literacy Narrativeve
English 107
Unit One Assignment (U1A): Writing to Reflect, Literacy Narrative Audience: University faculty and your peers Genre: standard composition Due Dates: ➔ Friday 25 January: U1A Outline Due ➔ Wednesday 28 January: First Draft Due ➔ Friday 8 February: Final draft.
An effective story does more than merely entertain: it reaches out, making a writer’s personal experience significant to readers through reflection. A literacy narrative follows in this tradition with an emphasis on experiences with language. More than simply the ability to read and write, literacy is defined as being able to successfully use language in specific communities or contexts. Each social context has understood norms for speaking, reading, and writing. Some scholars prefer the term multiple literacies to portray the variety of communities within which people learn language norms. For the Unit One Assignment, you will compose a literacy narrative that could be included (with your permission) as part of the National Day on Writing in October 2018. The purpose of the literacy narrative is to reflect on an experience or a series of related experiences with literacy in a specific context or community, such as football plays, a second language, music, a subculture, an academic field or digital communities. Reflection in the genre of a literacy narrative includes both a narrative about a specific event or series of events and exploring insights gleaned from your experience that offer a kind of statement about the functions of literacy. For example, Se Habla Espanol by Tanya Barrientos focuses on learning to speak Spanish, but part of her reflection involves defining the context and cultural factors that shaped her experiences with Spanish speakers in the United States. Content Requirements: For this project, you will draw upon personal experience and write from a first person point of view. You will use descriptive detail and vivid scenes to develop a narrative. The maxim “show—don’t tell” is one to follow here. Be detailed, specific, and filled with sensory impressions in your narrative. But you also must connect details of your experience(s) to some larger idea about literacy as a social practice. You should offer an exploratory claim or speculation about the functions, purposes, or social importance of literacy (in terms of reading, writing, digital, or spoken language). And you will need to connect your experience to a published literacy narrative discussed in Unit One. That is, you need to connect to a broader conversation about the social contexts of literacy (see SG Literacy Narrative Analysis). Strategies to Focus Your Narrative: You can follow one of several directions in focusing your narrative.
● You might look at a significant event learning to read or write (e.g. Chimamanda Adichie’s early reading experience).
● You might focus on cultural attitudes toward literacy and explore how you have navigated some of those for better or worse.
● You might focus on becoming literate in a current subculture or group, learning the lingo, gaining membership because you could “write” or “read” the code of the group.
● You might incorporate a visual element as an opportunity to consider design, such as a smart graphic, a chart, a drawing or a picture related to your reflection.
Format Requirements
● Your project should have an engaging title that is no more than 9 words. ● You should cite any visual element you borrow, if you include a picture, drawing, or graph. ● Your project should be 900-1200 words and be double-spaced in MS Word or .pdf. ● Your project should directly quote at least one of the required readings in this unit. ● Your project should be formatted in 12-pt. font with 1-inch margins. TIMES NEW ROMAN FONT. ● Your project should follow MLA format. ● All required drafts must be typed. Please bring printed copies to class on the days we are peer
editing unless instructed otherwise. Reflection Memo (due with Final Draft on 8 February 2018)
● Describe and reflect on your process of invention and planning. How did you decide upon a certain focus and the purpose or lens for defining literacy? What strategies for choosing a main focus, organizing ideas, composing and revising did you employ?
● How did the readings for the unit contribute to your understanding of the literacy narrative genre? How did the readings contribute to your own production process and final product?
● How would you describe your revision process? Are all drafts submitted? ● How well did you meet the assessment criteria for the writing project ● What would you do differently if you did this assignment again?