10 Literacy Narrative

Work Hard and Never Give Up

By Santana Simmons

The other day when I was in class everybody was naming out books that we read in high school, which were examples of great literary works. As I sat there and listened, I got more and more anxious. I realized that the only great literary work I read was To Kill A Mockingbird. I don’t enjoy reading and writing because it is difficult for me, and I know I will have to work harder to get better grades. My difficulty with reading has greatly impacted my skills in literacy, and while this is a hard statement to write because I don’t like admitting my faults, my working through my struggles during my reading journey has inspired me to never give up.

Growing up I remember reading lots of books with my mom. We would read every night, but this still did not help me. In our house we had several bookshelves solely dedicated to my brother and I. My mom and grandma bought books religiously, so there was never a lack of books to read. My grandma even bought me my favorite horse series. I read all of them.  In elementary school we had something called an Accelerated Reader (AR) goal. This is where you had to read as many books as you could to get points and reach your goal. This motivated me to read. I wanted to make the 100-point club, so I branched out and started reading chapter books.  I read, but I was a slow reader.

Once I got into 4th grade, my school got a new program called Read Live. As a young kid I felt Read Live was for the “stupid” students that failed at reading. Every day I walked into that Read Live room I smelled the stench of failure. I begged and begged my mom to take me out, but she refused to let me quit. I hated everything about going into that room, but I decided I was going to work hard and not give up. I struggled and struggled with how fast I could read which my teacher called fluency. I remember always getting my report card back and having a two in reading or being in the “red” instead of the “green”. My elementary ISAT scores were the same, and I barely got a two. The next year my 5th grade teacher Mrs. Denham encouraged me to go into Read Live with a good attitude and that it could help me become a better reader in the future. Which it did indeed, I remember graduating out of Read Live right before I went to middle school. Looking back, I now see how the program helped me. I needed extra time with reading to get ready for the harder literature in middle school and a teacher who believed in me.

Going into middle school was a different story. I began to struggle again. My English teacher quit mid-way through the year, and we ended up getting a new teacher. This teacher and I did not get along at all. I began to hate reading and writing again and fell behind. Then I was put into another program to help me which then took away my P.E. time. I didn’t understand, and it frustrated me.

As I went on and got to high school, my mom had me choose a different path. I took an IDLA English course. That was the best thing I could have ever done. This class challenged me, but what I liked about it was we could sometimes choose what we wanted to read and then write about it. I started to read a lot more and even enjoyed it. One book we read was To Kill a Mockingbird. It is the only book I read out of all the books mentioned in this class. The course was challenging, and I worked my way through it. I ended up getting a three on my ISAT ELA score, which was the highest I had ever achieved. I was proud of myself.

I know I have a long way to go, and I will have to work harder. I am hoping my struggles will work to benefit and inspire children who have the same difficulties. I want to motivate them to keep trying and work hard.