Project 1: Education Narrative Road Map

STEP 1: Choose key event(s) to write about

You’re going to write an educational narrative/ story about one or two key experiences in your educational journey.This is not the whole story from the time you started pre-K through today, but rather 1-2 key events/ experiences that shaped you into the learner you are today. 

You might discuss an event that highlights your experience with the educational system in  America or an event that had an impact on the way you view education and/or school. You might focus on a person who deeply influenced your learning or thinking. You might also discuss an experience that showcases how you learn or a turning point in your educational journey. 

Whatever experience you choose, your reader should finish the narrative (story) having learned something new or thinking about things in a new way. 

Examples of events to choose from are (you may want to choose 2 of these examples): 

  • An event in your educational career that was particularly formative;
  • A specific learning event that led you to become the thinker you are today;
  • The first time you had a profound experience related to learning;
  • A place, person, book, author, community or experience that influenced your identity as a learner in a positive or negative way; 
  • An important lesson that was learned, a time you learned something about yourself as a student;
  • An experience that influenced how you define “education” and what it means to be “educated;”
  • What your experiences with education tell you about the educational system in America, for example. Or about the ways we learn. 

**If you are having trouble with this, think about what people, institutions (school, out of school programs) or communities have helped shape you as a learner, a student, or how you learn**

TAKE NOTES: Why is this event, person, place, occasion or lesson important? Why do you want to tell this story? Why does it matter in your education journey?  How did it impact the way you view “education”?

STEP 2: HOW has the experience (event, person, lesson, occasion) shaped your relationship to school or education in general?

It is very important to talk about how the event/ person/ experience/ lesson/ occasion shaped your relationship to school or education in general. You must provide concrete and significant details and context. 

Here are some questions you might think about. You do not have to answer all of these. These are just questions to help you if you get stuck. 

  1. HOW has an experience (event, person, lesson, occasion) shaped your relationship to school or education in general?
  2. Talk a little bit about your history as a student. How have you been taught in school? How have you learned?How did you experience school? Classrooms? Curriculum?
  3. Talk about your experiences as a reader and as a writer. How did you used to feel about reading and writing? How has reading and writing shaped your identity? Or maybe the question is what factors have shaped your identity as a reader and writer?  What kinds of reading and writing have you done in the past? Have you enjoyed it? Why or why not? 
  4. Explain how this key event/ person/ experience/ lesson/ occasion that you are focusing on impacted, changed, shifted in some way your identity–either in a positive or a negative way. 
  5. Describe a key moment or person that influenced you and helped shape you into the writer you are today? How has your schooling and education influenced your development as a scholar (a reader, a writer, a speaker, a learner, etc)? 
  6. Talk about how one of the author’s we have read/ listened to experienced an event that shaped their relationship to school or education. Make a connection with this experience to your life. 

DRAFT at least 3-4 PARAGRAPHS

STEP 3: Talk about how your particular experience relates to at least one of the bigger social and cultural issues such as race, the education system, Standard Written English (SWE), etc.

We have read and talked a lot about the ethnic and cultural diversity of written English (the different ways we speak and use English!). We have explored the ways that authors have grappled with schooling and their experiences with the American schooling system. Now it is time for you to talk about how your particular experience relates to at least one of the bigger social and cultural issues we discussed in class, such as race, the education system, bilingualism or multilingualism, Standard Written English (SWE), etc. 

Here are some questions to think about: 

  1. Choose ONE bigger social or cultural issue (race, bilingualism/multilingualism, the education system, Standard Written English), and discuss how one of the author’s we have read has had it impact their experience as a learner.   
  2. Choose ONE bigger social or cultural issue (race, bilingualism/multilingualism, the education system, Standard Written English), and discuss how one of the author’s we have read has had it impact your experience as a learner. 
  3. Discuss Standard Written English. Should it be required/ taught in certain settings? Why or why not? Are there power dynamics around Standard English? Discuss. How do the authors we read describe? 
  4. Tan, Donovan and Lyiscott each discuss their experiences around major social and cultural issues. The concepts that were raised by these authors: “Englishes,” “Broken English,” “Articulate,” and “Educated” are all terms that were discussed in class. How do these authors explain how these power dynamics and concepts influenced their literacy identities? 

DRAFT at least 2 PARAGRAPHS

STEP 4: Reflect upon how your experience has enabled you to understand something specific about reading, writing, learning, or language AND how that understanding reflects on the communities/world you inhabit

Your experience was not an isolated event. How does your specific experience help shed light on problems or issues or challenges in the community or world that you live in? Reflect upon how your experience has enabled you to understand something specific about reading, writing, learning, or language AND how that understanding reflects on the communities/world you inhabit.

  • Each of you has had a unique experience as a reader, a writer, a student, or a learner (the one you are writing about!) and this experience has helped you learn something important about reading/ writing/ learning and/or language. REFLECT on this. That means discuss it. Describe it. Really, deeply think about it in a meaningful way. Write a paragraph or two thinking about it.  Reflect on what you have really learned SPECIFICALLY about reading OR writing OR speaking OR language from this experience? 
    • Here might be where you talk about how you realized that in school you were expected to learn to write in an academic voice (Standard English) but that was not a voice that you felt comfortable expressing your ideas in meaningfully. 
    • For example, by reading the dictionary in prison, Malcom X, realizes that what he had learned in school, was not the story of American History that he believed should have been taught. 
  • Then reflect on (think about deeply and discuss!) how this event/ experience (again, the one you are writing about!) influenced your personal understanding or perspective of the world and/or your community. Did you question something? Challenge a process or way of learning or speaking? 
    • Does this make you realize that in order to succeed in school you had to shift your identity or think about learning in a different way?
    • For example, this is where Jose Olivarez reflects on how his learning experience in school led him to question the way that American schools educate students. 

DRAFT at least 2 PARAGRAPHS

STEP 5: Draft Complete Narrative 

Now it’s time to write a 1000 word narrative using the pieces you have prepared! 

STEP 5: Write and Introduction and Conclusion 

Even narratives have introductions and conclusions. They are not traditional introductions and conclusions like in 5 paragraph essays. Look at how Amy Tan and Malcolm X and Jose Olivarez each opened and closed their narratives. 

DRAFT an introductory and concluding section for your narrative. 

STEP 6: Revise and Edit

Revise and edit your narratives with a focus on Content/ Genre, Organization, Purpose and Audience Language/ Presentation, Citations, and Word Count.