Literacy Profile

            Outside of my school world, my life revolves around my Portuguese culture; the language, food and family. These three things are something that I was taught and learned from watching my parents, especially the food. Typical meal preparation in my house consists of watching my mom cook, asking her why she’s adding a certain ingredient and writing down the ingredients so one day I can hope to make all the delicious Portuguese meals as good as she does.

            I became literate in cooking after being a picky eater as a kid and wanting to know everything that went into my food. At first, I would hardly eat much, but my mom made food fun by making me apart of the process. We would make our own Portuguese sausage and stuff the casings ourselves which was fun to me. So when it came time to actually cooking them and eating them, I actually wanted to try it since I made it. After actually trying all the delicious Portuguese food I had been refusing, I knew what I was missing! As a teen, whenever it was mealtime, I would be in the kitchen helping mom and dad cook and eventually with practice became really good at it.

            My influences were definitely my parents. I learned how to cook from them showing me how to. My Portuguese culture reinforced what they taught me because at all our family parties and function we always had similar style food and my extended family members were always speaking the language. These literacy practices of reading, writing, speaking, and listening will impact me for the rest of my life. Learning another language is one of the best things a person can do, and I have been fortunate enough to learn the Portuguese language in my home. In today’s world, a foreign language is typically lost after the second generation. I am lucky to be first generation American born and to keep my families native tongue. The Language reinforces the Portuguese culture and food. While we cook the elderly women tell stories in Portuguese about the old days in Portugal.

 Even something as simple as cooking is a literacy practice. While learning to cook you have to be able to read and understand measurements on a recipe. You learn to write things down so you don’t forget which step comes next. Most importantly, you have to carefully listen when you’re being taught something, especially if you’re being told in another language; you don’t want to mess up.  These practices might be something so simple and basic, but these are skills that build upon one another.  Learning to read, write, listen and speak can be challenging, especially listening and speaking. Sometimes it can be hard to just stop thinking and listen to learn something new. When it comes to cooking a certain way, sometimes you have to be flexible and change it up. If not your taste buds will get bored!

            When I think of my future as a teacher I think a lot about these literacy practices and how they relate to cooking. If you always teach the same way, the students get bored, much like the food you make. If you do not know how to speak and explain the message might not come across the right way. Literacy is so important because as a history teacher all these areas are necessary for my future students.