Full Circle
Maroudas, Carla

>>SPEAKER: Alright we're recording. So do you want to talk about your earliest memories of learning how to read?

>>CARLA: My earliest memories of learning how to read are pretty much at home. I've always been around books and both my parents are big readers and they read all the time. I remember my aunt sitting with me and teaching me how to read. I remember her most clearly teaching me how to read. She only has a high school education and not only can she not physically hold a book anymore - she has rheumatoid arthritis - she also has other disabilities. So for a while I could only buy her large print books and she's kind of been outside of literacy not really engaging in reading or writing in the world. Her reading ability has gone down so I can't even give her books anymore because she has a hard time reading them. That's the person that taught me how to read and now she can't read herself and it's kind of sad. Giving and receiving books has always been something that's been in my family. Those are my earliest memories of reading. My writing experiences are mostly school experiences and I remember winning an essay contest in fifth grade and remember reading it in front of the school and thinking I was the coolest person that ever lived. [Inaudible] I feel very validated and that was kind of cool. Another memory that sticks with me is again with that same aunt, she attended a spelling bee that I was a part of and my mom was working so my aunt was that one that shuttled us back and forth from school and took care of us and very much mothered us as well. So she was in the audience at the spelling bee and I remember I took third place and I remember the word that I missed was the word "truly" because I spelled it T-R-U-L-E-Y and I missed that of course. It was such a simple word that I missed out on but it's actually become a part of our relationship and so now when something is very much so then I mean it truly with an "e" which makes it more so. So we created a new word and that word has currency in this relationship and it has taught me that language is malleable and you can play with it to make your own meanings and you can play and change your language - I get that because I've had the experience. So I teach writing now like many of us here overseas and I take those experiences with me into the classroom of course and here I do a lot of literacy autobiographies, I call them [Inaudible] and their experiences are very negative very much so. I have this experience of books, language, ideas, writing and just all positive and rewarding but they have - not always but almost always - the opposite experience. Like no one really read to me, the assignments at school are hard and boring and make me feel stupid. It's kind of recognizing the differences between my own experience and my students' experiences and so how we do that is we constantly have them write that experience to constantly remind me that many of them don't have the same attitude or respect for literacy that I do. It reminds me every semester and it keeps me pontificating on the wonders of the written word because they're just not coming from that place sometimes.

>>SPEAKER: [Inaudible]

>>CARLA: A particular book I remember? I don't remember a particular book but I remember owning lots of books. I definitely went to the library and was involved in all the summer reading programs at the local library. But I remember recycling books and I remember my mom teasing me like "Charlotte's Web" is an example and I think I remember recycling that in book reports for three years in a row or something. The other one was "Shark Lady." I should buy that book again because I don't own it anymore and even to this day my mother teases me and is like, "Oh are you going to recycle 'Shark Lady' for your thesis?" I probably should. Now as adults we're giving and receiving books of course now audio books and sharing audio files but books, books, books. Now in my family if I find a book I like even if I've read it or have listened to it now I give it to my mom and she has it in her IPod and my step dad has got it on a CD so we all listen to the same book and then we talk about. So it's so foreign for me to have students who don't read and don't enjoy reading or don't have that literacy dialogue in their home. I'm constantly being reminded that they don't value it. They value other forms of literacy of course but they sit with a printed book that's not necessarily the same way. I have son now who is three years old and he has a relatively small room and so I keep telling everyone just get him books, get him books, get him books. He doesn't play with his toys, he just plays with the empty boxes or silverware but not his toys. It was actually recently in a scuffle with my husband who was saying, "He's got plenty of books!" But I said, "I'll get rid of his toys before I get rid of his books." Making room for books in my home is constantly a "How are we going to do this." I think it's a valuable lesson to show my son that again we give him that same gift that books are good, books are important. I think that's a great gift that I can give my child that my parents gave to me.