Essay Prompt:

A literacy narrative is an autobiographical essay with a thematic focus. Similar to your introductory letter assignment, the theme for your literacy narrative can either be multiple reading and writing experiences that occurred during particularly important times in your literacy development, OR it can focus on one meaningful and memorable experience in reading and writing. As the assignment title implies, you will narrate (tell the story) of your reading/writing event(s). Moreover, you will summarize the reading text(s) you are writing about, describe scenes and the people in them, and, most importantly, interpret the meaning of the text(s)/event(s)—both at the time they were read/occurred AND now, as you write your essay. Thus, your analytical goal is to examine your own dynamic literacy history for concrete examples of when opportunity and access to gaining literacy were afforded to you (or not). Consider these prompts: 

• Recall any specific moments from your earliest memories of reading and writing to later experiences developing more advanced literacy that are significant to you or vivid: what changed you for good? How and why? 
• For bilingual/multilingual students: Describe memorable experiences navigating in a dual-language world, translating for others (who may not speak one of your languages well) during sales transactions or filling out forms. Can you describe how speaking more than one language impacts your worldview and/or your educational experience? 
• Describe certain artifacts (books, stories, articles, etc.) or personal artifacts (your own essays, poems, stories) which represent meaningful moments in your literacy development. Again, what text changed you for good? How and why? 
• Summarize how your literacies possess educational consequences or impact your life or its circumstance. How did your developing literacy change your relationships with friends or family? Have you ever been accused of not “sounding” smart, or trying to “sound” smart, or like someone else? How do you “own” your language experience?  Narrate what teachers, counselors and friends/family members contributed to your literacy development. How and why did they change you? 
• Describe those forms of literacy you may not have had access to, due to societal or economic factors. How did gaining literacy, learning, or better schooling change you?

Reflection Prompt:

•  What your thought process was like going into this assignment: How did you think about your writing before you were asked to write this assignment? Were you successful in examining your literacy experiences through your evidence? Can you see a change in your thinking about evidence use in essays? If so, explain. How might you use critical thinking more effectively for future assignments? 
• How your Literacy Narrative differs from your Introductory Letter: Did writing the Introductory Letter help prepare you for the new assignment? If so, explain how and why? Which aspects of MLA did the Introductory Letter familiarize you with that you also used in your Literacy Narrative? What was similar about them both, and what was different? 
• What your process for writing the Literacy Narrative was: Did you rely on past approaches, or try new approaches? If so, how successful were you in employing those approaches? Did you write A-to-Z or produce-then-assemble? Did you experience any missteps or false starts? What did you learn about your processes and how they work and/or are developing? Can you see a change in your writing? If so, explain. 
• What your review process was like: How did you respond to your peer’s suggestions on your first draft? Did you seek outside help from a tutor or the Writing Center? How did they help you? What suggestions did you try to adopt? How did you respond to your peer’s challenges on that draft? What review/proofreading strategies did you try? What did you learn about your writing from proofreading?