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Anthony CalvoScreens: A Guide to Literacy

The grey green clunky device lights up as I slide the switch to the onposition. Black and white pixels quickly illuminate the screen while

simultaneously a digital melody begins to play. I see a big inviting title atop of thescreen and two inviting adventurous characters. My fingers continue clickingbuttons until I find my self forced to make multiple decisions based upon words Icant read or understand. As I went through the game I started learning wordsthat corresponded with certain actions. As I passed through village andwilderness words came to the top of the screen like P-a-ll-e-t T- ow-n and R-ou-te 106.

I continued walking and all of a sudden the screen circled black and whitewhile an enthusiastic yet daunting sound rung from the device. Another characterslid up the screen along with words. I didn't know what they meant, but I noticed

the word battle followed by exclamation marks. I was then given a series ofoptions: run, bag, and fight. I chose fight, praying it was the correct option. Thenthere was just one option, tackle. I selected it and was shocked to see mycharacter glide across the screen before abruptly clashing with the pixels thatcomposed the other character. I did this repeatedly not knowing what washappening, but by the end some words appeared on the bottom of the screen. Islowly sounded them out: you have one the battle.

I met another character with a exclamation mark upon his head, but thistime I didn't feel scared. I felt a rush of adventurous excitement. This time whenwords came upon the bottom I recognized run, fight, and battle. As I went

through battle after battle I came to reach an understanding for these words. Atthat very point I essentially began a journey. Not the one with Pokemon thatended around the third grade, or one with video games. I began a journey withscreens and literacy. The words guided me through the game as the gameguided me through the words.

Eventually I got older, more mature, and entered middle school. The firstday of school there was a bunch of unfamiliar faces and new intimidatingclasses. Among these was English, I always preferred math. During the class,the teacher announces that every two weeks we would be required to write atimed essay on the computer. The entire class put on a face of discontent andfear. Despite the communal reaction I couldn't help, but be excited. Screens hadalways meant the words were to be enjoyed. After a few days we went into thecomputer lab and the same screens that had once been so friendly were now mygreatest threat. As I sat down in my desk everyone was bickering over sitting inseats with good computers, and keyboards. The teacher navigated everyone tothe website and then as the time clicked down she began counting down.the teacher started at "5""4"

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Sweat drops beaded down everyones face as they stared blankly into the screen."3"Pencils clicked up and down."2"Everyones legs started shaking.

"1"People readied their fingers on the key board."Begin"Then a timer started counting down at the top right of our screen. A questionappeared and everyone one immediately started typing as if they had alreadyknown the prompt. I read the prompt multiple times and simply could notdetermine what to write about. I cant remember exactly what the prompt was,but it had to do with the life stories of at least two saints. I had always heard ofdifferent saints names, but never learned about their stories. I continually keptthinking about the clock slowly ticking down second by second. This wasn't what

I had hoped for. The words were threatening. I looked around the room blanklystaring at the other students typing and thinking. Whenever my teacher wouldlook around to see what everyone was writing I started typing random jumbles ofletters and spaces.

After about thirty, minutes I pieced together random facts like St. Ignatiusgot hit by a cannonball and people pray to St. Anthony when they lose things. Istarted typing. The other kids looked at me as my typing made loud and abruptnoises as the keys smashed down with every letter. I felt the time coming downon top of me. I never looked away and just typed whatever seemed to flow withmy main ideas. I finally stopped and 15 minutes later I had written more than

everyone else. I couldnt help, but make a creepy smile at my screen. I was rightthis wasn't the same as the game, it was my own game. It was a different type of

game. The characters didnt come on the screen and the assortment of digitalsounds didn't fill the room. Instead, line by line the world I created on the screenseemed to enter reality. I could close my eyes and the computer room around meturned into a world moulded by my words. The students, computers, and clickingpens all disappeared. The pressure, and fear of a bad grade dissipated. Mywriting was born. It felt how I felt and said what I wanted to say. Screens took meaway from associating reading and writing solely with work, they allowed me tosee literacy can be for numerous things from communication to an opportunity forcreativity.