Multigenre Autobiography
This assignment encourages you to think about all the various texts of your life. Your own history as a reader and writer of
various texts has a significant impact on your life. Doing the following exercises should help you reflect on your own
multigenre literacy past.
Your objective is to create a screen-based representation of the influence of these various texts on your life. Such texts
may include books, films, television shows, music, newspapers, magazines, sports, restaurants, food, cars, fashion,
architecture, and/or interior design (to name a few examples). Visit the library website for non-copyrighted image sites like
Google Images, Flickr, Yahoo Image Search, YouTube, etc. and find some non-copyrighted images of video clips related
to the important texts in your life. You may also want create your own images/clips using a camera.
You can create this assignment using PowerPoint, Storymaker, Umanjin, MixBook, ComicLife, VoiceThread, etc. Once
you have completed the assignment, upload it to your teacher’s Schoology course.
Multigenre Literacy Autobiography Questions to Consider:
Below are some prompts to help you begin crafting your multigenre literacy autobiography:
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What are your earliest recollections of reading and writing?
What are your earliest recollections of watching television?
What are your earliest recollections of going to see a film?
What are your earliest recollections of music?
What are your earliest recollections of using a computer?
Were you read to as a child?
Before you were able to read, did you pretend to read books? Can you remember the first time you read a book?
What pleasures or problems do you associate with early memories of reading and writing?
What kinds of texts have you preferred over your lifetime?
Was a newspaper delivered to your home? Do you recall seeing others read the newspaper? Did you read the
newspaper?
How did pop culture (movies, TV, music, Internet) impact your literacy and vice versa?
How did your gender, race, social class, and/or ethnicity impact your reading ability, what you read, and/or your
attitude toward reading?
Did you subscribe to children's magazines? Did your parents or siblings have magazine subscriptions?
Did your parents belong to a book club? Did they maintain a personal library? Did they read for pleasure?
Can you recall seeing family members making lists and receiving and sending mail?
Did you receive and send mail (such as birthday cards, thank you notes, letters) when you were a child?
Can you remember any other indications that reading and writing were valued in the environment in which you
grew up?
Can you detail your first memories of reading and writing instruction? Materials used? Methods of teaching?
Content?
Can you remember how alternatives (non-print texts) were used at school, if at all?
How were computers used (or not used) during your educational journey?
Can you recall reading for pleasure in elementary school?
Can you recall writing for pleasure in elementary school?
Can you recall the first book you chose to read in elementary school?
Can you recall your first writing assignment in elementary school?
Did you have a library card when you were in elementary school? Did you use it? What did you check out from
the library, predominantly? In later school years?
Can you recall the first book you loved (couldn't put down)?
Can you recall the first film or television show you loved and watched over and over again?
Consider the following when providing feedback:
Descriptors
Artifacts presented are specific, important and presented from a meaningful past
Artifacts demonstrate balance between emergent, adolescent, and adult literacy years
Creativity is evident in the creation of the autobiography
Variety of kinds of texts represented
Reflection on the place non-print dominated media have played
Reflection on lessons learned from multigenre past
Reflection on multigenre past and how it shapes current instructional practices
References
Kist, William. New literacies in action: teaching and learning in multiple media. New York: Teachers
College Press, 2005. Print.
Schofield, Andrew, and Theresa Rogers. "At Play In Fields Of Ideas." Journal Of Adolescent And
Adult Literacy 48.3 (2004): 238-248. ERIC. Web. 8 July 2013.