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Jeremy Smith
Professor Raymond
UWRT 1101
Sep. 17th, 2014
Writing Literacy
In order to gain further information on how social media and other interactive devices
shaped my literacy narrative I asked my parents what things they used to shape their literacy
narrative. I was quite shocked at the things that they said they used. They definitely didnt have
the same things that I had due to the difference in technology and the opportunities that were
available during the time period. The tide of history definitely has changed between the
generations not just racially but also socially.
My parents were born in the late 50s and early 60s in Jackson, MS and Columbus, MS.
They were born in a state that had horrific voting turnouts among blacks. 45% of Mississippi
were black but only 5% were even registered to vote at all. (Cozzens) They were born in one of
the most racially biased states in the entire United States and the south. The white Mississippians
went as far as to change the literacy test from its original form of read or interpret a section of
the state constitution to read and interpret a section just to accommodate for the increasing
literacy among blacks. (Cozzens) It was the white test administrator that determined if they
passed or not. In George County, a white man took the literacy test and interpreted There shall
be no imprisonment for debt as I think a Nigger should at least have two years of college
before being able to vote because he dont understand the ways of the land passed just simple
because he recited back what the test administrator and what society wanted to hear. (Cozzens)
Many people that were too young to vote began to join groups that worked to gain equal rights.

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They staged sit ins, etc. though being expelled for resisting society. The group leaders that began
teaching these young kids were arrested for contributing to the delinquency of minors.
(Cozzens) My mother was born in a small rural town and lived in a farm that my grandfather
owned. That was beneficial to her because she learned how to read and write through the
business transactions when my family took the produce to the local market. My dad on the other
hand had it a little different. My grandmother is Caucasian and my grandfather is African
American. His literacy narrative was shaped on the fact that my grandmother was Caucasian. He
got some of the best schooling and learning there was in Jackson, MS.
My literacy narrative is shaped on the fact that Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and
other activists of all kind fought for freedom in something. Whether that be gay rights, civil
rights, womens rights, voting rights, etc. they still shaped my literacy narrative. The first thing
that developed my literacy narrative was an automated system called leap frog that was designed
to teach kids how to read. I remember how there was a pen attached to the little set and when you
touched it to the paper it responded back with something. When reading it would ask you a
question like: Where is the word ball?. I had to be able to read and touch with the pen the word
ball. Not only did the leap frog do words but also asked comprehensive questions just to make
sure I understood what I was reading not just reciting the words back because I had to. In the
words of Malcolm X, my word-base broadened. (Malcolm X)
The most vivid memory I have of learning how to read is from kindergarten. Growing up
my parents use to always say that in order to be better than someone you need to be better than
them at one thing. That one thing was reading and writing. They also sad that I might not be able
to out write or out read someone else but as long as I knew how to read it didnt matter. The
parents that I had always wanted to teach my sis and me everything we needed to learn for the

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next grade so that we already had a fresh start and the teachers could refresh or teach us the way
in which they wanted for us to do their particular assignment.
I learned to write when I was 3 years old. Starting out my writing wasnt legible enough
for anyone to read but over time it was. My parents started teaching me how to write by using
books that contained templates where the letters were traceable. I remember my dad sitting down
with me and my twin sister across from me and pulling out this very thick book. At first I looked
at the book like what is that. He opened the book and there were a bunch of lines and letters.
There was one letter per page. He started with the capital letter A. My dad had a different
approach to teaching us. He made us watch him write the letter then try and repeat how he did it.
After a while I understood the concept, all I had to do was copy the way the letters were printed
on the page. My mom was the instructor for the lowercase letters. She approached teaching us by
placing her hand on ours and tracing the letters with us. Once they felt my letters were legible
enough to read, they began teaching me how to write words then later sentences. By the time I
was 4 I was far more advanced than some of my classmates in pre-school. My twin sister and
older brother made my literacy narrative easier because there was always a fight for who could
be the better child, whether that be in math, reading, writing, English, speaking, etc. there were
always competitions.
A profoundly important event that shaped my literacy in my later years of life is going to
the 10th grade and having an English teacher that was very focused and obsessed with developing
our writing into college style writing. This teacher no longer wanted us to write like a high
school student just writing a paper to pass a class. It now was about writing a paper that had
sufficient evidence and stronger word choice to convey messages and feelings.

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The first day of 10th grade and I get placed in a class where the 1st sentence out of my
English teachers mouth is, This wont be like your normal English class. You will have to
write a lot of papers and they will be graded just like if I was your English professor in two
years. That first statement really scared me to death. I had been accustomed to writing papers
that were decent but got me an A. Now this teacher was telling me that in order to pass her class
I must write a paper that had to be better word choice and support the paper with evidence. That
was very different.
Technology has created an atmosphere where students actively make choices to generate,
obtain, manipulate, and display information. (US Department of Education) Students are
provided with the opportunity to define their own goals, make decisions, and evaluate their own
progress. (US Department of Education) My parents didnt have that type of technology to shape
their literacy narrative like I did. They had the environment in which they lived and grew up in
that shaped theirs. The environment of racism and hatred. The environment where the only way
to succeed was to create your own path and hope that the stones would fall in the right place
because society had already cast them aside and marked them as the failures/wont be anything.
In an article written by Kathleen Parker, she says that success usually comes from failure.
(Parker)The environment that I grew up in was the no child left behind. Society is starting to try
and help educate future generations but are there still children left behind?

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Works Cited
Cozzens, Lisa. "Brown v. Board of Education." African American
History. 25 May 1998. http://fledge.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/
early-civilrights/brown.html Web. 13 Sep. 2014

Parker, Kathleen. "How we succeed by failing." The Washington Post 14 Oct. 2011.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-we-succeed-byfailing/2011/10/14/gIQAnDgykL_story.html. Web. 13 Sep. 2014.
US Department of Education. Effects of Technology on Classrooms and Students. n.d. 2.ed.gov/.
Web. 13 Sep. 2014.
Malcolm X. Learning to Read. Smccd.net. Web. 25 Aug. 2014.