particularly well on state exams when it came to English. I had to learn new diction as well as how to analyze texts. During my freshman year in high school I was told that my writing was impressive for someone in my grade level and it got me into honors English my sophomore year. I never realized that my writing was impressive to people as I was always told that I wasn’t as advanced as other students by teachers. I believe it was the fact that I had supportive teachers throughout high school who helped me learn from my mistakes. I have always doubted my writing, but as I have spent more time working on improving, I was also working on my confidence. All of my life I had to revise my own essays and attempt to figure out where improvement was needed, however for the first time I had a teacher who helped me realize what are some of the best ways to improve my writing. I remember there were other students within that class who had advanced writing skills, but I was happy that I was improving on mine.

My sophomore English teacher, Mr. Denunzio, always took time to give us feedback on our work as well as offer us his time to stay after class so he could go into depth on what he meant with his comments as well as provide us with examples. He helped me improve my writing in so many ways, including how to analyze texts and weave in quotes when writing an essay. When I first started writing essays I never knew how to start them off or how to utilize quotes in order to get my point across. Before high school I was told that my essays never made any sense and that the content within them were all over the place. I already knew my writing wasn’t as advanced or developed as other students and being told this didn’t help me feel any better. In addition, my teachers didn’t seem surprised when I handed in poorly written essays. Although they always complimented my math skills, there was always something wrong with my writing. It had nothing to do with the fact that I couldn’t speak English, but that I had difficulty expressing what I wanted to say on paper, it would never come out the way I would want it to. Consequently, in Mr. Denunzio’s class I learned how to look at the bigger picture, how there is always something to learn within someone’s literary work. We read many books and short stories revolving around minorities, it may not have been in terms of language but it was something that I could relate to. It’s lessons like those that I continue to use to this day when writing any form of essay. He assigned classwork and homework, where we would have to choose quotes from the texts read in class that we believed were meaningful in determining the purpose of the text. When choosing these passages I would have to keep in mind how I could further analyze them as well as how I could incorporate the concepts discussed in class. Mr. Denunzio was different from my previous teachers who made me feel insecure about my writing because unlike other teachers, instead of just providing me with constructive criticism he would also provide positive feedback. In addition, Mr. Denunzio had provided me with examples on how to improve my writing. He understood that we were still beginning to write analytical essays and had exemplified what had to be done on assignments before they were due. Papers that I write typically revolve around society and how certain groups are viewed and expected to act. When I do not know how to start off a paper, I look back for examples and also utilize the content I am currently learning. Mr. Denunzio had taught my class that when writing analytical essays as well as research papers it would be easier to revolve your analysis around society and how they view the world. He had said this because when writing about society there are so many concepts you could talk endlessly about.

I believed I would always be seen as a minority in several different ways including the fact that I’m latina and a female. It does make it harder to strive towards a career path I wouldn’t normally be seen in, but it does motivate me to work harder. I have to prove to not only myself but others that I can succeed regardless of my race, gender or the fact that I have difficulty writing papers. Although there may be people, who attempt to belittle your actions and decisions because of your background, it is important to only push yourself and prove them wrong that you were made for the job. We live in the twenty-first century, however there are still people that limit us to a stigma. For instance, Asians are limited to math and science majors and “we think it is normal for black student to have spelling errors, we think it is normal when a female or minority student does not succeed” (Safwat Saleem). In essence, if you are considered a minority in society’s eyes, it is considered normal if you do not succeed because you’re not supposed to. We are all placed in a bubble created by society, where we are limited to certain activities and careers within that bubble. I think as someone who is considered a minority in more ways than one, it is important to “pop” that bubble and find the best path towards my success. I put so much work on my plate because I know success won’t come easily and because I want to not only make myself but those who have helped me along the way proud.

Cover Letter

Throughout phase 1 I have gained several meaningful insights from disparate sources. We have read different essays from disparate authors about their journey with the English language and how they have experienced hardships when speaking the language. They are all considered minorities in their own ways and I believe that their writings were personally meaningful to me in their own ways as I understand where they are coming from. Although I have not had issues with my dialect, I have known people my entire life who have and it is difficult having to see people deal with the same hardships that Amy Tan, Geneva Smitherman or even Rosina Lippi-Green had experienced. Furthermore, this phase has also helped me look back on how much my writing skills have improved, how hard I had to work to get to where I am. My learning and writing experiences have mainly been impacted by concepts such as exigence, purpose and evidence. For example, exigence has played a huge role in my learning experience as I needed to improve on my writing and reading skills as a child. I had to endeavor more than other students as I did not have the same opportunities. In addition, my writing had also improved when I learned to analyze texts better which in essence is determining what was the author’s purpose for creating their work, who it was intended for and more. I would also have to find supporting evidence for my claim for any piece of work I would be writing. This phase’s assignment has helped me achieve some of the Course Learning Goals listed in the syllabus including gathering, interpreting/assessing, and critically evaluating information and arguments from a variety of sources. I believe I was able to demonstrate my capabilities on analyzing a text as well as being able to work on it in class discussions. I was also able to recognize the role of language attitudes and standards in empowering, oppressing, and hierarchizing languages and their users, and be open to communicating across different languages and cultures. Throughout each text we have read in class and at home, I have been able to further comprehend that in today’s society it is not only important to communicate across disparate languages and cultures but to be open to it as well. In addition, it is those people who are able to communicate across languages that are criticized the most because of their race, class and perhaps even gender. Furthermore, I was able to recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaging in writing situations. When in class, we have practiced identifying the disparate rhetorical strategies authors have utilized in order to fulfill their purpose.