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Magnetic Letters on Fridge
When I was a toddler, there were magnetic, colorful letters on the refridgerator that I could play with and move around to make different words. While this is an event that does not have much value, it is what started to shape the reader and writer that I am today. -
Storytime in Kindegarten
In kindegarten, everyone in the class would look forward to Mrs. Shaw reading a book to us. These books are always something I will remember from kindegarten and something I will always remember from elementary school. These books included "The Old Lady Swallowed the..." books or a book from Eric Carle's collection. The one book from Eric Carle that I remember is the catepillar book. Again, not a huge time in my life but it is definitely something that shaped me as a reader. -
Barack Obama Cereal Box Biography
In 3rd grade my teacher, Mrs. Biagetti, assigned us all a different person to look up and write a bio about. The catch of the assignment was that you had to put all of your writing on a cereal box, so it turned out pretty cool. I was given Barack Obama, and I remember working so hard on my biography and I was very proud looking at the final product. To this day, I still have the rough draft of my bio and it is always something that I look back at. -
Becoming a Writer
During 4th grade, we were given time to free write and this is when I really used my imagination. I created short stories and they were actually pretty well. Most of them were horror stories but I also created a four-chapter story. I was very proud of these stories and it was also a way for me to widen my vocabulary and use my imagination that all kids have. This was a time that shaped my writing. -
Becoming a Writer pt 2
Also during 4th grade, we were given 2 or 3 opinion essays and a natural disaster project. I do not remember what the essays were about but they definitely improved my writing. The natural disaster project was really cool to research because we could pick whatever we wanted. I picked tsunami's to research because they were the most appealing to me. My teacher ended up laminating and putting a spine on the pages to make it a book. This also made it seem like I wrote a book. -
Reading "The Outsiders"
During 8th grade, we read "The Outsiders" as a class and we watched the movie. This was the first chapter book that I actually enjoyed reading because it was an appealing book and my teacher, Mrs. Zyskowksi, made it very interesting. I actually could not wait to read the next chapter the next day and sometimes, I even read it myself because I could not wait. This event in my life shaped me as a reader, because it widened my vocabulary and it showed me many different themes as well. -
Reading & Annotating "The Perfect Storm"
When I first saw the summer assignment for AP Lang, I thought I would not be able to complete it. It looked very intimidating and I did not even know what a dialectal journal was. I did not want to read a book during the summer, nor did I want to annotate it and write about it. It was not until I started it that I actually enjoyed the book at times and looked forward to reading it. The Perfect Storm is a great book. This shaped me as a reader and writer becuase it conssted of doing both. -
Edgar Allan Poe Unit
During my sophomore year my English II Honors teacher, Mrs. Plumey, had a unit where we read a lot of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry. I like his poetry because it is filled with horror, thrill, and suspense. We also analyzed ways that he possibly died. This is always something I will remember because I actually enjoyed going to english class for a period of time because I knew that we would be reading Edgar Allan Poe.