Step 1:

Students read 2 of 4 examples of literacy narratives for main idea, key details, and literacy narrative features (aka what types of details they use to tell their story). The purpose here is for them to decide what constitutes a literacy narrative.

• Sante, Luc. “Living in Tongues.” The New York Times, 12 May 1996, www.nytimes.com/1996/05/12/magazine/living-in-tongues.html
• X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. “Learning to Read,” 1965, blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/eng2150fall2017/?page_id=301.
• Alexie, Sherman. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me.” The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading. 1997, www.umsl.edu/~alexanderjm/SupermanandMebyAlexie.pdf
• Baker, Russel. Growing Up. “The Art of Eating Spaghetti.” 1982, digfir-published.macmillanusa.com/bedguide11e/bedguide11e_ch4_4.html

Step 2:

In class, we discuss what we’ve discovered, including what literacy means to them and what features they discovered from the texts they read. I share with them my Cornell Notes about literacy narratives.

Step 3:

Students choose a topic from this list, or they invent their own topic. Using their notes, they also determine what literacy narrative features they might include.

Look at the below list. Choose a topic and make a list of 4-6 literacy narrative features that you might include.

• What is your earliest memory of reading and writing?
• How did you learn to read and write? Did you ever teach anyone else to read or write?
• Who encouraged you to read and write?
• What events interrupted and/or slowed down your ability and/or desire to read and write?
• Did you apply literacy skills to other content areas: sports, music, video games, etc.?
• What kinds of reading have you done in your past and what kinds of reading to you do now?
• What teachers had a particular impact on your reading and writing?
• What assignments had a particular impact on your reading and writing?
• Have different schools or other institutions had an impact on your reading and writing?
• How do you currently feel about reading and writing?
• What rewards have come from reading and writing?
• Did a special or important event from your past make you the reader and/or writer you are today?
• Was there a moment or moments that were especially empowering?
• Did you ever read a book or poem or song that made sense to you beyond the words on the page?

Step 4:

I share with them the rubric, two examples of narratives I’ve created (one is about my college days and one is about my gap year in Mexico before I started college), and the project description

Step 5:

They pre-write and then create an outline of their ideas,. I shared the pre-writing for my college video and the outline with one class and the Mexico pre-writing and outline with the other class.

Step 6:

They create a script for their narrative. Here are the directions I gave them:

• Scripts should be 2-3 pages; to encompass 3-5 minutes when recorded
• They should include a focus on 1-2 events in any order
• They should include sensory details (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch)
• SHOW not TELL.
• They need to include something about literacy (reading, writing, speaking, listening)
• They need to explain the significance of the event now.

Step 7:

They learn about Creative Commons licensing (you can use this video, too) and use OpenVerse to save & cite images that are not pirated. If they want to use their own images, they can use this license picker (like I did to create this document!)

Step 8:

They peer revise the scripts, based on some agreed upon questions we’ve generated, using the Norton Field Guide. It includes ideas like: did it address learning a skill? Did it include sensory details? Was it an entertaining story? Etc.

Step 9:

They make a Google Slides with the images & cc licenses and then record their videos. I’ve used Screencastify for a long time; the free license is really limited, but they can use it, too.