Author: John Campoverde

I used to be scared of teachers. I used to think they were always correct, never stood up to any of them. Until one winter day in my first semester of my first year of high school I had too because of the way I was being treated. Although I had to, I still didn’t, and I regret it to this day but it made me stronger and more confident thankfully. So to start off I had this class first period everyday, so if I didn’t make it on time the teacher would get angry. It was also an art class in which I am terrible at art but I was proud of myself for still trying and getting good grades. I would always make it on time but during this time there was problems going on at home, so I came late about three days in a row. We were working on an art project that took about a week, sketching, outlining, coloring, and following the rubric given to us for every project. On the third day of me being late, she was already complaining with her loud annoying voice, which made me want to apologize after class.
So after class I stay to apologize to her. Everyone is leaving meanwhile I am just standing in front of her desk to talk to her, and explain what has been going on recently. It was a big cold room, I was looking down at my old shoes too nervous to apologize to her, and finally words starting falling out of my mouth. I start explaining and apologizing for my tardiness just for her to say it doesn’t matter, she doesn’t care, and to try harder. I was in such shock, and in an even larger shock when I saw my grade for the project we were working on. A week worth of my hard work given a 65 because of three days of tardiness. I asked her, “what is this grade I made sure to follow everything on the rubric?” just for her to say that I missed important points while I was late. I remembered specifically following the rubric but since she was the teacher I didn’t stand my ground and bit my tongue. Which is what has pushed me to stand my ground and not bite my tongue when I feel anything is unfair. I even try to help my friends or even my freshmen sister make sure they don’t get pushed around by power hungry adults who think lowering a child’s whole average is better than being understanding about their situation.

After reading three examples from the genre “education narratives” I think some conventions included in this type of writing would be writing in a first person point of view, describing any feelings or thoughts, and including the context or setting. I think making sure the narrative has a solution or possible outcome is needed to get started because in each story we were introduced with a problem and then given a solution from this problem. Some context on the situation and one’s self is also very crucial when writing education narratives. This is because the readers are able to connect to the story on some level, and can also understand it due to the details provided. Some questions I have are how can I make sure my story is understood, or how can i make sure the reader is interested in the outcome if they don’t relate. I was considering writing about an art teacher that did not help me when I needed it. This lack of help made me do poorly in that class freshmen year, but allowed me to grow as a student and as a person. For instance, her lack of helping me made sure that I would seek the help I needed when I had trouble. It made me stand up for myself because it sucks that there are teachers as ignorant as her. I think by writing an education narrative such as this would make a relatable story for students, and be also eye opening for teachers who don’t understand that students are human as well. (Not talking about any of my professors, high school is completely different than college!!!)

By stating that we are already authors I think Mike Bunn means that we all write pieces of literature whether it be simple or not, therefore we must have a sense of what an author is feeling when something is written. By understanding that we are authors we can truly learn/ take in whatever points we’re reading. In doing so, as authors we can also take interest in a text assigned to us which allows us as students to be able to understand any piece of literature we have to study or read. When writing, this benefits us because as an author we would put ourselves in the shoes of our readers and make sure our point is being sent across in order for it to make sense and seem intriguing. In any of my literature pieces I use imagery and context to give the reader an understanding of what is being portrayed in my texts, assignments, tweets, emails, etc. This allows for them to remain intrigued and not have to keep rereading whatever I wrote to understand my point. This expertise would help in my college reading/ writing career because as a student we need to be able to fully understand an assignment but also be understood when completing an assignment. A technique I would try based on Bunn’s article would be to question why a story, or any piece of writing, is written the way it is. This is because when I get confused or lost I blame myself for not being able to focus, which then gets me unmotivated to read a text. Questioning the way the author writes a text would probably allow me to understand a text better compared to just doubting my reading skills. By questioning the author’s writing I can also think about a different way I would write it to understand the text in a better way, or realize what the author is trying to portray with the amount of, what seems to be, unnecessary details.