Wednesday, December 30, 2009

San Diego County Library - Making a Difference in My Life

Making a Difference in My Life
LEARN Alive: Dec 2009/Jan 2010

My name is Esteban Ramirez, and I have been taking a Wilson Reading System class for the last 11 months. I am 29 years old, and I have dyslexia.

When I went to school, I didn’t want to read and write because the kids would make fun of me. So instead I became the big bad man at school, but it didn’t help me because all it did was make me feel bad about myself. I was feeling dumb that I was not like all the rest of the kids in my class so I missed a lot of school, and then I just stopped going.

Now I am 29 years old, and I want to make a difference in my life today by improving my reading and writing so I started to take a class with Hector with the Vista Library’s Adult Literacy Program. This is one of the best things that I have done for myself because I did not like to read before. But now because of Hector teaching me how to sound out words and break them up, I can spell and not be afraid to do this and I have more confidence.

I started the reading program in February on level 2 of the Wilson Reading System and now I am on level 7, and the whole time it has made me like to read and understand what I am reading by learning about open syllables and closed syllables, base words and suffixes.

All this I didn’t know how to break down but today I can do it. All this I didn’t learn in school but with Hector’s help I started to learn about long vowels and short vowels, which was all new to me.

And all I can do now is grow from here in my reading and writing. I think joining this program has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.
Current Learner—Esteban Ramirez

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