Write a literacy narrative about one of your own experiences with literacy, broadly defined.

Literacy narratives “allow writers to reflect on the people, ideas, and events that have shaped them as writers. . . . They exist . . . to help writers share their reflections about their relationship with reading and writing” (Palmquist and Wallraff 137). Literacy narratives draw heavily on tools like context, theme, and descriptive language to recreate a story of the author’s growth as a reader, writer, or learner. This assignment does not require outside sources.

Literacy narratives not only recount past experiences but also interpret and synthesize these moments into meaningful reflections of who you are as a reader, writer, and learner and about identity, education, values, and culture. They consider questions such as: Who are you as a reader, a writer, a learner? What are your beliefs and philosophies about reading, writing, and learning? How have reading, writing, and/or learning played a role in your life? How have reading, writing, and/or writing shaped and been shaped by cultural contexts in your life and the larger world?

In this project, you will write a literacy narrative about one of your own experiences with literacy, broadly defined. As you’ll see in our readings, there are many possible ways to approach your literacy narrative: working from a significant event (or events), following a chronological pattern, discussing significant people, texts, practices, etc. Whichever approach you decide to take, your project will probably:

Provide both narrative (what, who, when, where?) and synthesized reflection of the experience or practice (what does the narrative portion mean? So what?)