I found this article to be particularly fascinating as it aligns with my own personal views of language and writing—that it is through storytelling that we find ourselves and share our culture. Each of us communicates through telling stories, whether it be a creative venture like writing a personal narrative or creating a website or something more mundane like having a conversation with a friend or participating in an argument. Our own literacy narratives give others a way to understand us individually.
I like how the article points out that teachers often don't have the time to know students on a personal basis but that giving students the opportunity to share their literacy narratives allows for teachers to know their students in a more one-on-one fashion. As a writing tutor, I agree with this concept. I see students who come from very different writing circumstances, and those circumstances shape those students into who they are. Hearing what brings students to places like the writing center definitely builds on this idea that our personal literacy is shaped by our culture and learning circumstances.
I wish more professors did a literacy assignment, at least in the 1010 classes. After seeing a range of abilities come through the Writing Center (with a wide variance between English 1010 students) I feel like the literacy narrative could provide valuable insight on how to help their particular class.
ReplyDeleteThough Ashley, if we're finding ourselves and sharing culture, what about your short horror films :)? If I find out you're secretly living the Blair Witch project and not telling me, I'll be so sad.
I read "or something more mundane like having a conversation with a friend" and chuckled. Then, I re-read to make sure you were joking. Your voice in your writing is great, Ashley. I am assuming that is dead-pan humor, but even in person I probably would not be able to tell because I can be gullible. The narrative aspect of blogs is fun because of the personal humor and acceptable use of the first person perspective.
DeleteAnyway, I agree that are literacy is influenced by our experiences. I also think that literacy narratives help teachers understand students' backgrounds. Now, I understand why we wrote our digital narratives for our first blog post.
I read "or something more mundane like having a conversation with a friend" and chuckled. Then, I re-read to make sure you were joking. Your voice in your writing is great, Ashley. I am assuming that is dead-pan humor, but even in person I probably would not be able to tell because I can be gullible. The narrative aspect of blogs is fun because of the personal humor and acceptable use of the first person perspective.
DeleteAnyway, I agree that are literacy is influenced by our experiences. I also think that literacy narratives help teachers understand students' backgrounds. Now, I understand why we wrote our digital narratives for our first blog post.
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteWhat a delight to read your blog post on Dr. Selfe's article! As I mentioned in Brittany's post, the author's call to share students' narratives and literacy background practices also serves a pedagogical purpose. As writing teachers/tutors, we get to appreciate what everyone brings to the table as chronicled in our students'/tutees' stories, either shared F2F or digitally. Literacy narratives are capable of determining various capacities and needs that will help maximize learning. The DALN project is indeed sustainable "in aid of pedagogy." =))
Dr. B
All responses recorded. ~Dr. B (sgd)
ReplyDelete