Literacy History

My name is Sophie Cucco, I am a dance major and I am in my third year training at the Joffrey Ballet School. Other than dance, I also love reading, writing, and listening to music. My newest hobby has been taking up crocheting! I took this class because I am very interested in understanding the types of literature and media we consume- as well as how we consume it, and what that reveals about us as people.

When I think about "becoming literate," my mind immediately goes to bedtime stories from my childhood. My parents always read to me before I went to sleep. The earliest book I remember is Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. To this day, I still adore that book. The memory of it, along with the love of my parents, continues to bring me comfort. As I got older, the books we read together became more advanced. My parents love literature, and my older brother was an avid reader as well. I think there was a bit of friendly competition between the two of us about who was reading at a higher level. Goodnight Moon turned into the Harry Potter series, which then turned into Animal Farm by George Orwell. Not only was I learning my ABCs this way, but I was also learning how to articulate thoughts and opinions on the content I was reading. Now, as I am older, I’m the one reading to my parents. On long car rides, I always have a book handy, and it’s a special way for us to connect as a family.

I was supported in my literacy by the people around me. My parents helped a lot, but my educators did as well. In elementary school, we were always urged to read a certain number of books each month in a wide variety of genres. We learned how to write in cursive and the proper grammar tools to use. We participated in class book clubs, and my friends inspired me to try different things. We even had designated hours each day for creative writing. I believe it was these factors that contributed to my strong relationship with the literary arts. It was during those creative writing hours that I first started journaling. I’ve kept a diary since I was nine years old. I write about very different things now—less about the drama on the swing set and more about my own mature feelings. I do find it interesting to look back at my old entries, as sometimes I realize that some things never change. My journals feel like my own personal time capsules. My deepest thoughts on the most important events of my life are encapsulated and preserved within those pages. And there’s something about putting pen to paper, seeing my own handwriting, that feels so much more tangible and personal than typing on a laptop, like I’m doing now. I don’t think there’s enough of it anymore. So yes, I still love writing! Even academically, I could write a persuasive essay any day of the week. I’m a real fan of it. I listen to a lot of podcasts, and I like to think that I have a very eclectic taste in music. I love discussing different songs and artists. I’m fascinated by the perspectives of other people, and I especially enjoy seeing how my interpretation of lyrics compares to someone else’s. Oftentimes, songs are just big metaphors, and I think the ways we understand them and the feelings they evoke can reveal a lot about who we are and what experiences we’ve had.

Something that I think is an interesting contribution to my personal literacy is the fact that I am bilingual. My father is Italian, and my mother is American. Growing up, I spoke both languages, and I’m still fluent in both now. A noticeable difference between my fluency in the two languages, however, is my ability to read and write. I consider myself fairly capable when it comes to having an expansive vocabulary and comprehending complicated texts in English. In Italian, however, I’m miles behind. I believe this is because I never truly learned how to read and write in Italian the way I was taught English in school. It’s something I had to pick up along the way. Speaking and understanding Italian is no problem for me, but it would take me three times longer to read something in Italian than it would in English. This is something I find frustrating at times, especially because writing and expressing myself that way is so important to me. I’m fortunate that reading and writing were things that came easy to me as a child. Having this block when I try to engage in something in Italian at the same level as I do in English makes me understand why some people feel less inclined to pick up a book. Sometimes, it’s just easier to watch a movie or listen to an audiobook.

A goal of mine recently has been to work on building up my skills in Italian. I’m going back to how I was as a kid—reading easy books and reteaching myself literacy.