Abstract
In phase 1 I wrote a literacy narrative that reflects an event in my life that has a great significance to my language and literacy development. This literacy narrative essay connects not only to a significant event in my life but also highlights literacy in the educational system .
Keeping Up with The Standards
The idea of Parent-teacher conferences has always brought fear among students. In my case, the idea of conferences hasn’t worried me since my grades have always met the standards. My only worry was what my mom would think or say after a conference. According to my mom, “Your only job is school, and you must do your best”. Her words made sure that I kept my grades up.
When the day came for the students, teachers, and parents to come together the atmosphere changed. My fourth-grade teacher, Mrs.Literallo, was well-dressed to impress the parents. She sat down across a table from my mom and me. In her hands she held a yellow envelop that contained my report card and was ready to spill her guts about me. This, I felt was a constant routine that occurred during a parent-teacher conference. Math, social studies, science, art class she continued until she reached English. Mrs.Literallol handed me a piece of paper with writing on it and began to explain it. The letter stated how my reading level was below standards for a fourth-grader and therefore, there was a likely chance that I would fail the state English test and the 4th grade.
The way it worked in elementary school was that the teacher took a reading level test three times during the school year. We would have to read a book and the teacher would mark the number of mistakes. The fewer mistakes you made meant you kept on moving up levels until it got too difficult for the student. The teacher would only stop once you made too many mistakes and at the end would assign you a reading level. The reading levels would range from A(lowest) to the highest level being the letter Z. To be honest, I found the whole system as being a way to sabotage a student, how could the teacher truly know what level to place someone just by referring to our mistakes. What if I fully understood the book and the main idea of it but didn’t know how to pronounce some words? How can she make a judgment based on the number of mistakes that I made? Looking back I would wonder if the education system was only used to make sure that students adapted the Standard English language.
I don’t remember how I reacted at that moment, but I did know that the letter made me feel like a failure. The usual routine that would happen after a parent-teacher conference is sharing of grades and comments with my two sisters. We would see who got the higher grade and “brag” who was doing good. However this did not happen, when I got home I handed the letter to my older sister and I confined in her. Looking back, I wondered why I was upset if it wasn’t certain that I would fail the grade. However, hearing that you are not capable or smart enough to pass a test made me feel inconsolable. I knew my mom was disappointed at me because she had not spoken since the conference.
“What do I do?!”, I remember asking my older sister Melissa. She looked up at me and said that I shouldn’t worry that she will make sure that I would pass the grade. After the night of the Parent-Teacher conference, I began to read books and during any free time I had.
When the moment came to sit down and take the state exam, I don’t remember what reading level I was at, but I did remember that I did pass the exam. For math, I scored a 4 and for English, I scored a 3. Scoring a 3 in the state English test signified that I indeed met the required reading level. After the year ended, I kept on justifying myself that I didn’t grow up speaking fluent English and that it shouldn’t be the reason that I should fail the school year. I was only just a few reading levels behind. Why does the state have the right to say that I should fail because of my current reading level? I knew I wasn’t eloquently spoken and wasn’t good at reading a book of higher level like other kids, but I could write, and I understood what I read. Even though the state gave me a warning that I wasn’t at a standard that was required in the education system, I was able to prove the contrary in the state test. This experience of failure was an awakening of how I must always use and be at the required standard English level that is imposed by society.
This experience of failure and trying to keep up with the standards of the school system changed my view on how society has been set up. Every child is expected and required to adapt to a new language and has to adapt to it as quickly as possible. The system will provide you with aid for you to adapt quickly to this language through tutoring or the program ESL. However, the system will not slow down for you, disregarding the fact that everyone has different paces of learning. We just have to keep moving and moving with the new requirements that are given to us every new year. Otherwise, if we come “slow-paced”, we would be held back by the system. In my case, I would have to attend summer school or maybe repeated the whole year, again. Although I can’t deny that it did motivate me to work hard and helped me perfect my English, it also ensured that I slowly lose my inherited language. At that moment I speak intermediate Spanish, as some say call it. The idea that I am not fluent in Spanish does feel like I have lost a part of my identity. I would identify my native language as being “Spanglish”, where when I talk to a mom, I combine both my Spanish and English language in a sentence. Through this literacy experience, I saw how society has required us to adapt to what they believe is the norm language. I have witnessed how US society has used the educational system to reinforce the use of standard English at an early age.
