English 11-Honors/APName:

KoenigsdorfHour:

Literacy Narrative

Approximate length: Two typewritten, double-spaced MLA-format pages

Pre-writing activities: Carefully read the following selections found in The Norton Field Guide to Writing:

Frederick Douglass: “Learning to Read,” pp. 492-497

Malcolm X: “Literacy Behind Bars,” pp. 499-503

Amy Tan: “Mother Tongue,” pp. 505-511

Mike Rose: “Potato Chips and Stars,” pp. 512-516

Choose ONE of the following topics for your PERSONAL NARRATIVE. Naturally, this will be written informally since it is about your life and personal experiences. Develop ONE specific memory that describes a “defining moment” in your “literacy” background. DO NOT describe your entire “literacy” background.Write this narrative in story form, incorporating a strong introduction, body, and conclusion.

  1. Think about your own experience learning to read and write. Did you want to learn, or was it simply expected of you? Did you in any way teach yourself, or did you learn from a teacher or a relative? Write your own literacy narrative, considering how you learned to read and write.
  1. Write a literacy narrative looking at the role that reading has played in your education. Consider the kinds of books you’ve read, including those you’ve been assigned to read, and also those you yourself have chosen to read. What impact has reading had on your life? Can you recall a “transforming moment” such as the one experienced by Malcolm X?
  1. Explore the differences between the language you speak at home and the language(s) you use with friends, teachers, employers, and so on. Write an essay in which you reflect on the various languages you speak. If you speak only one language, consider the variations in the ways you speak—at home, at work, at school, at church, wherever.
  1. Mike Rose describes several literacies he developed and pursued outside of school: chemistry, where he learned to read chemicals; astronomy, where he learned to read charts and the sky; and science fiction, where he learned to read and tell epic stories. Identify a particular literacy that you have developed outside of school and write a literacy narrative in which you tell about how you first became interested in it, what kinds of materials you read, and what kinds of writing or performance it helped you acquire.