...Literacy Narrative In: Other Topics Literacy Narrative I grew up in a very fortunate family; we never really had to worry about a low income, and we were able to buy extra stuff and go on other trips unlike other families. I never really understood how we were able to do this seeing as my parents did not go to college. They also rarely ever read; if they did it would be a magazine or an article online, and they never wrote. My parents would always push me to read more and always do well on my writing assignments and review them over and over again so they would be the best of my ability. Back then I never really understood why they would make me do all of this, but now that I am a bit older and understand how important these traits are, I understand why they did this. I’ll never forget my English teacher my junior year of high school, Mr. Stanizzi. He was the most inspirational teacher I have ever had in my life. He genuinely loved his job and made English class fun, and fascinating. By this time I thought for sure that no teacher was ever going to change my opinion on writing, but he proved me wrong. There was something he did while teaching and analyzing poems that really struck my interest. Every week we would have a period just focusing on either writing our own poems or analyzing them. There was one particular poem that I was extremely proud of and showed Stanizzi the poem. He was shocked that I wrote such a good poem. He liked my poem so...
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...Frederick Douglass wrote several autobiographies during his lifetime, none continues to have the lasting literary impact of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. From its publication in 1845 to its present status in the American literary canon, the Narrative has become one of the most highly acclaimed American autobiographies ever written. Published seven years after Douglass' escape from his life as a slave in Maryland, the Narrative put into print circulation a critique of slavery that Douglass had been lecturing on around the country for many years. Yet while the Narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of being a slave, it also reveals his psychological insights into the slave/master relationship. What Douglass realizes that day is that literacy is equated with not only individual consciousness but also freedom. From that day, Douglass makes it his goal to learn as much as he can, eventually learning how to write, a skill that would provide him with his passport to freedom. What gives the book its complexity is Douglass' ability to incorporate a number of sophisticated literary devices...
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...Writing a Literacy Narrative A literacy narrative is telling a story. To be exact, it is giving an account of an experience, most likely a personal one, which tells about a time when reading and/or writing helped you to learn something significant. The main idea of a literacy narrative is to speak about a time you were able to learn and grow from a specific experience. When writing any sort of essay or paper, it is always necessary to do the following: Pick a topic that you feel very strongly about but are willing to share. Title your paper (something suitable to your topic) Engage the reader (“Show” the reader rather than “telling” the reader.) Give vivid descriptions throughout the essay. Use sensory details, such as what you see, smell, touch, etc. Include dialogue, but use it sparingly. Dialogue is most effective when it is only used for key moments. Remember to punctuate dialogue correctly. For example: “I don’t know what happened, but I’m not going to give up,” Jasmine said. Know that an important tool in narratives is imagery, which can be defined as visually descriptive language. These details are important because recalling a day such as this shows it’s importance to you, allowing the reader somewhat of an emotional connection to the event. This method is called reflecting. Whenever you’re writing an essay that involves something from you past, it is vital that you ask yourself these following questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What...
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...segregation. In addition, the style and genre, and the structure of this literary work make significant contributions towards its thematic development, which focus on resistance to racism, the significance of the family, self-identity and definition and independence. Walker (95) argues that I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings is characterized by thematic unity, which is achieved using the structure adopted in the text that takes more of a thematic form rather than a chronological form. In addition, Angelou managed to emphasize on the universal ideas in her literary work irrespective of its periodic quality. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou used the major characters of the book to facilitate its thematic development identity, racism and literacy throughout the text. Basing on this assertion, this essay uses evidence from the book to affirm the role that the major characters played in the development of the major themes in the book. The first major theme in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is identity. In the course of the text, Maya is depicted as symbolic character representing every African American girl growing in America. Maya is depicted as...
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...Dear Class: According the textbook chapter 6, “Preschool children’s emergent literacy behaviors can be categorized into eight specific areas: (a) Awareness of sound patterns and individual sounds in words, (b) associating sounds with letters of the alphabet, (c) focusing on specific features of letters and discriminating between the letters, (d) creating narratives, (e) developing a concept of book language, (f) developing a concept of how to read, (g) developing book-related concepts, and (h) developing a concept of how to write.” (Otto, 2008). Here are some examples: -Awareness of sound patterns and individual sounds in words: Preschoolers can follow the rhyming when they do the sound play as “Dog, Mop, Pot, and Dot”. -Associating sounds with letters of the alphabet: Preschoolers can make connection with letters. For example: “A is for Apple, E is for Emma (classmate’s name)”. -Focusing on specific features of letters and discriminating between the letters: Preschoolers may make mistakes when they read the letters, such as “ numbers 1, and upper letter I”. Parents and teacher should work on the special parts with each letter and number to identify the difference. -Creating narratives: Preschoolers can tell the story in their own words or add on their own idea after the reading. Their story might be different from what the event or the book really about. They could have some parts missed or mixed order. -Developing a concept of “book language”: Preschoolers can aware...
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...Accessing Freedom through Literacy This essay will show how, through his quest for literacy, Frederick Douglass tries to gain access to freedom, a freedom that he has been denied by the authority of slavery. His Narrative challenges the precepts of slavery by showing how literacy allows slaves to become the intellectual equals of the slave owners. It also shows how, through literacy, slaves can gain a sense of self-reliance and independence, which goes against the very core of slavery. One of the building blocks of slavery is the belief that African American slaves are primitives, being given no chance to develop their intellectual abilities. Slavery enforces the idea that slaves are lesser than men, and in the case of Frederick Douglass’s...
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...they felt at that moment, how it felt, the smell, the light, the thoughts, everything. Slaves suffered too much, until they said “enough”. As black slaves, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs have a lot of common because of the symbolism they used, the theme of how they describe slavery, and the literacy scene in how they did something everyone thought was impossible. For both, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, the symbolism of the word “slave” had a deeper meaning than just a word. In “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave” is written, “The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, change to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon” (Douglass). In this quote, Douglass is describing how the person who bought him for slave changed from being a good person to becoming a demon. The power that corrupts this person which in the story is Mrs. Auld makes her become a bad person by wanting to have control over the slave. This is one example of the symbolism of how Douglass used the transformation of a good person to bad by owning a slave. In “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” is described, “When he told me that I was made for his use, made to obey his command in everything; that I was nothing but a slave, whose will must and should...
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...Anyone reading this essay will end with the inspiration to aspire to reach their goals and change this world one day at a time. Working at Wendy’s Question 1: What is Joey Franklin’s attitude toward working at Wendy’s? How does he demonstrate it? In answering these questions, look specifically at the conclusion of the essay and at the details he chooses about how others respond to him. Question 2: Franklin uses considerable detail to develop his coworkers as characters (see paragraph 13 for an example). Which details do you find especially effective? Why? Learning to Read Question 1: Frederick Douglass’s story might today be called a “literacy narrative”-an account of how someone learns to read and write. What are the key features of this narrative? What obstacles did Douglass face? How did he overcome them? Question 2: Many literacy narratives include an enabling figure, someone who helps the young learner along his or her way. Is there such a figure in Douglass’s narrative? Why or why not? ...
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...characterized by narrative or story-like structure, sometimes with abrupt transitions, and uses various literary techniques to make the prose more memorable and powerful. * Often organized chronologically or has a story like element * Often used to heighten or deepen a problem, or show human significance * Often has an implicit theme rather than a thesis. * Often violates rules of closed-form prose by using literary techniques Closed-form Prose Closed-form prose can be defined as writing with a hierarchical structure of points and details in support of an explicit thesis. It is characterized by unified and coherent paragraphs, topic sentences, transitions between sentences and paragraphs, and forecasting of the whole before presentation of the parts. * Thesis explicitly stated in introduction * All parts of essay linked clearly to thesis * Body paragraphs develop thesis * Body paragraphs have topic sentences * Structure forecasted Autobiographical Narrative Autobiographical narrative writing can help us explore, deepen, and complicate our perceptions of the world. This narrative is any significant even or moment in your life. * Focus on rhetorical aim “writing to express or share.” * Autobiographical narrative something significant in your life Literacy Narrative This narrative is centered on the writer’s experience with language, reading, writing, school, teachers, or education. * Literacy narrative centered on the writers...
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...Children, Snow, Burns, & Griffin (1998) presented a synthesis of research on the conditions that contribute to successful reading. The authors identified the following factors as predictors of success and failure in reading: Physical and Clinical Factors | Predictors of School Entry | Acquired Knowledge of Literacy | Family-based Risk Factors | Neighborhood, Community, and School-based Factors | Cognitive deficienciesHearing problemsEarly language impairmentAttention deficit/hyperactivity disordersVision problems | Acquired proficiency in languageVerbal memoryLexical and syntactic skillsOverall languagePhonological awarenessOral Vocabulary | Reading readinessLetter identificationConcepts of printPhonemic awareness | Family history of reading difficultiesHome literacy environmentOpportunities for verbal interactionHome language other than EnglishUse of a nonstandard dialect of English in the homeSocioeconomic status | Environmental risksLow performing schoolsLow expectationsLack of resourcesConflicting community valuesNegative peer pressure | http://faculty.scf.edu/sharric/lesson2/lesson2topic4.htmWhile in Example A you may struggle to seek out the inner meaning, in Example B you are probably only interested in one or two details (or perhaps it's the other way around). Either way, you are using two very different...
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...able to absorb three of those course competencies; subject matter knowledge, rhetorical knowledge, and writing process knowledge. The first paper I was assigned to write for Writing 102 was a literacy narrative. For this paper, I was told to write about a past experience that helped influence my current writing and reading qualities. The core competencies that were involved in this essay were writing process knowledge and subject matter knowledge. I used writing process knowledge when I was told to generate ideas for my essay. I began by thinking of five possible ideas and from there I created a brainstorming web out of the two topics I thought would be the most interesting. Shortly after starting, I realized I could only build an effective brainstorming web from one idea. I decided to use the first time I forgot my lines in a play as my main idea for the essay. After I completed the brainstorming web and finished taking notes on what I remembered from the incident I started to follow the writing process that consisted of prewriting, drafting, and revising. Subject matter knowledge, which was the other core competency, was used in this essay when I began the actual writing process. To prevent the reader from becoming bored and uninterested in the essay, I was told that the literacy narrative didn’t have to be entirely true. This allowed me to put some imagery in the essay that kept the readers attentive to the storyline....
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...Summary: Literacy Narrative ENG Composition-115 Dr. Professor Sunanda Vaidya February 04, 2015 “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits”, is a literacy narrative of a Korean girl called Suki who had to adapt and immigrate to the United States when her father, a very well established business man had to file for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is illegal and punishable in Korea. Therefore, Suki’s entire family had no choice but to immigrate. Moving to America was a huge challenge for Suki as she had to habituate to living standards she was could not fathom. For example, she had to get used to living in a crammed place much different from the mansion she once lived in. She had to get accustomed to living a life void of all the luxuries she was used to such as: having a maid, a governess and being chauffeured to school. The move to The United States made her realize things she had never thought about such as: the color of her skin… yellow. Furthermore, she was referred to as a “F.O.B” because she was a new immigrant who was incapable of communicating in English. In her English as a Second Language class, Suki got the opportunity to communicate with other Korean-speaking classmates. However, she quickly realized she did not have much in common with the other Korean kids. Her English class consisted of kids who belonged to poor families who left Korea due to the discrimination they faced because of class hierarchy, education level, family background and financial status...
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...I read it but I don’t get it[1] The title of my article is a title of a book by Cris Tovani but more of that later! I want to explore why I feel that Ken Rowe’s literacy report misses the complexity of literacy development in young people– at least from my secondary perspective. Of course he covers some bases and on the surface suggests a balanced approach. He is also right that teachers need to be better educated about reading practices. However, the emphasis on phonics which has been widely reported in the media appears disproportionate to its usefulness. Some students can manage to read and spell without phonics so why do we need to occupy their brains with phonemes or phonic practices. Others need them. The informed primary teacher differentiates accordingly. What Ken Rowe does not focus on is the literacy needs of young people in secondary schools where decoding is less of a problem than comprehension. For many students reading is meaningless – particularly fiction. The Four Resource Model of Allan Luke and Peter Freebody[2] outlines what students need to do as they read: Effective literacy draws on a repertoire of practices that allow learners, as they engage in reading and writing activities, to: • break the code of texts: recognising and using the fundamental features and architecture of written texts including: alphabet, sounds in words, spelling, conventions and patterns of sentence structure and text • participate in the meanings...
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...of Freedom, and the Abomination of American Slavery Frederick Douglass's autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), reveals a multitude of ways in which African Americans suffered under slavery. The Narrative captures the universality of slavery and its many abuses such as the separation of family and friends, daily beatings, backbreaking labor, scarcity of sleep, suppression of individuality, crushing oppression, and intense racism. The turning point in Douglass’s slavery is his stay with slaveholder Covey. The fight with Covey forms the central moment of the text where he is able to symbolically break free from bondage and become an autonomous human being thus enabling his later escape....
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...CONTENT AREA LITERACY IMPORTANCE Tracey Turner EDUC 525A Instructor: Craig Carter December 7, 2014 CONTENT AREA LITERACY IMPORTANCE Literacy is an important aspect for success in life in general. An individual’s success in the classroom, in their career, and in their quality of life is directly related to how literate that individual may be. Literacy is more than the ability to read, but how an individual uses written information to function in life. Literacy was traditionally thought of as just the ability to read and understand what has been read. Now, the term literacy is being thought of in terms as a much wider range of skills related to subjects such as science and math. Changes in society and advancements in technology have brought about rising skill requirement in every aspect in life. To be successful in every area, one must be literate in every subject being taught. The success of the school will also be related to how well the school is equipping the students to have strong literacy skills. Regardless of the subject being taught, literacy is an important aspect for success in that subject. In order for a student to fully comprehend in every subject, they must have strong literacy skills in that subject, not just in reading. “The ultimate goal of literacy instruction is to build a student's comprehension, writing skills, and overall skills in communication.”(Alber, 2014). The incorporation of reading instruction and strategies into content area...
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