I tried to make my audience to people that don’t like to read or write, mostly write, and show other ways on how you could do things. It doesn’t need to apply to only writing or only reading. It could be applied in all sorts of different ways. It doesn’t have to be the normal way, it could be fun, organized, or whatever you feel works best for you. It doesn’t need to be a boring and bland task, you just need to spice it up a bit. If you can’t find a way to spice it up, then you can find a way to make it last for less, and might find some strategies along the way that might help you out, while taking less time to complete said task.

I’ve noticed that RACE wasn’t as bad as I thought and was extremely useful throughout middle school. If I didn’t use RACE for middle school, my grade would have been a lot lower than it would’ve been. Not only because it helped me get an A for the class, but also it was enforced with a writing assignment roughly twice a week. It was enforced with a Tuesday Quiz and a Portfolio Task (every Thursday) every week. I hated these, but it jammed RACE into my head and got me to get higher grades in the meantime, so it was a win-win.

Although I’m referring a lot to RACE and not my first reading experience that I remembered, one of them helped me initially and another helped me later on in school. There was also another moment that helped me learn Spanish and my mother learn English that I left out of the final draft because I felt that it didn’t make have any continuity in the final draft. The initial reading experience was a surprise for everyone in the room because it showed that I will have an advantage later on for reading. That didn’t happen because I don’t like reading a lot of things. The second one helped me read as well because it was normally with a passage where I needed to get the evidence. That would normally be the main cause when I got a lower grade is when I didn’t get the right evidence, other than that I normally got high grades on the previously said Tuesday Quiz and Portfolio Task.

—End of Cover Letter—

One way that this assignment helped me achieve is “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.” It has helped me in this way immensely, especially when I was revising and editing. I added a lot more details and got rid of ones that I didn’t need/want and got a detailed story with very little filler (some might have gone through though). It has helped me a lot and will help me throughout the rest of college, just like what RACE did.

I attended a headstart program three times a week in a Columbia University building and once a week at home. I started from when I was eight months old until I was four years old.

When I was about 3 years old, a teacher came to my house once a week from headstart to give me classes. She taught me how to read, do simple math, and do simple books, puzzles, and activities. We usually read the same books every week, and one day, she said, “Maybe he has the page memorized, let me change the page”

I was nervous at the time. I haven’t read a different book in a long time. She then flipped the page to a page that I had never read before. I read the entire text word-for-word, without any errors.

“Wow, I’ve never seen a kid read so young!” She said, “Let me change the book, just to make sure.”

A new book was then given to me and I was instructed to read it. I read word for word once again. Slow for a normal person to read anything out loud, but surprisingly fast for a 3-year old. The average child of that age does not know how to read yet. After that day, she returned to Columbia Headstart. She told many of her peers that a kid that young was able to read without memorizing!

After that, kindergarten began. I, unfortunately, did not like to read or write. My grades for ELA were lower than most, if not all my other grades through elementary until the 6th grade. My lowest grade from an ELA class was a 1+, which is around a 65-70, which is extremely low since my other grades were either a 3 or a 4. But once I entered 7th grade, I have learned a very useful tool that would help me get higher grades. “RACE.” RACE meant restate, answer, cite, and explain.

At first, I did not like using RACE. I’ve first learned this in the 6th grade, but I didn’t implement it correctly so I still got low grades. But when I entered the 7th grade, this made writing with evidence a lot easier for me. Before I learned about RACE, everything was a struggle for me, and I used to get low grades. After I learned about RACE, writing got a lot less complicated, whilst being a lot more efficient, easy, and getting better grades in the process. The picture on the left is the exact same picture that I saw in the classroom, right next to the smartboard.

I used RACE throughout middle school, and it increased my grade by many points. Although it was useful, I have now grown out of it because of the fact that I found out better ways to do it. With more templates found online and given out by teachers, I stopped using RACE to an extent.

English is still one of my least favorite classes to take, but my grade has definitely increased over the past years. Instead of being 65-70%, it is instead near 100%, and maintaining at least an A since 8th grade, making it possible to make an extremely low grade, to a high one, by learning new ways that could help you, and getting rid of ways that don’t.

“Difficulties in your life do not come to destroy you but to help you realize your hidden potential and power. Let difficulties know that you too are difficult.”- Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Citing:

Columbia Headstart: hyperlink (Because it’s extremely long)

RACE picture: https://the-teacher-next-door.com/using-the-race-strategy-for-text-evidence/

Quote (not the original source): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/570831321505186510/