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Tyler McDougald
Professor Raymond
UWRT 1101- Literacy Narrative Essay
10 July 2015
The Journey of Reading and Writing
Literacy is the ability to read and write, many people have different levels of literacy. I
am an African American teen growing up in a world that if you dont know how to read and
write it will be hard for you to get a job. In todays society African Americans have a bad
connotation about them and I wanted to be the one to break that stereotype. In the novel The
Secret Life of Bees Lilly states, Ive just never heard of a Negro lawyer, thats all. Youve got to
hear of these things before you can imagine them. Zach responds Bullshit. You gotta imagine
whats never been (Kidd 121). In this quote Lilly thinks of Zach as a typical African American
that cant do something because of a stereotype or something thats uncommon to society, Zach
responds with you can do whatever you put your mind to even if its something thats
uncommon. My mother never finished college and that inspired me to finish, my mom is my
motivation to finish. I can relate to Zach because I want to break the stereotype of African
Americans not being able to do something because of society. I feel as if everyone has the same
opportunity and I am going to take advantage of my opportunity and graduate college and come
back for my masters. A research study has been conducted that states that African Americans
performance is lower that Caucasians when it comes to literacy.

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Based on the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) African Americans always
scored lower than Caucasians. In 2003 whites scored a 288 (intermediate) in prose literacy and
African Americans scored a 243 (basic) (NAAL). This means that Caucasians have the ability of
reading and understanding moderately dense texts, and blacks have the ability of reading and
understanding information in short, commonplace prose texts. In document literacy and
quantitative literacy Caucasians still scored higher (NAAL). This information is something that I
would like to try to even out. I take reading and writing seriously because of this simple test that
compared and contrast blacks and whites.
I was born into a middle class neighborhood, the daycares surrounding my house had low
performance rates and that was unacceptable to my mother. She told me, Tyler, we lived in a
middle class neighborhood and the preschools around us had low performance, I made sure I put
you in a preschool that had set reading and writing times. I attend a preschool by the name of La
Petite Academy. La Petite Academy was well structured and offered many programs. Ex.
Foreign language, reading with emphasis on phonics, as well as beginners writing. I was there
from the age two until it was time for me to go to kindergarten.
While I was at La Petite Academy the most exciting thing to me was not going to run
around and get sweaty on the playground like any other child, mine was waiting on the Reading
Bus from the downtown library to come, I remember the bus came on every Friday. As soon as
Friday came I would sit at the window and wait on that white school bus with a big kangaroo
holding books painted on the side to come around the corner. As soon as I saw it I would shout
Ms. Johnson! The bus is here! I was the first one in line. On the Reading Bus they brought
different enrichment games for us to play, my favorite one was ABC hopscotch. At the end of

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their visit they allowed us to check out books. This was very influential in helping me learn how
to read and write because they made reading fun and entertaining to children of a young age.
The benefits of teaching a child to read at a young age is that it helps to develop their
brain. The first six years a child learns faster than any other time in life. Even the parents singing
and talking to the new born helps strengthen the active brain cells. Reading to the child also
could help lead to a higher performance academically. As a child continues to read at a young
age they strengthen their self-esteem and independence. Reading early also helps the child
develop social skills and the formation of words (Benefits of Early Reading). I remember my
mom telling me that while she was pregnant with me she would read to me and put headphones
on her belly so I could listen to jazz music. She would also make me read certain age appropriate
books to help me outside of school.
However, reading and writing became a challenge when I started to get involved with
social media and texting. Social media language is totally different from the proper English
language. In middle and high school I found myself typing and speaking how I would as if I was
talking to one of my friends in a paper that I had to turn in. My teachers would return my papers
with comments saying that I was not using correct English, or I had many misspelled words. I
began to short hand everything that I wanted to say. This was a bad habit for me because I didnt
know when to speak in slang and when not to. I was turning in papers with slang words instead
of correct grammar this caused my grades to suffer. When my grades started dropping because of
the many grammatical errors I started to change the way I talked and commented on social media
to my friends. I began to type in complete sentences and every time I would find a mistake in my
paper that involved me talking in slang, I would put my phone down for an hour for each
mistake. This eventually broke my habit because I cant live without my phone. Technology has

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been around for so long I do not know what it feels like to read a newspaper or any hard copy
news.
We received newspapers in my community but you had to pay for them to be delivered to
your house. We did not pay for the newspapers, instead my mom bought me a Leapfrog. I had
the Leapfrog that reads along with you as you touch it with the pen. This helped me because with
the words I struggled with all I had to do was touch it and it told me the word and I practiced
over and over again until I knew what that word said. This started the trend of me becoming a
perfectionist.
When I am writing a paper I will revise more than once finding something to add and
something to take out. My planning process is simple, I will just write down a topic that I want to
talk about in that paragraph and elaborate on it in my paper. I spend the most time editing my
papers because I had strict teachers that expected the best out of me when I typed a paper. Im
glad that I had these individuals in my life that pushed me to be the best that I could be in
everything that I do.
Believe it or not music helped me read and write. My middle school band teacher taught
me how to read music. I practiced reading on the staff and off the staff every day. Reading on
and off the staff consists of reading notes that are on the line in music and music that is off the
line. Once I mastered reading music, she made us practice writing it. Every two weeks we would
have playing test, the playing test consisted of writing music notes, playing music, and staying in
rhythm. In high school things changed, I changed from playing a woodwind instrument to
playing percussion. The notes no longer moved up and down the staff, they stayed on the same
line. This was something new that I had to learn how to read on my own. Finally accomplishing

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this task brought great joy for two reasons. I had learned how to read and write something new
and I had also found my new love, drums. I had a drum set when I was little but I did not take it
as serious as I do now. I currently do not own any drums but any and every time I can get my
hand on a drum I am playing drums. Even though reading and writing music does not require
grammatical ability like reading and writing papers I still found love in it. If I had a choice
between writing a paper and writing music I will choose music.
In relation to Sherman Alexies Superman and Me, I began to teach kids how to read and
write music, I tried to find ways that related to them. Alexie did not know how to write certain
things, In all my years in the reservation school system, I was never taught how to write poetry,
short stories or novels (Alexie). In relation, I did not know how to read percussion music but I
knew how to read woodwind music, so I taught myself the difference between the two this
eventually led to me learning how to write it. What inspired me to teach people how to read and
write music is high school drum line tryouts, I witnessed so many kids get turned down because
they did not know how to read music. They expressed the talents of playing drums they just
didnt know how to read the music. I would help kids during band camp and teach them the
basics of reading music. I received great pleasure from this because I possibly changed people
lives, and I helped people continue to do something that they loved. As soon as I learned how to
read and write music life threw something new at me.
Throughout high school I began to learn a second language. Spanish was something
totally different, something that I had to comprehend in addition to learning how to read and
write it. It was a challenge for me but I managed to take up to four levels of Spanish. Now I
know how to read, write, and speak Spanish. So many things contributed to me learning how to

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read and write. I am happy with the track that I am on with learning how to read and write. I
know that college will be something new for me, and it is just the start of me expanding my
ability of reading and writing.

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Works Cited
"Benefits of Early Reading." - Why Teach Your Child to Read? N.p., n.d. Web. 05 July 2015.
Kidd, Sue Monk. "7." The Secret Life of Bees. New York: Viking, 2002. 121. Print.
U.S. Department of Education. National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) a First Look at the
Literacy of America's Adults in the 21st Century. By Mark A. Kutner, Elizabeth Greenberg, and
Justin Baer. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Education,
Institute of Education Sciences, 2005. Web. 5 July 2015. 1-3
Alexie, Sherman. The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me. McQuade, Donald, Ed.
The Writers Presence: A Pool of Readings, Fifth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins,
2006. 73-76

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Interview with Tamecia Wallace (Mother)

1.! Why did you pick La Petite?
a.! Because of the structure and programs that were offered. EX. Foregin Language,
reading with phonics, as well as beginners writing. Tyler, we lived in a middle
class neighborhood and the preschools around us had low performance, I made
sure I put you in a preschool that had set reading and writing times
2.! Why did you buy me a Leapfrog?
a.! To help out with math, spelling, as well as reading.
3.! What other things did you do to make sure I was literate?
a.! I read to you daily. I also kept plenty of age appropriate books for you to read to
me.