My Literary Experiences: Rebekah O'Keefe

Kindergarten

1998

I am turning 5 years old soon and I have just entered Kindergarten. I am still learning how to write my name and the letters of the alphabet. I am a very social child, and very easily distracted.

First Grade

1999

I am now entering first grade, I know how to write my name, my alphabet, and I am beginning to read and recognize some small site words. My parents are beginning to get worried because all of my peers are starting to read children's books on their own and I have not yet been able to read a book on my own. My mom has me tested for learning disabilities. I love to hear my parents and especially my grandmother read children's books to me, I want so badly to read them on my own.

Second Grade

2000

It is now the second grade and I have barely begun to read. I am recognizing a few words and reading some sentences slowly but I am still struggling quite a bit in school. I am also finding it hard to follow along with my other classmates and I am falling behind in my work. My parents decide to pull me out of public school and enroll me into a home schooling program.

Middle to end of Second grade

2001

I had just been pulled out of the second grade, since I was such a social child I was extremely upset that my parents had pulled me out of school with my friends. I worked hard on my reading skills one on one with my parents using the homeschool curriculum and my reading skills improved immensely. It took about six months but by the end of second grade I was reading books on my own and I was catching up to my grade level. I needed this one on one schooling in order to focus and learn.

Third Grade -Fifth Grade

2003

I was now about to enter the third grade. I voiced many times to my parents that i missed going to school and seeing my friends, I did not like being home schooled. They agreed to send me to a private school so that I would still have that one on one attention that I needed. I attended Bethel Christian Academy until I was in the 5th grade. My reading skills had improved so much since the second grade. I was beginning to love reading adventure books like "The lion the witch and the wardrobe".

Seventh Grade

2007

I now have left private school and am enrolled back in public school. My seventh grade teacher assigned us to read "The Giver" by Lois Lowry as a class. I loved how this book was a futuristic reality, this interested me because it was unlike anything I had ever read before.

Eighth Grade

2008

I remember thinking when we started to read "Romeo and Juliet" by Shakespeare that I was not happy at all with how this book was worded. I could not at all understand what was going on, luckily we read this as a class, and went over the wording as we read. This story was one of my favorites, I had not read a tragedy before this. The story was also written as a play which was different then anything I had ever read before.

Ninth and Tenth Grade

2010

Entering high school is a bit of a challenge for me at this point. I am trying to learn another language (Spanish), as a graduating requirement and I am also reading more books in my english class then I ever had before. "Of Mice and Men" was one I remember the most.

Eleventh and Twelfth Grade

2012

I was getting ready to apply to colleges and I had begun to write more papers now then ever in my english classes. I learned how to properly compose an essay, and how to conduct research and write about my findings.

Now

2019

I am currently a college student working on my early childhood education degree. I work at a preschool during the day and go to school at night, I do not have much time to read or write anything on my own outside of school work, these days I mostly read for my classes and of course read children's books to my Pre-K class.