Literacy Narrative
Length and Style: 4-5 pages in MLA format (double-spaced, Times New Roman Font).

A literacy narrative tells a story about a time when reading and/or writing helped you to learn and grow from a specific experience. They present a good story, vivid details, and clear significance of the memories.

The first priority of a narrative is to present a good story.
IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE
Focus- Write about one story with a beginning, conflict and resolution. Do not summarize your life experience with literacy in a 4-5 page document. It is best to stay in one or two scenes only, it will help with show-not tell imagery.
Reading Literacy Writing Literacy Digital Literacy
Did you ever have an affinity to a certain book / poem/ writer/ lyrics?
Have you ever felt illiterate?
Did you ever have an affinity for a piece of banned or controversial literature?
Have you ever been made fun of for what you read?
Have you ever had your reading skills ridiculed?
What kind of reading was considered important in your household or culture? What effect did that have on you?
What effect did your reading in childhood have on you?
Did you ever have difficultly gaining access to reading material? What was this challenge like?
How has your family and upbringing affected your literacy? Have you ever gone through the experience of composing a poem, love letter, novel or work of fiction?
Have you ever composed something exceptionally difficult?
Have you ever had to compose for a very difficult audience?
Have you ever had your writing ridiculed or made fun of?
What kinds of writing did you find fun? What about this experience made it fun?
What was one of the things you wrote in childhood? What experience did this have on you?
Did you ever use writing to deal with difficult circumstances? What was its effect?
How did learning handwriting help you develop as a writer? Have you ever ran a Facebook page or other social media sites?
Have you ever been engaged in an online debate?
Have you ever been upset by an unfair online review?
Have you ever composed a website?
Have you had any interesting experiences based off of texting?
Have you ever had an email experience that made you blush?
Have you ever been frustrated with certain digital writing and reading platforms? If so, why?
Do you know any holdouts to the digital revolution? What is it like trying to communicate to people who resist digital literacy?
A Good Story- In fiction, the main character is usually more interesting if she or he changes during the story. The same is true in a personal narrative. Choose a focal point which was also a turning point. Here are some ideas for a literacy narrative. You are not restricted to the questions on this chart alone.

Showing and Not Telling
• Vivid Detail- All writing needs details. The kinds of details you need are determined by the type of writing, which is in turn determined by your purpose, audience, self-presentation, and topic. A narrative is meant to bring a story alive in the reader’s mind; the details memoir needs are the same as you will find in fiction. Use the five senses to have the reader experience your memory (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell).
• Action- Characters come more alive when we see them do things, not just hear that they did something.
• Scene- Setting can be made more real for the reader by using imagery to describe the physical location, the social world, the time of your life that is involved, the time in history that is involved.
• Dialogue- have people in your narrative speak. Dialogue is most effective when it is only used for key moments. Remember to punctuate dialogue correctly.

MLA Format
Your literacy narrative will need to adhere to Modern Language Association (MLA) format for margins, font, spacing, title and headings.

LITERACY NARRATIVE RUBRIC
Length This assignment is the required length. This assignment is under the length requirement (10% grade reduction per half page incomplete) Percentage Deducted:
Category Excellent Good Average Subpar Poor
Detail This shows not tells. There is direct dialogue, rich sensory imagery, and action. This mostly shows the story in good detail. Perhaps a couple areas need more development. This has some sensory language, action and dialogue, but could use more. Not much on the lines of detail. The reader cannot experience the memory through detail. Little to no detail, this reads like a report instead of a story.
Purpose This excellently displays the power of the written word or language on the individual. The observations on literacy here are insightful and focused. This clearly displays the power of the written word or language on the individual. The observations are mostly well-focused. The significance on literacy is here, but could use more focus. The details need to emphasize the significance more. This does not tell much of a story on literacy. The scope of the story is lifelong, and the reader is missing details. There is no clear significance and this reads more like a small autobiography rather than a focused story.
Word usage and Punctuation There are little to no errors in punctuation and usage. The sentences are clear and complete. There are a few errors in punctuation and usage. The sentences are generally clear and complete. There are some errors in punctuation and usage. There are a few instances of unclear, awkward, and incomplete sentences. There are frequent errors in punctuation and usage. There are many instances of unclear, awkward, and incomplete sentences. The paper is unclear due to frequent errors in punctuation and word usage. Most sentences are unclear, awkward or incomplete.
Paragraph Structure The paragraphs have specific details, and clear explanation and are easy to follow. The paragraphs mostly have clear specific details, and clear explanation and are easy to follow. The paragraphs need to integrate more specific details and clear explanation, Topic sentences are unclear. The paragraphs frequently do not have adequate detail and explanation. The paragraphs are unstructured and have little to no detail and explanation.