Personal Narrative: My Experience With Reading Disabilities

I think I am a good reader. I think this because my Lexile reading level is 807-957, which I think is pretty high for a 6th grader. By the end of the year I would like to increase my Lexile level to 980-1,000. The way I can achieve this is by reading harder books and having to understand the harder books. My highs of reading are I get to have down time, I get to interact with my characters,and I love the book I am reading right now, “Auggie and Me”, it’s the sequel to my favorite book.

In my childhood, I was curious and full of energy. I was in an age where I was being to explore and learn new things, and most of the times my curiosity lead me into serious trouble. It was double the trouble when I include my sister in the picture. We were the worse when we were around six or seven years old. My aunt used to compare us to a tornado because we were always causing chaos and breaking something around her house.

1- What does diversity mean to you? 2- How has being a student at the University of Utah been? 3- What is the University doing to make you feel welcome on campus, and how can it be more welcoming? 4- Do you feel there are enough educational opportunities for students on campus to learn about people of different races, ethnicities, and other identities?

This Deaf event was very different form every other deaf event that I’ve went to in the past. Let me start of by saying it was a far drive, I drove 28 miles to a place I have never been to, but it was worth the drive. This event was expensive but the reason I chose to go to this event was because it was the only one that fit in with my weekly schedule. As got to the event I was a bit late and everyone had taken their seats and there were no more seats left. But this very nice lady came to my rescue and found me a seat.

For my second Deaf event, I went to the First Evangelical Free Church in McKeesport. This service had a Deaf Ministry along with a signed interpretation of the service. This experience was amazing, even though getting to this was quite a journey. Firstly, I was planning on going to BINGO with Emily McPeake, but when we arrived, we were told that we had the dates wrong, so we decided to go to church the following Saturday.

For my first Deaf Event I decided to attend the ASL Study Hall at the Cato Campus on Thursday, October 8th, 2015 from 4 to 6pm. I was nervous about going at first, mainly because I didn’t know how many people were going to show up, or if anyone I knew was going to be there. Thankfully four of my classmates were, so that helped. There were about twenty or so students and we all made a circle while waiting for Shannon and Sam to arrive.

Firstly, I see myself as an efficient and strong reader. It all started in second grade with Dibbles testing at Rockwell Elementary School. Dibbles testing was when the reading coach came into your classroom and gave you readings to read out loud while timing how fast you read them. My first Dibbles test wasn’t so great; I was just an average reader in my class. During the middle of the year and my third reading test, something clicked.

I was diagnosed with dyslexia during my 10th grade as I was slow in learning and writing. I was provided with accommodations for my 10th and 12th grade Board examination by the Central Board of Secondary Education. However, I did not use accommodations during my undergraduate study in MBBS and I had progressively improved in my scores and writing speed with the help of peers and teaching faculty and my own perseverance. With how far I have progressed scholastically, I strongly believe I can independently perform tasks without any aid.

For as long as I can remember I have loved reading. Fiction, non-fiction, biographies, it doesn’t really matter to me. I remember my mom trying to teach me how to read when I was three. I started off reading small Dr. Suess books and then it was on to newspapers and chapter books. One of my all-time favorite books when I was a kid was Junie B. Jones.

I’m a 1/10 reader I hate reading, I have never like to read i thought it was boring, and here on out I will never like to read. unless it's something I like to read then I will sit down and read like five chapters, then get bored of the book, then I'll listen to music then try to read a chapter or two. When I was at the age of 5 I had to read for 30 minutes then write about what I read. and I hated, until kindergarten the teacher read a book called Clifford . Then I love to read but when I got to middle school everyone didn't read, so I didn't want to stand out so I didn't read because I just wanted to fit in.

Hearing is something that many of us take for granted. Everyday activities are a struggle for a deaf person. Cynthia Walker is 20-years-old and was born deaf. Her life is very difficult. Simple things like communicating with her mother and ordering food is a challenge for Cynthia.

What made me the literate person I am today consists of 3 events from my childhood. To start off my reading career, the summer before 4th grade I stayed the night with my grandma. She was my best friend and introduced me to a lot of things, including Mid-Continent Library. The next morning we went to the Burr Oak Woods off 7 highway and had an awesome time! Afterwards we stopped at the library just down the street, I picked out 2 books a magazine and most importantly a movie.

When I turned into a freshman, I decided to transfer to a deaf school for my high school years and graduated there. By then, my struggles with my writing and reading were improving by working hard. IN my freshman, there was an English teacher, Mrs. Copeland-Samaripa, a strict teacher I ever had seen and I failed this class once because of lack of my doing in homework and tests. I didn’t want to repeat the grade so I decided to work hard by studying notes for test and turned homework in on time.

A Learning Experience: Reading and Writing Through most of my adolescent years, reading books and writing my thoughts took patience that I lacked and a desire my mind could not want for. But as the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. I know now that we are fortunate to have the opportunities to learn to read and write at such a young age. We are willingly and eagerly taught by our families, friends, neighbors, and teachers at school. But I find myself wondering, what about those that were not so lucky?

On March 10, 2017 I ate dinner with some people of the deaf community at Pie Five on rock road. This experience was very awkward for me. I never experienced anything like it. I was so amazed to see the popularity of the deaf community. I never knew the deaf community was so big.