Dr. Rhonda Richmond
The question I get most often when people ask about my journey is, “How did you overcome your disabilities?” This is not a bad question, though the person asking and I often have two definitions of the word “overcome.”
More often than not, the person asking means, “How did you defeat or prevail over your disability?” In that question, they presume the disability no longer exists or isn’t impactful. The false narrative here is that I must not have real challenges because I have success in my professional/personal life.
My definition of the word “overcome” means that I am dealing with my gaps and finding tools that work for me because my disability is ever-present. Once we clear the air on terms, we then get to discuss overcoming from my perspective.
I knew early on that I was not learning information, and for many years, I didn’t understand why. By the time I was in high school, I had a lot of practice trying to read and comprehend, but words were problematic. What I mean by that is that trying to sound things out when I had not mastered phonics was very difficult. For those who have no idea, English is a complex language. In my case, my eyes tend to reverse letters, and I have difficulty tracking lines. I put words in that do not belong and fall asleep when attempting to read. I forget the sequence of events after I’ve read something and have to go back and try again. This is also a problem when others read to me – not because they were not good readers but because I get lost in the process.
When reading proved difficult back then, one thing I did that (I thought) was a good solution was to copy my textbook cover-to-cover, but I would abruptly lose that information right after I was tested on it. Yet, I had to provide for myself, so I kept doing it, hoping that it would change the dynamics I was dealing with. In other words, fear drove my actions more than I wanted it to, pushing me to solutions that were harder on me and not necessarily successful.
Eventually, I found an online layout for how to write a paragraph. For every paper that I had to write, I conferred with professors who would discuss the vocabulary I needed. If I were uncomfortable approaching a college professor, I would ask a classmate to sit down and go over notes with me so I could underline essential vocabulary. I would search online for videos or anything to help me understand that vocabulary. I would then build simple, uncomplicated sentences to participate in class discussions. I found one of my son’s papers from when he was eight years old to give you an idea of what that looks like. His vocabulary words from the school were part of two subjects: literacy and social studies.
*Here is the sample paragraph outline and final result (he had to use at least 8 words)*
STRONG PARAGRAPHS: Homework Assignment (I’ve since lost the URL for this outline, but this is not my work).
EXAMPLE Spelling List: 1. possible 8. act 15. ignorant 2. gold 9. build 16. artifact 3. milk 10. middle 17. migration 4. quiet 11. assistant 18. nomad 5. natural 12. brilliant 19. adapt 6. lot 13. compliant 20. agriculture 7. stone 14. extravagant 21. rounding Instructions– Use your spelling word list to create a paragraph!
Elements of a Good Paragraph Apart from the basic structure of an essay, other elements come into play that can make an average essay into a good one. The following 8 points have been prioritized in order of importance: 1. Always answer the question set. 2. Have a clear and defined structure. 3. Clarify what you want to say. 4. Be ORIGINAL EXAMPLE PARAGRAPH: What is your favorite food? Topic Sentence: The Best food possible is Mac-n-Cheese. Support Sentence: This is a brilliant food because of the cheese. Detail/Example Sentence: The cheese is extravagant. Detail/Example Sentence: The cheese is liquid gold. Support Sentence: The noodles in the sauce are natural and delicious. Detail/Example Sentence: The milk used is rich and good. Detail/Example Sentence: And the noodles are built to perfection. Support Sentence: There are lots of things that people are ignorant about when it comes to Mac-n-Cheese. Detail/Example Sentence: You don’t have to adapt to the aftertaste. Detail/Example Sentence:_ It also has most of the major food groups that come from agriculture. Concluding Sentence (optional): Clearly, Mac-n-Cheese is the greatest food ever. PUT IT ALL TOGETHER: The Best food possible is Mac-n-Cheese. This is a brilliant food because of the cheese. The cheese is extravagant. The cheese is liquid gold. The noodles in the sauce are natural and delicious. The milk used is rich and good. And the noodles are built to perfection. There are lots of things that people are ignorant about when it comes to Mac-n-Cheese. You don’t have to adapt to the aftertaste – I love it. It also has most of the major food groups. Clearly, Mac-n-Cheese is the greatest food ever. SAMPLE 2 CREATIVE and FUNNY paragraph #2: My favorite food is pasta. Pasta is an extravagant kind of food. It tastes really good when it is natural and fresh. It’s especially good when you add cheese or what I call liquid gold. Pasta is also brilliant. Nomads helped make this food. No ignorant man or woman made this. This food is an artifact of history. It was used in Asia during migrations. People in Europe used to use goat cheese in their pasta. No! Pasta is not an act of tyranny! You can use the samples as a foundation. |
