Dmitriy Verstivskiy Case
Dmitriy Verstivskiy
English 1A-30
September 18, 2013
Draft 2A
Literacy Narrative
As a child, it is fair to say that my grandparents raised me. My earliest recollections date back to about the age of four. My grandmother managed an in-home daycare with about ten students and five more that would come after elementary school. It was open until 5:30 p.m. so I became quite familiar with the other students enrolled. Being that I was among the youngest, I enjoyed the benefits of having twice the education as the other students. I would learn phonetics with them in class, and once they were gone, my grandmother and I would have special “reading sessions”. An activity I would profit from for the rest of my life.
I remember being in the classroom and reciting the letters of the alphabet along with the sound they produce in a childish chant with the rest of my grandmas students. “Ah ah apple, buh buh ball, cuh cuh cat, and duh duh doll”. Although this may seem juvenile, it laid the foundation for my literary capabilities. Along with the alphabetical training, we also did handwriting exercises to perfect our craft as young writers. Yes, that meant using those books with the letter, a dotted version for you to trace, and blank space for you to continue to practice the letters. As cliché as that may seem, it was efficient nonetheless. Years of this repetition and memorization burned the base of the alphabet into memory.
My other resource of learning came from the many nights of me sitting in my grandmothers lap and reading whatever books she had collected throughout her years of teaching education. We used to read everything from Dr. Seuss Green Eggs and Ham to The Three Little Pigs. These reading can be traced back to the source for my love of reading. I remember her reading me each story, then having me read it after her. Whenever I would struggle with a word, I remember her famous line, “Sound it out.” She used this method on pretty much all of the kids and I could see that it worked because no