The literary life of Kyle Visser

Literacy and language arts are important in every culture, to be able to communicate
effectively and to understand what someone is communicating to us. Language arts and English
class have always been my least favourite subject, but looking back on my literary life story I can
see the importance of each and every thing we learned, and how it made me become the literate
person I am today. Whether that be what I did when I was a child, a student in school, or what I
do now. Each part of my life helped me to develop, and apply the six language arts. These
language arts are listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and visually representing.
Literacy is found everywhere, and in every stream, therefore looking back on my past, each and
every activity that was done was to help me develop my language arts skills, and to become a
more literate person. Whether that be solving word problems in math, to reading a book for
school or in my free time. In this life story I will look at how I began my literary life, then move
on to how I developed my language art skills in school (elementary, junior high, and high
school), and then finally to the person that I am today, and how the language arts are going to
influence me as a future teacher. I will do this by looking at a couple memories from each part of
my life.
I began my literary life at the small age of 1 or 2 years old, this is when I began to
develop my communication skills. What I mean here is that I began to talk as a child, I began to
communicate what I wanted, and what I needed. This is important because before you can
communicate via reading and writing, you need to communicate verbally. At an early age my
parents encouraged me to practise the alphabet, and the sounds that each letter made. By the time
I made it to preschool and kindergarten, I already knew most of the alphabet and the sounds of

each letter. Books were always found around my house, my mom is an avid reader. She would
always read to me, to help me learn words, as well as the pronunciation of the words. Having
them read to me, encourage me to learn what the words looked like written out, helping me
develop my reading language art. My parents also bought me a reader rabbit to help teach me to
read better. Another thing that my parents did to help me develop my literacy skills before school
was put me through preschool. I began this around the age of 4 and finished it when I started to
go to kindergarten. Here I learned to write out letters as well as I began to read certain words on
my own. Preschool helped with many of the types of language arts whether we were doing art, or
if we were practicing English. These few things were the first memories of me learning literacy
and developing some of the language arts.
Now on to kindergarten and elementary school (grades 1 to 6). In the early elementary
years I began to finalize the alphabet and how to write each letter out, as well as learn the key
words in English. These words made up, and are needed in basic sentences. Once these words
were learned I began to become confident in my reading. I didnt have to rely on the reader
rabbit anymore, and was able to read on my own. I remember the one time that I had received a
large story book from my teacher with many mini stories in it. That next day, I went home and
read the whole book. I remember beginning to write my own simple sentences, becoming more
proficient in my writing as I grew older. Looking into the late elementary grades my motivation
for reading began to decrease, I began to lose interest in books, and reading. However my
language arts skills still developed as I attended school. We began to read more often in class,
and even began to do book talks/reports, as well as studying an assortment literature. The types
of literature studied were poetry, fictional, and non-fictional. I clearly remember always studying
a book each year as a class. Some of the books studied include The Giver, Island of the Blue
Dolphins, and Underground Railroad to Canada. These books were used for specific reasons
and they were studied to help each student to develop and improve their language arts skills.
They were used to see if we comprehended the level of reading for that grade or if we were
needing some help. Looking at writing in late elementary school, I clearly remember the time
when we learned about how to summarize a sentence in three words. Then taking those words
and writing a sentence in our own words. This helped with sentence writing because we had the
idea of the sentence we just needed to change it to be in our own words

Moving on to junior high (grade 6-9), I remember continuing to have book reports, and
book talks in my classes. I remember always hating to do these in class, because during this part
of my life, I never enjoyed reading and I resented every moment that I had to read. However
looking back on it now, these assignments were used to help develop the skills that I needed for
the language arts skills that I have today. We also continued to have books that we studied as a
class such as to kill a mocking bird. We also began to study Shakespeare, this was the first time
that I had been introduced to Shakespeare. I remember struggling with this part of English class
each year in junior high, and into high school. The reason for this was because of the way it was
written, as well as the old English that is used. When I was younger I had always said that it was
like learning a new language. Another thing that began in late elementary, and all of junior high
was writing stories and essays. Stories we always a struggle for me to write, my grammar skills
while in school, were very low. Essays on the other hand, were my favourite thing to do in
English class, I loved being able to research a topic, pick a side to an issue, and back it up with
reasoning that I found in the research that was done. I loved learning about issues in the past,
present, and future, taking a side, and backing up my answer with reasons why. Looking back on
my junior high years, I remember that English was my least favourite class to go to everyday,
however looking back I do see the importance of each and every activity.
Moving on to high school, this was a big change for me, as it is for many kids. I changed
schools to a smaller school in Lacombe, Alberta, where the teachers had more time to focus on
individual students, and to help them where ever they were on their literary walk in life. I
remember my teacher being so encouraging even if some of my language art skills were not at
the standard that was expected for me when I entered grade 10. Looking at some of my specific
memories of high school, I remember having the choice as a class on which book we were going
to study. This helped me a lot because we usually picked the one that was the most interesting.
This motivated me to read, and me becoming more engaged in class. Unlike in junior high,
where we were forced to read the books that were set out for us. We also began to go more in
depth into Shakespeare, this was probably the unit that I struggled with the most, just because of
the fact that the English used was so hard to read, and understand. Another thing that was
exciting for me when I was in high school is we moved away from the idea of creative story
writing and more into the idea of perfecting our essay writing. I remember being so excited for
this because I didnt have to struggle with writing, I got to write in a way that I enjoyed.

Something that I didnt enjoy so much was the amount of emphasis put on poetry. I remember
having months, and months of work where we would either study or practise writing poetry. Like
I stated before, I was not one for creative writing, therefore I did not enjoy writing, and analyzing
poetry. Looking at all that happened in high school, I feel like my language arts skills developed
the most in these years. This is when I felt like I was the most engaged in class, and I was
learning because of the new teacher/school that I was attending.
Moving on to the point where I am now. My skills been developing since childhood, and
will continue to develop until they have reached their full potential. I have found myself looking
at who I was before I came to university, and who I am now, as a literate person. I believe that
university had caused substantial growth in my language arts, the types of words I use
communicate, as well as how I communicate has change substantially since the beginning of
university. I find myself using, and relying on my email more than I ever did when I was in
junior high or high school. Looking at my life now, I still see the enjoyment of writing essays,
and papers. As spoken about earlier, I love to research and learn new things, however as a math
major you dont always get the chance to do that. I still enjoy reading before I fall asleep at night
to stimulate my brain before bed, as well as to continue to grow in my language arts. Somethings
that I enjoy reading are mystery novels, I always find my mind pondering the book, and what is
about to happen, or why a certain event happened. I find I need to have a book that grabs my
attention in the first few pages. If this doesnt happen then I cant get into the book and I usually
dont end up finishing it. These are just some of my literary interests there are many others that
each affect me in special ways. Each of my literary activities each stimulate the brain and help to
develop my language arts skills more.
In conclusion my literary life sorry is important not just for the development of the six
key language arts, but for the development for who I am going to be as a teacher. For example
the quality of perseverance comes out. Even though I disliked English, reading, and writing. I
believe that I preserved to be the person who I am today. This is why I believe that I am built on
perseverance. Another quality that come out of my literary life story of who I am as a teacher is
determined. A good teacher needs to be determined, looking at my literacy life story you can se
the quality arise from there. For example in many of my assignments, I was determined to finish
them as well as be successful. This is why I did so well in school. The things that have happened

in my past have helped me to become who I am today, and have helped me develop the qualities
of a teacher that I have. The teacher who I will be in the future is still in the process of emerging,
however many of the qualities that I have right now that make a good teacher are from the
teachers that I have had in the past. As well as the literacy life that I have gone through.