Since birth I have been immersed in literacy, encouraged to read, write and to this day my favourite pastime is burying my head in a book (see side bar for some of my favourites). One of my earliest memories is actually of my literacy being encouraged (surprisingly this is actually sincere and I’m not just saying that for the purpose of this assignment). I remember driving around town with my parents in the back seat of the car reading out loud the signs we passed. Applying what I have researched in EDUC3038 to this event in my life I can appreciate the encouragement of my parents in aiding me to become a ‘code breaker’. I isolate this event in my life as the beginning of my development of code breaker skills and an event which gives me the tools to embark upon my mountain journey. My development of this type of literacy, though instigated at an early age by my parents, would continue throughout primary school to varying levels of success, as demonstrated through my development of subject specific vocabulary and use of comparisons- both characteristics of code breaking behaviour (Santoro, 2004, p. 6).
My parents were always encouraging me on this journey; they were patient and helpful on my road to becoming a successful reader and as such acted as the initiators of my journey and for this I am eternally thankful to mum and dad for opening up a world for me which might have not been otherwise. To further illustrate this point I have included an extract from my favourite movie as a child, ‘The Swan Princess’.
Looking back on my understanding of the film at the time I remember I liked the cartoons and story, from memory I also quite like the sing-a-longs, but reflecting upon my literacy development from then to now I can now appreciate the use of my parents always making me watch it with subtitles on to strengthen my understanding of spoken sounds and written symbols- even though at the time I was pretty sure they just couldn’t find the off button for them.
I believe that once these
foundations were laid they were built upon by teachers who aided me further up
the mountain and who eventually enabled me to continue by myself. The the majority of the time that is. I had a
disjointed primary school life and as such I missed many of the basics of
functional literacy such as grammar and punctuation, a fact that is evident in
my writing to this day, hard as I try to rectify it. I imagine in the context
of the Four Resources Model (Santoro) that throughout my life a brick wall of
literacy has been built where each layer of bricks and mortar represents the
acquisition of literacy. In my case though the foundations are unsteady- I am
missing bricks here and there which impact ultimately on the structure of the
whole wall. This instability will remain undetected however until I enter university
where it will become clear quite quickly that the concept of literacy had moved
beyond the ability to read and write (Cazden, et al, 1996).
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