1.) From what I have seen the ingredients of an education narrative genre are questioning, emotions, reliability, and similar experiences. The author should always show their perspective of the situation and explain how they felt in that current moment. The story should always feel relatable to the target audience but it should also be easy to understand. When reading the reader should feel a connection and think to themselves “wow I can relate to this” or “wow I went through this as well”. Lastly, the author should always describe who was there for them to help them in their time of need or if there was no one there then how did they get through the situation by themselves.
2.)One place to get started with my own education narrative is when in elementary school when I had to take ESL classes. Since English was my second language I had to take ESL classes and speech therapy and guidance. I used to feel so embarrassed because everyone would see how I had to leave the class to learn something they all already knew. I would talk about how learning English was a positive thing for me but how it also had a negative impact on my Spanish. I would explain how I got through this on my own and how I decided to learn English as quickly as possible so I can stay in class with all the other kids.
3.) The only concern I would have is making sure the reader is able to understand what I wrote. Sometimes I tend to write in a way that I can understand And I tend to leave out some key details. This would be a problem since my readers would not be able to understand and so they won’t be able to connect with my story.
4.) One educational experience I had was not being able to understand where I fit in. I always felt out of place because when I tried to make friends with people who were of different races they always pushed me away or said your Mexican so go hang out with the other Mexicans. However, when I tried to hang out with the other Mexican kids they did not really talk to me since I couldn’t talk in Spanish as fluently as them. This is why I always had trouble fitting in or making friends in general.
That Olivarez piece should really connect with you, I think, since he didn’t really know where he “fit” either. That’s tough, and really makes an ugly comment about stereotyping, doesn’t it?
Good point about being being able to relate to what we write. Trust me — write this from the heart, and they will.
And don’t worry about people not understanding. Write it whatever way you need to in the first draft. Revisions are all about the reader while first drafts are all about the writer. Don’t worry. We’ll get there!