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ENGL106 Writing Project #1

Literacy Narrative: Writing about your Literacy

Chen Spring 2014

Context: For the next couple weeks, we will be discussing literacy as a dynamic facet of our lives. In our discussion of the writings of Alexi, Deborah Brandt, and some of your peers, we will consider the personal, social, and economic implications of literacy. We will stretch our definitions in order to include literacy practices beyond reading and writing and consider the ways that the practices we develop in one arena may be transferred to another. This assignment asks us to look backward, inward, and outward as we consider the way that we have pursued literacy and how literacy has pursued us.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
You will write a narrative focusing on a key or several key moments in your personal literacy acquisition. Draw on Brandts concept of sponsors of literacy to reconstruct key moments in your literacy history and identify people who helped (or hurt) your literacy formation. You may explore previous writing and reading activities or write about different literacies that you have/ use. However, you need to choose one type of literacy and focus on a moment(s) when you felt you were becoming or became literate in this activitywhether it is reading and writing or soccer playing. You can choose how far back you explore this literacy, but it must not be an episodic listing of events. You should, however, discuss at least one key moment or theme in your literacy history.

Requirements: This assignment requires that you write a narrative or a story. You need to include both a narrative element and the analysis or interpretation of it. To strengthen the narrative, you should draw on specific examples or experiences. 1) Use description so that you can show not tell your story. Your reader should see whats happening in your story. 2) Use dialogue to add a realistic aspect to your experiences. 3) Reflect on experiences so that the reader can sense the theme.

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Goals: 1) To connect our personal literacy with larger theories of literacy acquisition 2) To validate the breadth of our individual literacy practices. 3) To give us practice at writing in a familiar genre. Unit 1 Point Breakdown and Due Dates (Total Points: 200) Journals: 20pts. (5 pts. each) Due dates are on Unit 1 Calendar. Classroom Participation: 20pts. Draft: 20pts. Due on January 26. Peer Review and Writers Note: 20 pts. Due on January 31. Final Draft: 100pts. Due on February 2. Project Reflection: 20pts. Due on February 2.

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