Literacy Narrative Examples
“Sister Flowers,” “Only Daughter”
and “Literacy: a Lineage”
Quickwrite #3
• In our readings for today, all of the writers were
influenced by the ideas about reading, writing,
and education the adults in their lives had. For
example, in “Only Daughter,” Sandra Cisneros’
father’s ideas the importance of education were
very important to her development as a writer.
What attitudes about reading and writing did the
adults in your family have when you were a child?
How did those attitudes shape your development
as a reader/writer?
Preparing to discuss “Sister
Flowers”
• If you have not done so already, take notes on
what you read, either on the essay or on another
sheet of paper.
– Highlight or make a note of important passages and
main points. (Make a note of paragraph numbers in
your notes so you can find these quotes easily.)
– Make connections between various parts.
– Ask questions of the text, make predictions, connect
to your own experience.
• Be ready to share your annotations with a
partner.
Questions for “Sister Flowers”
• What is the significance of "Sister Flowers"? (What is
the point of the narrative?)
• What are some particularly good pieces of description
in this piece? Look for places that she uses specific
detail to allow the reader to imagine the scene or
people she describes.
• How does she create tension? What contrasts does she
create? (Tension here could mean suspense, but it
could also mean places that make the reader a little
uncomfortable, things that aren't as they should be,
ideas and people that are in conflict with each other.)
Questions for “Sister Flowers”
• Who is the narrator of the story? Why is it
significant that her younger self does not have
much dialogue?
• How old is the narrator at the time of the
events described in “Sister Flowers”? In what
ways does the author show her youth?
• Where are some of the particular places
where Maya Angelou talks about her
relationship with words?
Points to Notice About “Only
Daughter”:
• Sandra Cisneros starts the story with an event
that happened recently, then goes backwards
in time to when she was a child. Why do you
think she does this?
• Throughout the literacy narrative, she gives
her audience a sense of when events
happened in relationship to the other events
she has already described. This is something
you need to do in your own literacy narrative.
Questions About the Reading:
• What do you think the author is saying about
how our upbringings/cultural/class situations
in life shape us? How do you think they shape
us?
• What is it that changes over the course of this
narrative? How does Cisneros help her readers
to understand the significance of this change?
• What are specific details Cisneros uses to
make her narrative vivid and unique to her?
I am a….
• Fill in this sentence for yourself. "I
am a/an __________ . That
explains everything."
–Remember, you can fill in the
sentence with one or two words,
or with several phrases, like the
author of our reading did.
Give advice to the author of “Literacy:
A Lineage” p. 132
1. What writing choices did she make that
worked for her? What did she do well?
2. What advice would you have given her to
improve her essay?
Introducing your narrative
• Cisneros uses an interesting quote to introduce
her narrative and grab the reader’s attention.
How does Maya Angelou introduce “Sister
Flowers”? How does Melanie Luken introduce
“Literacy: A Lineage”?
• How might you introduce your narrative?
- A quote or line of dialogue that will interest your
reader
- A colorful, unique event that relates to your main
point
- Useful background information
Writing Reflectively
When we reflect, we don't simply tell what
happened. We also think about…
– Why it happened
– What patterns/attitudes influenced events
– How we felt about what happened
– How what happened continued to affect us
– How what happened fits into the "big picture" of
human experience
– And, of course, what we learned/realized
Tips for writing reflectively:
• Be honest. Don't worry about "revealing too
much." This class is a safe place to reflect and
express yourself.
• Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Good
writing tends to make lots of people (including
the author) uncomfortable. Work through
your discomfort and see what you end up
with.
Noticing Reflective Writing
• Look back over the literacy narratives we have
read so far (“Sister Flowers,” “Only Daughter,”
and “Literacy: A Lineage”). Find a place where
one of the authors reflects on her experience.
What does this reflection add to the essay?
Writing Reflectively in Your Literacy
Narrative
• Choose one or two of the events you're going
to talk about in your literacy narrative. Write
for five minutes about:
• Why these events in your narrative happened.
You might want to consider…
– social conditions
– cultural issues
– choices you/other people made
– other patterns of events
Writing Reflectively in Your Literacy
Narrative
• Write for five minutes about how you feel
about these events/reasons. How did you feel
then? Has how you feel about it changed?
WHY did these events happen? Do you
understand things now in a way you didn’t
then? I'm not going to collect these, so don't
censor yourself. Please take this seriously,
though. You may find out that you have
something you can go through and edit later.
Write through your discomfort.
Making sentences more specific:
• Highlight AT LEAST five sentences in your draft or any
of your brainstorming that you think could be
improved by adding detail or sensory imagery. (Hint:
sentences with "things," "stuff" or other non-specific
words are prime candidates for this.) Give each of
them a number. (Highlight as many as you wish.)
• Example: When I was in grade school, there was this
thing that got sent home, and I ordered books from it.
• What questions do you have about this sentence?
What could I do as an author to make it more
interesting?
Making sentences more specific:
• Now that we have rewritten our example
sentence as a class, do the same thing for your
own sentences that you highlighted. Rewrite
every single one of them. When you put them
back into your essay, erase the old, less
detailed sentence.
Adding Dialogue to Your Narrative
• Dialogue pointers:
• Dialogue can enhance your reader's feeling of
actually "being there."
• Words being spoken are always encased in
"quote marks."
• New speakers always get a new indented
paragraph.
Example dialogue:
"Did you do your history reading?" my
mother asked.
"Not yet," I said.
She told me, "You should do it right now
before you watch any TV."
"But my favorite show is about to start," I
protested,” and I don't have time to finish before
then."
"That's too bad," she said.
Practice Dialogue for Literacy Narrative
• Dialogue tags (such as 'Jim said,' or 'yelled Annie') are
useful, but not always necessary if two characters are going
back and forth and it is very obvious who is speaking. You
can always show it to another writer in the class for
opinions about whether or not your dialogue is clear.
• Remember, dialogue can be mixed in with detail.
• Find a place in your narrative where you describe an
event that could be better told through dialogue. If
you are the only person in your narrative, think of a
conversation about writing or reading that you have
had and use it for this exercise. You can put your
dialogue in if you decide it fits, or you may decide
not to use it.
Using Details to Communicate Mood
• Previously, we have talked about sensory detail and
how including sensory details can improve your
descriptions and interest your readers.
• Sensory details can also help you to communicate
mood by creating a dominant impression.
• For instance, if a student was writing about how
writing in school always made her feel cramped and
confined, she might also choose to write about tight
shoes, crammed classrooms, and stifling air in the
summer. These details serve two functions: they set
the scene, AND they reinforce your point.
Dominant Impression Practice: This
Room
• What words would you use to describe this
room if you wanted to create the following
different dominant impressions:
• Worry/anxiety
• Boredom
• Calm
• Optimistic excitement
Making Your Own Dominant
Impression
• Your task: Choose a place, person, or event that
appears in your literacy narrative, decide on a
dominant impression, and write or heavily revise one
paragraph using words and images that support that
impression. Be sure to save your work if you are
working on a computer.
• Decide what your point is, and highlight/circle some of
place where you need to add details that might help
you to reinforce that point. (What you're doing here is
making a choice about mood. It's one of the many
choices that writers make – what mood should the
narrative have?)
Expectations for Peer Review:
• Upload a complete draft to turnitin. It doesn’t have to
meet the required page length yet, but it needs to at
least try to tell the whole story.
• Upload your draft to turnitin on time.
• Read and comment on the essays assigned to you
before class begins on the day of peer review.
Comments should be thoughtful and specific.
• Come to class with questions for your peer group
about how to improve your essay.
• Come to class with the most recent copy of your draft
printed out. After peer review, you may have time to
put your group’s suggestions to work in your essay.