Literacy

Hello!

My name is Abby Horter and I am a jazz and contemporary Trainee at the Joffrey Ballet School. I have been a student at NJCU for two years and am working towards a BFA focusing on dance. Outside of school, I enjoy going on long walks, reading, journaling, and watercolor. The reason I took Contemporary Literacies this semester was so I could learn how to connect contemporary cultures and literacies in our world.

My first memory of reading was of me sitting in the living room reading these little books called Bob Books. They were books meant to help young children learn to read. They were my favorite books because they were easy to understand and I could finish them quickly which made me feel good about myself because I finished the book. In this specific memory, I remember wanting to show my mom how fast I could read one of these books. You know how most kids want to show you how fast they can do something and they pretend like they did it? Well, this was not me, I read the entire book out loud to my mom just to show her how fast I was. This became a common theme for me as I got better at reading, I would try to read the books as fast as I could just to prove I could do it, and then I would time myself when I reread them. These specific experiences with trying to read fast helped me become a better reader. I was the kid who was always reading just because they could, not because it was an assignment. My mom was always encouraging me to read more and more, she became a huge role model for me when it came to my reading. Another thing that she did to encourage my reading was to have a reading night. My family would always set aside 15-30 minutes before bed just for reading. For my brothers, it was to make sure that they did their reading but for me, it was an opportunity to spend time with my family and do one of my favorite things. 

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with writing. I always enjoy writing stories or journaling, just writing for myself but when it comes to school work, I have never enjoyed writing. Whenever I had to write for a class it always felt forced and like there were such high stakes for the end product. School writing started to give me so much anxiety that I stopped writing for myself and only when I had to for school. However, I recently learned how to write for myself again. A teacher of mine suggests we always carry a journal with us, to write down things for dance or anything that comes to mind. The way she said it made it seem like it would help me become a better dancer which has always been my goal. This influenced me to start writing more frequently to help myself learn that writing does not always need to be high-stakes.

Thanks to all of the influential people in my life, I love to read and write now. Without my mom, I would not love reading the way I do now, and without my teacher, I would still hate writing. I am grateful every day that I have the literacy skills to help me be successful in everyday life have fun and enjoy reading and writing.