UNIT ONE: DISCOVERING OUR LITERACIES

In this unit, well start with our own literacy as a jumping off point. Well explore definitions of literacy and how people talk about their own literate practices. We want to have a good sense of what literacy can look like as we move into our first major assignment of the semester: the Literacy Memoir. From standard academic literacy to speaking multiple Englishes to building houses, literacy can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Literacy is most often associated with reading and writing, but we hear literacy thrown around in many other contexts, too: digital literacy, information literacy, financial literacy, etc. So whats the common denominator, here? What exactly is literacy? Well use the next four or so weeks to wrap our minds around this question, and this learning will culminate in your first assignment. Learning Goals for Unit and Assignment 1 To develop nuanced and critical views of literacy To reflect on the development of literacies To write cohesive a narrative To develop useful invention and arrangement strategies To begin interrogating the role of genre on the writing process

Assignment 1: Literacy Memoir

This assignment gives you the chance to think critically about a literacy youve developed so far. This is not a traditional academic essay you dont need to cite any sources, you dont need a five-paragraph structure (in fact, you never do). This is a memoir. We will spend some time talking about the qualities of memoir, but Im asking you to write a narrative, a story, about the development of a literacy thats important to you. By the time you begin writing this narrative, you should have a good sense of what literacy is and can be. Hopefully, too, youve had the chance to think about many of your literacies and how theyve developed. A successful memoir isnt just a list of dates or people or facts. It tells a captivating and guided story. Put bluntly: it makes some point. In this case, that point should be about learning and literacy development. The audience for this paper is pretty broad: your classmates, your family, me. Pleause use this to guide your decision-making process.

In this assignment you may answer any of the following questions 1. What were some key moments/experiences in the development of this literacy? 2. How were you able to develop this literacy? Did people help you along the way? Or was it primarily an independent process? 3. Were there any struggles in the development of this literacy? How or why did these struggles emerge? Requirements: This paper should be no less than 4 double-spaced pages. Please use 1inch margins and size 12 type.