Literacy+Autobiography

By describing significant writing experiences and seeking their meaning, you improve the likelihood of being a teacher who promotes literacy among young people. According to teacher education research, 'reflective practitioners' make the best teachers. The idea is to tell a story—your story—and reflect on it. This is a case study in which you are both the researcher and the subject of the research.

Questions/Prompts to Consider

1. Who were your earliest influences as a writer? How were the positive or negative? What role did parents, peers, and other adults play in your development? How have the influences sine the early ones helped or hindered your writing? Who in middle or high school was an especially positive or negative influence on writing? What specific incidents are vivid for you? 2. How have you felt about writing? How have your feelings varied, depending on the type of writing you're doing? How have your feelings changed as you've grown older? How would you like to feel about writing? What stops you or holds you back? To what extent is writing an activity that you do for pleasure and stimulation? To what extent is it work or drudgery? What kind of writing do you find boring or difficult? Why do you think this is so? 3. What kind of kid were you in middle and high school? Whom did you 'hang out' with? Go back to a photo album and see yourself as you were then; then try to develop a 'profile' (character sketch) of yourself in relation to the group you identified with. How did the norms and expectations of the group relate to literacy activities and/or school? Do you still identify with the norms of this social group or are you now 'moving on'? 4. To what extent does writing really help you learn? What do you know about using writing for personal learning? When and where did you learn these lessons? How do you get started when you have a writing project like this one to do? How do you sustain interest and concentration? How do you organize your time when it comes to drafting, revising and editing? How successful (or competent) do you feel as an adult writer?

Some of the q's are more interesting than others. Zero in on those you'd like to explore for a few minutes. Work fast and don't worry about profundity or sentence crafting. Get your thoughts down! Afterwards, look back over your work and circle words that seem to hold particular interest or surprise for you. You'll want to follow leads that help you answer the central question: What literacy experiences have made me who I am today?

Adapted from Strong, William. Write for insight: empowering content area learning, grades 6-12. (2006). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Below are two assignment sheets that Steve has used with college students. The first, a literacy narrative, is a more focused paper (write about one literacy experience). The second is what I call a generic literacy autobiography assignment sheet that could be adapted to a specific situation.