So far in this unit, we have read (and heard) three examples from the genre of the “education narrative.” Your first essay assignment in this class will be to write in this genre yourself. So in this discussion forum, I’d like us to have a conversation about what the features of this genre are.
After reading “Maybe I Could Save Myself by Writing” and “The Fourth of July”, Please discuss some of the following:
- What, from what you’ve seen so far, are the “ingredients” (also known as “conventions”) of the education narrative genre?
- What do you think might be a place to get started with your own education narrative?
- What are your questions or concerns about writing an education narrative of your own?
- If you like, you can also feel free to share an educational experience you had and ask for feedback from your colleagues (and me) to see if we think that might be a solid place to begin writing.
From what I have read and heard the ingredients of an educational narrative is personal experience, the authors also used their own personal speech. Where I could start with my own educational narrative is probably a quote or a short story from my own life that describes me a little bit or of what my narrative will be about. The questions I have about this narrative is if I have no personal experiences can I use someone else’s or something I have read or watched. I have always been encourage to do great and how I could be great by my teachers and mostly everyone. can I write about how kind of useless education is becoming with the world changing around me? An example is the way that before when I was in 6th grade a Bachelors degree could get you a well paying job and a great life and a high school diploma was the bare minimum. Nowadays a BA is worth the same or equal to a high school diploma and with technology changing the world people can get jobs without even a high school diploma.
yeah I agree with you and I think thats a really good point and something good to write about.
Hey Sonkerry, I agree the world does change around us but the amazing part of technology is that everything is at the palm of your hands, you can research anything and can learn through videos or from a website. You can create a skill and can possibly make more from it. For example if you want to become a great cook you don’t have to go to a special school all you have to do is look up youtube videos on how to be the best or research articles on how you can learn to mix ingredients to make a perfect dish and take it from there to let your mind grow.
Maybe consider writing about the moment you started to feel like pursuing an education beyond high school no longer had the same value in today’s age.
After reading “Maybe I Could Save Myself by Writing” and “The Fourth of July,” I noticed that the ingredients of an educational narrative involve a meaningful story or plot from the author’s point of view that shares their ideas and thoughts with readers. The author’s goal is to make the reader aware of their perspective, which can have a meaningful impact. I also noticed that the author also provides background information and context about himself. I feel that this helps the reader better understand the author’s context. I believe that asking questions about what events in my life have made an impact on me and how I could use them to share them and make an impact on readers I can also read narratives from different authors to get a sense of what techniques I want to use in my own story. A concern that I have about writing my own narrative is that once I find the story that I want to tell, how do I start and keep it organized? The difference in educational writing is different from the typical essay because most essays have criteria and structure. However, with an educational narrative, there are many ways to approach the story; it could start with a quote, background information, or dialogue. There could also be different characters with subplots. My concern is whether I should use those details or just keep the important parts of my story to plant my message. Also, there are small moments in life that make a big impact, so how long does the story have to be?
You bring up a really good point about the many different shapes an educational narrative can take. Ultimately, this assignment is not very long, so it is important not to take on too much. Really try to build a story around a very specific moment.
I like what George mentioned which is that the author’s goal is to make the reader aware of the perspective and understand the reading which can have a meaningful impact.
From what I have seen so far the “ingredients” or “conventions” of the education genre is an individual’s background. A place where I can start one of my education narratives would probably be a life experience that would be relatable and can grab the reader’s attention. Some questions or concerns that I have is that it has to be a real personal experience or can it just be made believe. What if I can’t think about anything interesting or that I don’t want to share can I just make a story up? An educational experience that I can write about is the lack of interaction we get as students when we move on to higher levels in school. I know for science we get interactive like in the lab or for medical practices. We would just sit down in class and try to understand what the teacher is trying to teach us. During middle school we would go on trips. We would usually go to educational places like the museum of natural history. We would gather information and get a better understanding because it was interactive. When we enter highschool or college you don’t really get that anymore, we just sit in the classroom and go on our devices and sit in class. It’s not that interactive anymore and I find it a little harder to learn in class because I can easily get distracted or bored.
Hey Michelle, I totally agree with you when you say that we barely have any interaction with anything when we move up. What we need is to get up and do activities that can make our minds grow and interested.
Hi Michelle! I feel the same way as you do about writing our own education narrative. I also feel like I might feel comfortable writing about my OWN personal experiences or don’t know if they’ll be interesting enough.
Sometimes the things we do not think are interesting about ourselves are actually interesting to other people. Don’t despair just yet!
I believe an educational narrative can be fiction but I feel that the authenticity of a real story would have a bigger impact to the reader. Also I feel that if something happened in real life it would be easier to spread the message that the author would know so well.
From what I have seen so far the “ingredients” or “conventions” of the education genre is an individual’s background. A place where I can start one of my education narratives would probably be a life experience that would be relatable and can grab the reader’s attention. Some questions or concerns that I have is that it has to be a real personal experience or can it just be made believe. What if I can’t think about anything interesting or that I don’t want to share can I just make a story up? An educational experience that I can write about is the lack of interaction we get as students when we move on to higher levels in school. I know for science we get interactive like in the lab or for medical practices. We would just sit down in class and try to understand what the teacher is trying to teach us. During middle school we would go on trips. We would usually go to educational places like the museum of natural history. We would gather information and get a better understanding because it was interactive. When we enter highschool or college you don’t really get that anymore, we just sit in the classroom and go on our devices and sit in class. It’s not that interactive anymore and I find it a little harder to learn in class because I can easily get distracted or bored.
Based on the examples of the genre “Education Narrative”, there are a few conventions that stand out to me. One convention would be creating a story/plot. In an educational narrative, you’re conveying a message to the reader based on one of your experiences in school whether it’s negative or positive. The narrative should have a firm foundation or bottom line as to “what’s the point” you want the reader to take away and why what you’re saying is important. This brings us to the second convention which would be persuasion. You should make the narrative engaging enough for the reader to be convinced or “feel moved” by what you’re saying. Allow the narrative to be interesting and give insights. It’ll make the reader want to know more and continue reading. A third convention would be providing background. I’ve seen in a lot of the examples, they give background information in the beginning of the narratives which aid in the understanding of the writing. It lets readers know a little more about yourself. And the last convention I have is clarification. Make sure no matter how vague your narrative is, that you stay within topic and make your point clear towards your indirect/direct audience. I think a good place to get started with my own narrative would be brainstorming on one of my personal experiences in education that gives readers a lesson and meaning to take away. A concern that I have is what if I can’t think of a time in school which can make a point to the readers. Also, a concern is that I won’t be able to convey the story in depth without getting off topic or rambling on about something which can cause my writing to be too long and uninteresting.
Hi Brianna. I agree with what you said about making the narrative engaging enough for the reader to feel “moved” about what you’re saying. In my opinion, the strongest part about a education narrative is writing something other people can connect to.
I love the way you broke down the conventions of the educational narrative! Be sure to share in class! 🙂
so far from what I have read in the article “maybe i can save myself by writing, I can say that the ingeients that goes into the educational narrative genre is a plot that has meaning so that the authors POV gets across to the readers, This also should include personal experience so readers can relate and build off of points already presented. I can start my own educational narrative by looking back on a crucial moment in my life, one that taught me lessons and that others would be able to relate to. Questions i have about my own writings are, how will I know if my plot is relatable? and what is considered off limits for writing?, I know there are some things me and other people have in common but some things peope may see as different? One educational experience i can think of is prioritizing a social status over your education in school. When I first came into highschool I was lit, I already knew a couple of people and had friends so I always felt I had a reason to skip class, I could write about how its easy to follow the crowd but you should always stay focused.
A little short of 250 words.
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I think that is an excellent place for you to start! Is there a specific instance you can remember where you felt pressure to place social status over class?
After reading “Maybe I Could Save Myself by Writing” by José Olivarez and “The Fourth of July” by Audre Lorde, I believe the “ingredients” of the education narrative genre is a captivating yet intriguing story on a person’s life and the point of view of the person saying that story. I think the place to get started with my education narrative is to think back on an experience that made me question the matter at hand, as well as provide aspects of an understanding of the context. Leading with a perspective that can capture the educational part of this genre is key to a good educational narrative, I believe that recalling a relatively recent educational experience is a good way to start as you don’t need to recall memories from years ago. A concern I have about writing an educational narrative of my own is calling back to an experience I had that is fit to be an educational narrative, I also have concerns about how I’m going to write about my experiences, the last I want to do is spend the majority of the time recalling an experience only to not have the words express that experience in my writing. I have not decided on an educational narrative yet, but I have a good feeling that it will be something that occurred during my high school years.
I feel like I agree with Howard that the ingredients are on the person’s life and the point of view of the person telling the story if I understood correctly, That was also my point that it focuses on the person’s life and how they telling their story or their message.
From what I have seen far from reading all these education narratives was that they all had to deal with struggle and had all felt like they never belonged anywhere. In “Maybe I Could Save Myself by Writing”, Jose expresses his thoughts by saying that he felt like he never belonged anywhere whether it was in the U.S or in his parents’ home town, Mexico, but as soon as Jose realized that his only way to escape was not just to attempt to stay in Mexico but to start writing on how he can comfort people like him and would soon open an open mic with his peers to make latinx people feel more at home. On the other hand, “The Fourth of July” talks about all the racism that Lorde faced with her family and how her parents would not care to mention the realities that are to be faced in America and would not bother to explain the nature of it and Lorde would leave Washington with an unpleasant experience. Now, for me to get started on my own educational narrative I would have to talk about where I would have trouble the most and what I would have to come face to face. The questions that I would come up with while writing my educational narrative would be on how I should get started. I would never know where to start because my brain would overflow with ideas which would then make me have to pick from so many options and another question that I would have would be, how can I shorten a long and detailed narrative but still picture my image and make it as comprehensible as possible?
Good work here, but keep in mind that educational narratives do not need to be ONLY about a difficult experience. You can also talk about a positive experience!
From reading both passages I’ve noticed that both authors experienced and expressed the feeling of loneliness like an outcast. In the passage “Maybe I Could Save Myself by Writing” the author talks about him growing up in Chicago with a Mexican heritage, he explains that it was hardships trying to fit in and when he moved to Mexico thinking it’ll be different, he went through the same thing. In the passage “The Fourth of July” the author express the struggles and difficulties of growing up in slavery dealing with discrimination and segregation. To start my own education narrative, the best place to start would be to mention a background situation that led up to the current event I’m writing about. One concern about writing my own education narrative is that I will write about an experience and drag it out with vague details because in education narratives, you’re supposed to connect one experience but it’s hard to remember every detail of that experience. An educational experience that changed my view on education was when I was in middle school, 7th grade to be exact. I met my math teacher; he introduced me to the math world that made me love math and he made math so fun that I actually looked forward to going. Also, he was like someone I can talk to in school, so I looked up to him as a role model and a second father figure. He changed my view on education because I realized it was more to school then a textbook and homework, it’s communication and the people skills you learn too. After that interaction I enjoyed going to school and learning new things for all subjects.
That sounds like a great story to tell. And today in class we are going to talk about how to write with vivid, interesting detail!
I feel the same way when you said there is more to school then textbooks and homework.
After reading “Maybe I could save myself by writing” by José Olivarez and “The Fourth of July” by Audre Lorde, my conclusion is that the “ingredients” of the “education narrative” is writing using your point of view and experiences (things you’ve gone through) to convey a message to readers by writing something that they can relate to. The authors in these both passages write a “education narrative” by constantly bringing up personal experiences and how they reacted to them and felt about them. For example, in “Maybe I Could Save Myself by Writing” the author emphasizes not feeling like you belong somewhere. Many readers on our campus could relate to that as many people here and in NYC come from Immigrant backgrounds. In “The Fourth of July”, the author emphasizes his experiences with racism, many people in our school if not majority are part of a minority and could have experienced things similar what the author experienced. Writing an education narrative is all about writing something readers can connect to. I could start my own education narrative by talking about my experiences with instruments and how I struggled to get to where I am. I know how hard it can be to start learning an instrument and I know that many people can relate to what I’ve been through. One thing I’m concerned about writing an education narrative of my own is getting too personal and letting people know things I’m not really comfortable telling them about. Whenever I do write an education narrative, I need to find a topic that’s not too revealing things about me too much but that’s at the same time interesting enough to make readers relate and connect to it. A question I have is, would I be able to use someone else’s experience to write an education narrative?
You only need to reveal what you are comfortable revealing!
I think focusing on instruments is a great idea.
From reading “Maybe I Could Save Myself by Writing“ and “The Fourth of July“ I can highlight a couple of ingredients that help me understand the educational narrative. Both offer real-world applicability even though RLW may be more practical, we can also find them in “The Fourth of July”. The texts have instructional tones, guiding us and encouraging us to consider specific aspects of things. We can also detect examples and quotations on each of them, and this helps clarify the concepts presented. For me, the most significant of these aspects is the real-life examples they present for the reader. By providing concrete examples and personal anecdotes, the writer can make a stronger connection with the reader and help to illustrate their points in a more relatable way.
If I had to write my own education narrative, I would begin by selecting the story that has benefitted me the most. I would select the narrative that is most relevant to the lesson I want to convey while also connecting with the feelings that my readers will feel related to. I can build a more interesting and effective narrative that inspires and motivates my audience to learn and improve by selecting a tale that resonates with them.
From reading “Maybe I Could Save Myself by Writing” and “The Fourth of July,” I think the most important “ingredient” for an educational narrative is the writer’s personal experiences and background. The writer’s personal experiences help the reader connect more with what the writer, and the story they are trying to tell. It can help the readers better understand the things the writer has been through and why the educational narrative they are writing is so important to them. When I write my educational narrative, I think I should start with my background as a writer and a person, This can be a short story about myself and then a story about the narrative I am writing about and why it’s important, This can be a quote to help better connect the readers with me. If I start with my background it might help the readers connect with me more and want to keep reading about the thing I am writing about. A concern I have is if the readers can not relate or connect to me. How do I know what is the best quote or story to use so my readers can relate to me and care about the story I am writing about? Another concern I have is finding a good topic. I want to have a topic that a general amount of people can relate to and connect to.
Short of 250 words.
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I feel that if a story does not have lots of relatability. It can still interest the reader by giving them a perspective that is different from what they have read before, which can create an engaged reader.
From what I’ve read about the ingredients of the education narrative is that the author speaks about their personal experiences of what they go through, how they overcome and be great, how they didn’t let anything or anyone stopped them form doing what they want. How I could start my own educational narrative is to talk about how the events that happen in my life and how I overcome it. Some questions I have is how I makes my own story creative and interesting, and do I have to use my personal experiences or can be fictional.
Short of 250 words.
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I don’t think you will have to get super creative with your story since you’ll want people to relate to it and maybe get some type of inspiration from it
From what I’ve read and learned were the ingredients of the personal narrative point of view of authors who talked about their personal encounters in a world where reading is everything. I believe that a place I can get started with my own educational narrative would be a library or a classroom. I say this because I feel like these places are where I tend to be more creative with my writing and reading. It opens up a whole new level for me, I feel like a sponge in a way. I soak in all the information/ new learning techniques and use them to better myself and improve my reading and writing. Some questions I have about this narrative is can I use outside sources if my pot is invalid or etc, basically relating to what my classmate said “sonkerry”.
From what I’ve read so far, the conventions that I see throughout the three education narratives we have read are personal accounts, characterization of the narrator, and an overarching conflict or controversy that is hinted at and discussed throughout the piece of writing. The personal accounts being the what the story is mainly about and describing the struggle of the narrator throughout the conflict/controversy, characterization being a means to evaluate the narrator’s character before, during, and after the conflict/controversy, and the conflict/controversy being the topic upon which the author is trying to inform us about. The place to start on my own education narrative would have to be background information or a specific event that transpired and changed my character and world view in some way on a topic. That would have to be starting sometime where the way I perceived the world around me was different from it is now. It would probably start at a time in which I saw a conflict or experienced one that impacted me in such a way that it changed me. My only concern for this type of writing is balancing the educational aspect with my writing pertaining to extensively telling my story and describing my views and ideas. The point in time I would go for an education narrative would be when the pandemic and the rise of COVID-19 came to be. It definitely had a major impact on my way of life and how I approach the new things in life that come into fruition as compared to how I would have thought things would have transpired before that happened.
I think focusing on COVID is a great idea.
I think an educational narrative on COVID- 19 Is also a great idea since your going to be explaining how you overcame this struggle and became the person you are today.
From what I have seen so far the ingredients of an education narrative genre is writing your own personal experience and explaining what you went through. For instance, in the novel “Maybe I Could Save Myself by Writing”, Joe tells us about his experience being raised by Mexican immigrants and how it negatively affected him because he felt as though he didn’t belong anywhere. But in the end he decided to use writing to help connect with people that felt just like him. In which shows a character transformation of a before and after of Joe’s hardship. Furthermore, in the novel “ The Fourth of July”, Lorde talks about the racism she faced and how her parents neglected her from the truth about racism. A good place to start my own education narrative is describing my background and identity and how it contributes to the person I am today. One of my concerns about writing an education narrative is not being able to fully put all my ideas down without sounding boring.
This might just be me but I think if you play around with the placement of your anecdotes (if you choose to add any) and connect it to whatever you’re writing about, it can ease some of that boring-ness you’re worried about
A few ingredients that I see in both “Maybe I Could Save Myself by Writing” and “The Fourth of July” are anecdotes, relatability, and a prominent figure that the author looked up to. Jose looked up to authors such as Ana Castillo, Javier O. Huerta, and Alire Saénz, each of them inspired Jose and made him feel comfortable with his situation because he related to them. As for Audre Lorde, she looked up to her dad who was “quite progressive” as she described and he let her write a letter to the president on the office typewriter. Jose would drop anecdotes throughout the text which help understand how he feels. Audre’s entire narrative was centered around her trip to Washington D.C and her experience with segregation/racism. They could both be relatable, however it depends on the reader because both writers have a specific target audience. Audre’s story, on one hand, can be relatable to African Americans who experienced racism and/or segregation, while Jose’s story has a broader target audience, relating to those who don’t fit in. Jose’s story revolves around his struggle to fit in the U.S coming from a Mexican immigrant family. It was tough trying to figure out where to begin. I don’t have many experiences that changed the way I thought or my perception of the world. Most of the experiences I have are a little too personal for me to be comfortable talking about. I’ve never personally or directly experienced any form of racism or discrimination but I think I can start my educational narrative about 8 years ago when Trump was running for president. Both my parents are immigrants and the things that Trump would talk about made me feel anxious about my family’s future. I always knew about racism and discrimination but I never felt persecuted for being an American-born Mexican.
From the two articles or stories what I understood so far is that the ingredients or conventions are your life basically but in how you tell it to the people or the audience and the better you can say the better the ingredients are. I can start my own personal narrative in a situation that talks about me or who I am without going into too many details, My questions about writing an education narrative would be from 1-10 How does it get graded based on what I get the highest grade for example 10 or the lowest grade which is one? Also in which way could it be more interesting for my narrative for people to read it? It’s just talking deeply about myself or maybe talking about something else happening around me or someone around me who is doing something different than anything so I talk about him/her?
One educational experience I had so far and it’s pretty interesting to me that just happened is I take a physics class in college now right And then there is that you have to take the lab of course for the physics class and now I am struggling with having two different teachers and so far for me it’s one teacher good and the other is bad. Physics is hard and I am trying to survive it because the labs are my struggle now and the professor I have is not that good at all Unfortunately I need to catch up and I don’t even know what to do.