Moore 1

Jasmine A. Moore
Dr. Alanna Frost
EH 500
29 November 2015
Literacy Narrative
Wow Jas! Dont you want to learn to read like Whitney? Shes a really smart girl. Just
like that, my mother began my road to literacy through envious competition. By the beginning
of kindergarten, my best friend Whitney was already reading at an accelerated rate, and everyone
agreed that she would be able to advance to the next grade level. I watched as teachers and
friends praised her for how bright she was, how adept she was at learning the lessons that
initially held little relevance for me. I remember being happy to just go to school and participate,
yet upon realizing that being smart could increase admiration and popularity, I desired to attain
every letter and word to keep up with Whitney. While I enjoyed success in learning new things, I
constantly beat myself up when I could not read at faster speeds or become the top of my class.
This story may appear familiar or even typical to many students of all ages. Reading and writing
have now become competitive sports enmeshed in test scores that equate ability to identity. In
Stephen Jay Goulds The Mismeasure of Man, my childhood experiences are reflected in Goulds
words: We pass through this world but once. Few tragedies can be more extensive than the
stunting of life, few injustices deeper than the denial of an opportunity to strive or even to hope,
by a limit imposed from without, but falsely identified as lying within (50). Although
seemingly of little significance to some, this self-comparing experience has shaped how I have
viewed education, and it informs the strengths and weaknesses within my continuing literate
present. I think by understanding my need for acceptance through academic achievement, I can

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in turn use my own experiences to foster a love for literature that attempts to see beyond the
highest scored earned on a standardized test.
Although starting with slightly negative beginnings, my childhood experiences do not
erase the sheer pleasures of reading. After learning the formation of words through the phonetic
relationship of letters, I was able to make sense of what was contained in the strange-smelling
pages. I completed my lessons and my vocabulary grew with the short reading exercises of first
grade. It was not until second grade that I truly fell in love. My second grade teacher read to us
from a series known as the Bailey School Kids series. The books were comprised of short
attention grabbing stories about a group of delightful second and third graders who encountered
strange occurrences in and outside of the classroom. The characters days started with the
investigation of a mysterious adult who they perceived to be a genie, a gremlin, or a vampire. I
could see the fullness and vibrancy of the images, smell the mysterious odors, and laughed
wholeheartedly at all of the silly moments while unknowingly building my understanding of the
speculative fiction genre. These books helped me to finally prioritize enjoyment over anxious
comparison. The more I understood through reading for comprehension, the larger the books
became. As my third grade class visited the library, I challenged myself to check out the
maximum number of chapter books I could in order to attempt to read them all. I usually only
finished one or two, but the lesson was that my mind was always thirsting for more. From this
experience, I firmly believe that when interest is sparked early within a student, the skills
necessary to continue to greater levels becomes easier to attain. More often than not, children
either do not receive the proper spark to jump start their academic careers or their interests are
not invested in to endure throughout their education.

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Thus, learning to read has opened so many worlds to me. I mean to say that were it not
for literature, I would be closed to the richness of diverse peoples both here and abroad. Reading
enables students to enter into various minds and ways of thinking that could possibly never be
encountered in the commonplace activities of their own lives. My repertoire of literature
reflected the cultural diversity of my life, while intimating a historical past that I could never
account for within my own personal experiences. Therefore, literature is the first introduction
into really understanding the complexities of time and space from a social context. My mother
often took me to the bookstore to pick out African-American childrens stories, including those
of Anansi and the accomplishments of African-American leaders in history. She ordered a
popular American Girl installment: Addy. My introduction to historical fiction by way of this
child-friendly neo-slave narrative helped to increase my maturity with texts. Therefore,
speculative fiction and black historical fiction have consistently been two staples of my literate
past.
However, even though I was able to find the growing joy of my quiet and contemplative
hobby, I still measured my own intelligence by the praises of being a good student. I became
anxious when I did not score as high as some of my classmates, or I felt triumphant when I did
much better than others. My understanding of myself as a literate being was still grounded in the
idea that at any moment my place as an exceptional learner could be usurped by the inevitable
stellar performances of my peers. I learned to compete in kindergarten, and my sweet love of
literature was tempered by the trepidation of falling into a prison of rigorous scholastic
standards. As we approached the literary classics in junior high and high school, I felt that the
only way I could wade through the dense material was to supplement it with the leisure reading I
enjoyed outside of class. For instance, my love for Anne Rices Vampire Chronicles helped with

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relating to the French language and history I was already taking. Because I did well in French, I
often understood the vocabulary and syntax found in Shakespearean works. I intuitively saw the
relationship between texts, which furthered my studies on my own. I became more introverted,
enclosed by walls of literature on both sides to ensure that I could continue with my achievement
in class. In the end, reading and writing became the only things that I excelled in, and I
constantly wanted recognition for my efforts. The lesson I took from these years is that if anyone
is given the proper skills to understand how a piece works, then the literary form can be of little
consequence. It is important to read between the spaces and the lines, and although my shyness
grew from alienation at being further along than others, it was in this seclusion that I felt
involved in interpreting situations beyond my own experience.
I was accepted to Howard University, and from there my discoveries in literature changed
completely. My courses began to reveal to me that being literate could offer more than just a
fancy way to impress others or gain accolades. I was presented with the idea that reading and
writing were grounded in human interest that could impact the lives of others from a social
justice standpoint. On this campus, words were more than print; words changed people. Literary
theory taught me to evaluate texts and the socio-historical contexts in which they were written. I
learned that educated people did things with their literacy beyond figuring out how best to beat
their peers out of a job. I read more literature concerning sociology, history, education and
politics. I learned through events that education could also mean activism. This completely
decentered my understanding of academic purpose. I saw at once that my peers often
demonstrated the same aptitude and love for literature that had earned me praise in secondary
education. In college, academic achievement was secondary to realizing purpose. I felt that my
flimsy grades-and-scores comparisons to my peers did not hold up in the face of grassroots

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movements and community involvement. The vanity and the self-conscious pressures of
performance were a thin veneer for accomplishing real work. How was I to give back? Although
my skills and knowledge grew, I was overwhelmed with the possibilities of re-envisioning
myself within the social framework of literature. I did not know if writing a book would
accomplish uplift or becoming a proposal writer for non-profit organizations could accomplish
the same things.
Consequently, I did not happen upon teaching until recently. My former high school band
director has always said that You can only give away what you have. I realize that although I
have interests that lie outside of the classroom, school has always been a sort of home for me.
More than ever, I have witnessed the impact of literacy on people whose opportunities are
drastically limited by things they simply do not know. As a teacher, I endeavor to help students
acquire these skills in order to operate beyond the practical or functional application of being
work ready. Instead, I would like students to see that literacy is inextricably intertwined with
social activismthat change has always been underlined with academic pursuit, and critical
writing can open the doors to numerous possibilities. I have learned this through the adventures
of fictional elementary kids, I have learned this through the writings of W.E.B. DuBois, I have
learned this through the poetry of Langston Hughes and the plays of William Shakespeare.
Presently, when thinking about teaching reading and writing within minority groups, I have
observed a trend in African-American students to shy away from the various genres within
speculative fiction. They have often complained about the material not being real enough,
which has caused them to return to a literary past that is heavily concerned with social injustice,
issues within the black family/relationship, and the power of the black church. It is my wish to
demonstrate to students that no other work deals with metaphorical otherness than sci-fi and

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fantasy, which can offer different ways to approaching the issues that face students within their
communities.
Ultimately, I wish to help students to understand their world through close reading just as
I try to understand my own. In Dr. Smiths theory class, we discussed filmic adaptations of
novels and the nature of fidelity. This kind of analysis allowed me to see various kinds of media
as texts to be illumined. I think it is important to take literacy beyond the written word in order to
uncover the intertextuality inherent in contemporary work, and to discuss new valences for the
technological present. However, this step cannot be achieved until the action of turning pages has
been explored and mastered. The act of entering into new worlds and seeing new horizons still
lies within the content of books. By becoming more literate and inviting others to do the same,
we can work toward breaking free of the prescriptive boundaries of academic rank into
something more meaningful and worthwhile on the other side.