Describe the people, places, items, and relationships that were at play in your memory.

As you take a trip down memory lane and make decisions, keep these things in mind:

The locations and sites of literacy development are not limited to school. You can acquire literacy at home, in your community, at church, socially online, etc., Some of the coolest narratives explore literacy learning that happens in a variety of contexts.
Get specific! Describe the people, places, items, and relationships that were at play in your memory. DId you love to practice writing as a kid only because you got to use a fancy gel pen? Did you learn about video gaming from hanging out with your cool neighbors? Did you learn karate as a child because you had a school bully? All of these details can help you discover unnoticed patterns in your literacy history.
“Language,” “literacy,” “reading,” and “writing” are very flexible terms. Reading isn’t limited to text on a page; watching a live sports game and understanding what is happening on the field can be a form of reading. Knowing the rules about the game and thinking up strategies for the next play can be considered literacy and writing. Expand and get creative with your use of those words.

You will submit your first draft of your Multimodal Literacy Narrative this week. You might still be worried about whether or not you have met all assignment expectations. Keep in mind that this is only a first draft of your narrative. Chances are you probably missed a couple of important parts of the project, and that’s fine! You have time to revise this project until the end of the semester when your final portfolio is due. Don’t put pressure on yourself to get it right the first time; instead, allow yourself to give this project the time and attention that it needs to become a well-developed project.

Use this self-assessment tool to help you figure out how and where you might need to revise your project. At the bottom of the document are two empty dimensions where you will fill out two dimensions you would like for me to consider as you develop your draft. Read through the assignment descriptions and submit the completed document (along with the reflection questions at the bottom) with the draft. Again, this is a first draft. It is unlikely that your draft will match all (or any!) of the descriptions for “exceptional” or “strong” work. How you rate yourself has no impact on the credit you will receive for this draft. This document is only meant to be used as a guide for your revision.