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Joe Bartolotta's Literacy Narrative

Early life
Bartolotta was born on September 9th, 1996 at Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield Ohio near Cleveland, and is the first child of his parents Mark and Suzanne. His father is a Lake County judge and his mother is a teacher at Arbor elementary in Euclid. He also has a younger brother named Matthew. Joe grew up in Mentor Ohio and lived there until he moved to Athens Ohio in the fall of 2015 to attend Ohio University.

First Literacy Sponsor
Joe's regards his mother as his first and primary literacy sponsor. Being an elementary school teacher, she taught Joe how to read from a very early age. According to his mother, when Joe was 18 months old he was eating a pretzel, showed it to her and said the letter "Y" because he bit the pretzel in such a way where it was in the shape of a "Y". This was the first time Joe ever identified a letter of the alphabet. By the time he was 19 months old he learned every letter of the alphabet. Since his mother was off during the summers, most of Joe's first summers were filled with educational activities because of her. She took him to story time at the library every week and gave him many literacy toys to play with at home such as magnetic letters, sidewalk chalk, a magnetic drawing board, a LeapFrog LeapPad, an Etch-A-Sketch, etc.

When Joe's parents were growing up, they had many books in their households. As a result, they filled up their own house with countless books as well. It was normal for Joe to see his parents reading books in their free time, and having lots of books in the house just seemed like the norm. From an early age Joe recalls his mother and father reading books to him everyday. His favorite books were Dr. Seuss books such as Go, Dog. Go!, Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat among countless others. After his younger brother was born, Joe would practice reading his favorite books to him while they both stared at the pictures. He would play with the letter magnets on the fridge with his brother along with his other literary toys and games. Being the older brother, not only was Joe learning, but he was teaching what he learned to his younger brother whether at the time he knew it or not.

Formal Literacy Sponsors
At the age of 2, Joe's parents sent him to Hershey Monterssori school in Concord Ohio. This was Joe's first formal literacy sponsor. The Montessori school approach uses a constructivism (philosophy of education) technique, where the students learn concepts from working with materials more than from direct instruction. This helped strengthen Joe's kinesthetic learning techniques even more. Joe still considers himself to be primarily a kinesthetic learner today.

Joe began 1st grade at St. Gabriel school in Mentor and attended through 8th grade. At St. Gabriel, Joe was introduced to traditional schooling for the first time, learning to read and write in a more formal and practical setting. Throughout his grade school years he became more proficient in reading, as well as reading out loud through the help of his teachers. In junior high he learned how to write papers and how to read for for research. After graduating from St. Gabriel, Joe attended Lake Catholic High School from 9th grade through 12th grade. In high school, he was able to focus in on his writing since it was required to write papers on a regular basis. Joe placed into the honors english course at Lake Catholic, where he was able to gain vital knowledge and skills that helped distinguish himself as a writer. His english teacher Mrs. Dinda, was also in charge of the writing lab in the school's library. The writing lab assisted students with writing and revising their papers. Having her as a resource, Joe was able to excel in her class and in his literacy; he even began to enjoy it.

Modern Literacy Sponsors
Throughout Joe's life he has been exposed to many literacy sponsors that people of previous generations did not have access to. During his life, Joe has had access to modern literacy sponsors such as computers, the internet, cell phones, social media, Smart Boards, and other things of that nature. This all stems back to his parents being his most prominent literacy sponsors because of their socioeconomic success. Without their support financially, Joe may not have been fortunate enough to have these modern resources as literacy sponsors.

Impact
Due to the profound influence of Joe's parents, he was able to become literate quite easily. As a young developing child with a hunger for knowledge, his mother and father continuously fed his desire to learn at home and outside the home. With their overwhelming influence and teachings, Joe was able to expand on his literacy abilities as he grew older and wiser. Without his parent's support, Joe's sponsors would have been much different and his literacy may have suffered as a result. Joe hopes to one day be a literacy sponsor for his own kids.

Joe's Sponsors













Category:1996 births Category:English male writers