Literacy History- Ashley Pohlod

 When becoming literate my parents and teachers were definitely the ones guiding me in that process. I think that anyone who was literate inspired me because I did want to be capable of reading on my own. My parents supported me and every night my dad and I would read a book together before I went to sleep. 

I was definitely encouraged because I liked reading and wanted to be able to read on my own. I wanted to also be able to understand what was going on in the book and then use my imagination to create what that might look like. 

My earliest experiences with literacy that I can remember come from reading with my Dad and also interacting with books while at school. I would say reading with my Dad was something that significantly impacted my development with becoming literate. Since we would read every night my skill and understanding of words developed quickly. In my school setting growing up my teacher would often read to us and we would follow along. I also think listening to someone else read out loud helped me a lot because I was hearing it and then I could process all of the information in my brain to then be able to read it myself. 

I think I became to feel literate in Kindergarten. This when I became capable of reading books on my own and completely understanding the content in the books. I enjoyed books with pictures in it, I also enjoyed having a book read to me while I was reading along, and I did enjoy interactive videos all while growing up. I think what frustrated me was feeling let down when I came across a word I didn't know and couldn't pronounce it. My role models were probably my parents and teachers because they knew how to read and write and I wanted to be able to communicate like them. 

I honestly forgot that there was a time when I couldn't read and write. It wasn't until doing this project that I remembered I had to learn all of this information because I have been literate for so long. I like to read and I enjoy communicating with people and learning new words or phrases because I still don't know them all and come across words I'm unsure of how to pronounce. 

In my personal life I use literacy all of the time to be able to text or send an email. I also am constantly using literacy in my education in school to complete assignments. I also enjoy reading I don't do it as much as I used to growing up but I do read for fun on occasion. 

Currently I would say one of my biggest inspirations for literacy is my Artistic Director, Angelica Stiskin. She is well spoken and is always thoughtful with her word choice to not only make her sentences concise but also impactful. I really admire the way she is able to use her words and am always intrigued by what she has to say.