Transcript of Untitled_Anonymous_061111
Interviewer (R): Tell us a little bit about yourself, or give a brief introduction.
Interviewee (E): Hi! I’m a molecular genetics major at OSU. My earliest memory of
an interaction with literacy was in second grade when my teacher had a policy to
read one book a night for the whole year.
R: Did that inter…did that policy help you in any way? Did you feel…how did you feel
about that policy?
E: ...I think it helped improve my reading, because by having to read a book every
night, I got used to the…the flow of reading.
R: Can you maybe explain a specific series of books you read?
E:…The only book I can really remember reading is Goodnight Moon (which is one of
my favorite books) and Nickety-Nackety Noo Noo Noo, which was a book about this
woman who got captured by a…like a monster…and he made her cook but she
outsmarted him and she got away. Which I think I found that an interesting story, as
a kid.
R: What did you remember most from the books?
E: I remember the pictures mostly…I think.
R: (in background) Okay. That’s good.
E: And I guess the main story plot.
R: Are you a visual person?
E: Yeah, I visualize things. I have to see things before I do things.
R: But…moving on throughout your life, could you tell us maybe another literacy
experience that you think really influenced you? Or that you can significantly
remember?
E: In third grade, I remember…I lived in the south so everyone had accents and I was
not from the south so I could not really understand them. And my third grade
teacher had a really thick southern accent, and I guess I didn’t pay attention in class
or I wasn’t following her as well as everyone else so she thought I was slow. So she
had…she had me go outside of school and get tested to see if I was slow or if I was
just not paying attention in class. So…I think that…that would be another one. And
they tested me on…on choosing the right word, and picking the best one that fit in
the sentence, flashcards with pictures, and some math. But out of that, it came that I
was just normal. And I couldn’t understand her accent. Which I think is literacy
because accent is a langua…or language is literacy. And communication is a type of
literacy so…if I couldn’t understand her, then I couldn’t learn.
R: How did the teacher react to your test results? Do you remember?
E: …I think it was just put out that my mom went in to talk to her and it was her
accent. And it was pretty funny ‘cause she didn’t realize.
E: In the summer of, between sophomore year and junior year of high school, I took
speed-reading classes, to try and improve my ACT and SAT scores so that I could get
into a better college. And…I think the skills that I learned in that class, helped me.
But they only helped me short-term because I did not really practice them
afterwards. So …I don’t know…it should be like… things like…the techniques that I
learned in that class should be used throughout…schooling. So that you can practice
them more and more and then get better and you’ll actually use them later and it’ll
help you. Instead of a short-term fix, it’ll be a long-term fix.
R: Is there…can you think of a maybe a specific memory where, like in school you’ve
done something consistently throughout the years? Like is there a certain…did you
write in your journal maybe since you were little? Did you do something in school
consistently throughout school years?
E: The only thing I can think of…is in the maths and sciences, they just build on each
other each year. Which is like you have to know what came before it to be able to
understand what came now. And for like English, and history also, that is true, like
math and science, but for English…you, you don’t really learn new skills, you just get
the same skills. And you just use them sometimes, you don’t always use them, or you
don’t use them at all.
[END OF INTERVIEW]