Literacy Narrative Brainstorm

Memories/community
Pre-K discovered the english language age 4, grew up in LA
Parents only speak Spanish which at the time when I was really young confused me seeing 2
different languages
I would start talking to parents in english but since they didn't understand at home i spoke
Spanish only
3rd grade I moved to Lancaster, community majority white/ African American and parents
kept driving back and forth to LA which affected me because I stopped talking Spanish at a
daily basis at the time since I would only see my parents at night
In that new community teachers/students would always have difficulty pronouncing my name
since its a Spanish name which affected me because I felt ashamed of where I came from since
it was rare to find any hispanics in that community ( Relate feeling ashamed to How to Tame
a Wild Tongue)
6th grade moved back to LA, returned to my community where I didn't feel like an outsider
Started reading more books the ones I did have access to in school
Low access to books/computers when I was young
I remember getting taken out of classes in middle school that had english writing, reading, and
listening sections I wouldn't understand why didn't everyone else have to take it
7th grade passed the test that confirmed that I'm officially an english speaker which at the time
I didn't understand the importance of it
People/role models
11th grade teacher played a big role in my writing skills because he challenged me, helped me,
and I actually learned in his class the proper writing style
10th grade/11th grade Spanish teacher and my role model as well helped me perfect my Span-
ish reading.writing skills. Learned to take pride of my culture and Spanish language