>> Jay Jensen: the period in my life and I think I first began two to read and write was the years of first and second grade.  And spelling was always the most difficult aspect for me, which always seemed to lag behind my ability to write a story or read a book.  I remember that the first two words I learned how to spell were really simple words, and and the, but I can never remember how to spell which one, so I would often spell the word "the" AND and spelled "and" THE.  And my teachers would oftentimes get very confused when I would turn in an assignment, because I had very strange formulations were I would use a conjunction instead of an article.  But over time those issues resolved themselves.  I think my ability to learn how to read had a lot to do with that sometimes I didn't take the teachers advice.  I remember in first grade the teacher did this sort of test where they would have us try to read the first paragraph of a novel, and if we got all the way through it successfully than they would say that we were ready to go on and move away from children's books.  And I almost got through the paragraph, but I mispronounced the word bicycle, because the Y seemed to confuse me a little bit.  And so in her mind that meant that I wasn't ready and wasn't going to be for a long time to move into more interesting books.  But I didn't take that advice, I'm glad that I decided to go my own rout.  But my dad was the first person who encouraged me to read.  He used to give me $5.00 every week for allowance, and an extra dollar if I'd been doing my reading.  And at that point a dollar seemed like a lot of money to me, so I would spend a couple hours a day reading through my books.  And he was very strict about it, so I knew I had to read every day are I wasn't going to get that extra dollar.  But it seemed to be an effective way to get me to read a little bit.  And once I got to college I discovered that there were many different kinds of literacy, depending on what audience you're writing for, or what field you're reading in.  So I had to develop a lot of different styles of writing and a lot of different sets of vocabulary in order to do well in college.  So, that's my literacy story.