Part One: The Common School (1770-1900)

Hello, my name is Anna Gernold and I am a senior majoring in Psychology. I am a lover of everything outdoors and I love spending time with my husband and miniature dachshund every chance I get. I have a busy schedule, but try to balance life as best I can as I go to school and work full time. I graduate this semester and plan on moving back west to complete my Master's in Education as well as obtain my teaching licensure. I am happy to have the opportunity to take this class to learn about this United States history of public literacy education throughout different era's. 

I reflect back on my earlier experiences learning to become literate, which includes many different aspects. From a very young age, I can recall being read books often with my mom and dad. I loved to be read too and I yearned to start reading. I loved picture books, deciphering words, short texts, and eventually, worked my way up to reading and comprehending bigger chapter books. I remember my mom teaching me how to properly hold a book, where to start the beginning of a book and how to scan the text from left to right so I could read the correct way. I was always encouraged to read and continuously show my reading skills, which I believe held a positive impact. One of my favorite memories as a young girl was going to the library with my mom every week. She would take me to the library and let me pick out a book we could read together. Even in school, we would have reading logs which recorded what and how much we read of a particular book that we chose. This tactic helped show the teacher our performance and reading level progression and the more we progressed as a reader (weekly quizzes would track our progress of book) we could move up to higher reading levels. I found the quizzes to be stressful, because if I didn't pass the quiz, I would stay at the same reading level for a certain amount of time. I can recall some of my friends moving up to different reading levels and being excited, but I was still stuck.

However, becoming a great reader, even with the experience I had as a child, took some time. I wasn't always the strongest reader, in fact, it was a skill I learned to develop throughout the years. Looking back, I believe I began to feel literate during my junior high school years. In elementary school, I enjoyed many literacy activities. Being a musician, I have a creative outlet and I loved to write and express my thoughts. When teachers allowed for free writing or posted prompts on the whiteboard for us to further develop thoughts, I loved that. I enjoyed letting my thoughts flow and write everything down on paper. Also, I liked to listen not only to the teacher, but to my peers because I learned and created further ideas from them and vice versa. Although, what frustrated me most when learning to read, was 'popcorn' reading. This involved each student reading one paragraph aloud and then the person sitting next to the student reading, would be next to read. This created so much anxiety for me that I couldn't comprehend the text because I was so worried I was going to mis pronounce words; I was rather shy. In fact, reading comprehension was something I struggled with for years. I remember having to be pulled from class for extended amounts of time to work with a reading specialist. I always felt so awkward. With that being said, activities that involved speaking would consist of me brain freezing and not knowing what to say even though I felt confident in my work. This fear of speaking took years for me get over. It's funny, because I could sing to crowds with thousands of people, but had the hardest time speaking in groups of four or more people. I had several role models as a learner, most importantly, my parents. My mom and dad valued education and made sure to place an importance on our studies growing up as they were always involved in and outside of school which I am forever thankful for. I also had a fourth grade teacher named Mrs. Ditto who was the true definition of a passionate and nurturing teacher. She made learning fun!
Today, I feel confident as a literate person and as stated above, I am thankful I had support throughout my childhood because that helped shaped my education from a literate standpoint. Literacy plays a huge roll in my life everyday. Think about it, everywhere you go, there is literacy. I try to read at least a few times a week with a book of my choice. I love to write and journal when I have the time, whether that be by hand or on my laptop. While being a student and attending college, the literacy skills acquired over time such as reading, use of vocabulary, comprehension, writing are all important components of being a literate and evolving learner. Knowing the importance of literacy and the value it has in my everyday life, I continuously strive to become a better learner as I believe knowledge is truly power. Having started from the building blocks of becoming a literate learner and expanding literacy throughout the years of my life, I continue to grow. Surrounding myself with those who inspire me on different platforms continues to help with my literacy development, especially as I begin to shape the lives of my future students on an academic level.