Literacy is ...a big cloud of emotions

Language was always confusing to me from the beginning. My parents only spoke to me in Spanish, my native language. I had heard my father speaking in fragmented English here and there, but it was never a concrete idea to me as a four year old. That’s when I started preschool, and I interacted with English speaking people. The language sounded alien to me, but I was fascinated by it and I wanted to know it all. It was hard for me to acquire the new language, (well new to me), because my parents didn’t speak it and the school I attended was not fully English speaking. My kindergarten teacher was Hispanic and she taught us mostly in Spanish. In the middle of my kindergarten school year we moved to Chicago from Los Angeles and I started in a school where English was the only language taught, it was one of the most confusing experiences of my life. My teacher was Caucasian and did not know a word of Spanish, it was hard for me to express myself , to communicate, I remember the frustration I felt because I so much wanted to ask questions and I could not get anything out, I mostly expressed myself in gestures, I felt like a total failure. I did eventually grasp some things like the alphabet, counting (I loved the “Little Indians” song she used to teach us how to count); I even read a short story once and felt really proud of myself. My family lived in Chicago for about 3 months, during the winter my infant brother caught influenza which was accelerated with the inclement weather so we came back to the California sun in December of 1993. Again, I started Kindergarten for the third time at Woodworth Elementary School in Inglewood. This school separated students who were English learners and integrated both Spanish and English in the classrooms. Here I was comfortable and I learned how to read and write in two languages, Spanish was easier for me because of my family background and I struggled with my English but I learned it. When I was in second grade the school completely switched to English and it was a really hard time for me, but time passes and with time, patience and the help of my teachers (who I am forever grateful to) I became literate in English. When graduating from Woodworth I was in the top of my class and went onto the magnet program in middle school. So when I was asked what literacy was to me I said that literacy is a big cloud of emotions, because for me acquiring literacy was and still is an emotional experience. Posted by Isabel