Essay 1: The Literacy Narrative

Total Page Length: 2 to 3 pages, double spaced, typed.

Digital Component: Depends upon the medium you use. We will talk more about this. 

For Monday, September 8: A rough draft, typed to workshop with your peers, of just your narrative on paper. Estimated final due date is Friday, September 12th

Digital spaces where you can tell your narrative may be forms such as a blog, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, a podcast, a Youtube video, a powerpoint slideshow, a Prezi presentation, a map, a scrapbook,  Picsa, Flikr, and many more. The digital space  you create will visualize and tell your narrative in a more technological way. Literacy narratives are stories about reading ( books, cereal boxes, music, websites, blogs, papers) in any form or context. Literacy narratives often include poignant moments that involve a personal experience with literacy. When these narratives are translated digitally, they are told through the use of digital media of many forms ( like IMovie, MovieMaker)

Literacy Narratives are (non-fiction) story-telling that re-creates and examines significant past experiences in which reading, writing (or perhaps speaking, listening) figure prominently; literacy narratives focus on key stages or events in one's development as a literate (reading, writing, thinking, speaking, listening) person.  A Literacy Narrative is autobiographical, and writing such essays can help you discover and evaluate the role(s) literacy has played in your life, reveal the sources of your present attitudes and abilities, deepen your understanding of how/why you have developed into the kind of reader, writer, thinker, communicator that you have become. 

A Literacy Narrative prompts you to explore, remember, reflect upon, analyze important moments, experiences, or stages of development in your own personal writing, reading (speaking, listening, thinking) history: e.g., influential events, scenes, people; stages; turning points or moments of insightful realization; failures and/or successes; "border crossings" or passages into new, different kinds of language, reading, writing, communication, thinking.  

Alternatively--since there are many kinds of "literacies"--Literacy Narratives can also address other kinds of literacies, such as visual literacy, computer literacy, science literacy, film literacy, etc.
 

Literacy narratives can be about composing letters, Facebook pages, song lyrics,’ zines, blogs, maps, essays in school—anything at all that you compose, or any story about teaching writing.
 

Literacy narratives can be sad or happy, poignant or funny, informative or incidental. Literacy narrative often focus on powerful memories about events, people, situations, places—times when you tried and succeeded or tried and failed; someone who gave you a chance or took one away; situations when someone taught you how to do something or when you taught someone else; churches and schools, contests and performances, plays and public presentations.

A Few Ideas to Get You Started

Have you ever written a “goodbye” letter? A love letter? A Poem? A novel?

A history or a email message that made you blush? • Did you ever win (or lose) a crucial public debate? Did you ever forget your lines in a play? Learn American Sign Language? Did you bond with Dick and Jane or the Hardy Boys?

Did you learn to read by studying the back of a cereal box? Do you remember the first time you thought of yourself as a writer? When you got (or lost) your first library card? The bedtime stories your parents used to read to you? Your favorite book?

Have you ever felt illiterate? Can you tell us a story about a time you were punished for reading (or not reading)? A time when you were rewarded for writing insightfully?

Can you tell us a story about the first time you used a computer? The first e-mail message you composed? Your first Facebook page? The first video you made and uploaded to YouTube?

Do you have memories about playing “teacher” with your friends? Creating a family newspaper or a ‘zine? Reciting scripture to the congregation of your church or at your Bat Mitzvah? Reading the Koran? * Was you mom or dad or one of your grandparents a writer? A reader? Can you tell us a story about how they helped you write or read?

As you develop ideas for your narrative, think about the forms of media we use to communicate today. In a formal manner, we communicate via email and we submit digital résumés when looking for employment. In a less formal manner, we post images and videos and update our status in Facebook and Twitter. Blogging has become a ubiquitous form of communication and occurs in both formal and informal ways. Posting in Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or in a blog has become so common that we often do not consider the digital literacy we are using.