Write a story of a time you struggled to learn something in a particular discourse community
Literacy Narrative Genre Features A well-told story.
A story is an account or description of people and events that has a beginning, middle, and end. As with most narratives, those about literacy often set up some sort of situation that needs to be resolved. That need for resolution makes readers want to keep reading. Where is there conflict, tension, or action in your story? What are some events or situations that you have been part of that you can use to dramatize your story?
Some literacy narratives simply explore the role that reading or writing played at some time in someone's life—assuming, perhaps, that learning to read or write is a challenge to be met.
(from the Norton Field Guide to Writing).
Vivid detail. Details can bring a narrative to life for readers by giving them vivid
mental images of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures of the world in which your story takes place. For example, in your first draft you may have written “he was angry at me” but now you can take the chance to revise it to be more concrete and explicit (as opposed to abstract and vague). What does “angry” look like? “As he narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw, a vein began to pulse on his temple. I gulped audibly when his wrathful gaze turned in my direction.”
Also, the details you use when describing something can help readers picture places, people, and events; for example, instead of writing “at the beach, we saw a dog run by us,” be more specific: “an overexcited Border Collie strained against her leash, dragging a cursing owner onto the sandy beach.”
Lastly, using dialogue can help your audience hear what is being said and can help bring a narrative to life. Dialogue should be used to convey information to your reader about your characters and to help move the plot forward. Some indication of the narrative's significance.
By definition, a literacy narrative tells something the writer remembers about learning to read, write, or communicate within a discourse community. In addition, the writer needs to make clear why the incident matters to him or her.
You may reveal its significance in various ways; this assignment asks you to use this story as a chance to reflect on how some aspect of your history as a reader/writer/language user has shaped your identity, values, beliefs, behavior, or world view. How has participating in a particular discourse community shaped you as a person? Why should people care about writing, language, and communication?
The trick is to avoid tacking onto the end a statement about your narrative's significance as if it were a kind of moral of the story. Someone’s narrative would have far less power if he'd simply said, "Thus did my father teach me to value books of all kinds."