Writing my own literacy timeline was eye opening in many ways. I had never before reflected on my literacy history. One aspect of my timeline that really stood out to me was that I learned to read music and write my name before I could read text. After noticing this I started to think about the kids in my life and their literacy. I realized that all of them are learning to write the alphabet and spell their names before they're being asked to to read sentences. This is really strange to me. It seems like we should teach kids to read before they write. This observation leaves me wanting to do some research into why we learn to write first because it seems like putting the cart before the horse to me.
The first book I have on my timeline is a children's book called Rabbit Hill. I haven't thought about this book in years, but I have very fond memories of my mother reading it to me. I ordered the book off of Amazon.com, and started re-reading it the other day. It wasn't until now that I realized the book is full of social commentary. I wonder how many other texts of my youth have social agendas behind them. I'm suddenly very skeptical of the Golden Books. ( I still and always will love Rabbit Hill).
I love the idea of teaching literacy timeline in my class. While literacy territories are a great way for some to get to know themselves as readers, it did not help me much. After attempting to create my territories I realized I simply had a couple of pages of seemingly random things I like to read occasionally sorted into categories. I now know my problem was a lack of focus. The timeline forced me to focus my attention to my literacy in a chronological way. After creating the timeline, I went back and tried to create territories again and was much more successful in creating something meaningful to me. When I teach literacy identity in my class, I will first have students create a timeline and then territories.
