Literacy Narrative

By: Brenna Darnbrough

No wonder students have no desire to read and write…

            It all started back in middle school when book reports and summer readings became a regular task for students, and only got worse when high school came around. I was naturally a slow reader, so I always felt behind in my reading assignments and was frequently worried I would never be able to catch up. It did not help that I had extracurriculars and many other commitments being an involved high school student. Consequently, this lack of time and motivation would often result in me searching an online summary of the book, so I could understand what I needed to know for the quizzes and tests. Doing this obviously meant I was not able to grasp the beauty or depth of a given reading assignment, only uncovering the surface of the material inside that was purely a mystery. Therefore, reading felt like a chore and I did not have any desire to read on my own time since I let my busy schedule get the best of me, ultimately creating a negative mindset in my head about my attitude towards books.

            Despite this poor experience, this most recent Interterm changed my perspective about reading. I enrolled in a class called Health and Spirituality to satisfy and elective for my major. This class did not have tests or quizzes of any form. Instead, different speakers would talk to us about a variety of topics pertaining to both health and spirituality. On the side, we had a few books that we were assigned to read. When the professor first mentioned this, I immediately pictured me having to sit down and forcing myself to read, most likely ending up on Shmoop or Sparknotes. Only pure dread came to mind since I had negative experiences with reading in the past. However, I came to realize that the professor was not going to quiz or test us on any of the material and instead simply asked for a typed journal (with no particular length!) to summarize the book, but more importantly express our thoughts and feelings as we read the pieces. Since I knew I was not going to be graded on my feelings, I decided to actually read the books without worrying about any requirements. It was easier to get myself to actually read the books since Interterm is quite relaxed, given that I did not have an entire schedule of classes all day long. I am glad I gave reading a true chance because I found it was refreshing to read the books and write down my thoughts with no structure whatsoever. I found that I actually had a difficult time setting down the books once I started reading them because instead of focusing on the specific information I may have needed to pass a class, I just read the books with no stress and no presumption in mind. This experience allowed me to then realize that I wanted to make it a point to set aside time for leisure reading even as my schedule got busier because I found it so relaxing. It allowed me to remove myself from my phone and all the distractions in my everyday life, ultimately slowing down and focusing on one thing. Although I may not want to admit I just recently started to enjoy reading and that it took me this long to find that joy in reading, I am grateful that this professor set up her class in a way that let students wind down and find the delight in reading and learning in general.

            As for writing, growing up with teachers handing back papers with excessive red markups truly discouraged me form the start. I felt overwhelmed and believed I was always one step behind everyone else. All the bright red markings on my paper communicated to me that I had too much to work on, so I figured I would never be able to fix all of my mistakes. This made me lack the courage to try harder in order to improve my writing skills. However, thankfully my dad happens to be an insanely smart engineer and technical writer. As I got older, my papers obviously became more important, and I began to run most of my work through my dad as a personal peer editor. I liked the way he broke things down for me. Even though I am sure he would have wanted to point out every mistake, he never failed to provide feedback that was merely the most basic advice and did not try to critique every part of my papers. Gradually, he would critique my work more harshly as I developed my writing skills more. Personally, this helped me because I was not overwhelmed with a bunch of corrections on every portion of the paper that I had no idea what to do with. Instead, I was able to nail the basic components that he advised me to alter. Without even fully realizing it in the moment, this made writing less stressful. Fixing one thing at a time allowed me to excel through many small steps rather than being thrown a bunch of corrections at once and being expected to change my entire way of writing. On top of this, my dad taught me how to have fun with writing. He always encouraged me to be creative even if the paper was on a serious topic. He encouraged me to find joys in writing by making it my own instead of going through a checklist, which was often recommended by most of my teachers growing up. 

            Often quizzes and tests are demanded in order to motivate students to read, but I found that once theses assessments were taken away, I became even more inspired to read. This has a lot to do with the fact that my anxiety significantly reduced, and I developed genuine interest in reading. Similarly, the pressure of grades can make writing feel like a burden on students as I recall always being discouraged by all the mistakes the teacher made known to me. I think my dad’s simplified encouraging methods of critique blurred my negative perception of writing that teachers bestowed on me and allowed me to excel in writing, while also finding some pleasure in writing as well. Creating an environment in which frays from demands and emphasizes the true beauty in reading and writing has the power to stimulate true drive in students to expand their literacy because, although it took me a while, I finally realized reading and writing are not as terrifying as most students think.