What is a literacy narrative?

One reason that people write literacy narratives is to better understand their own reading and writing lives. Through the processes of storytelling and reflection, writers often come to new insights about why they feel the way they do about reading and writing. But literacy narratives can also serve to educate others about the constellation of factors that can impact literacy learning. As Selfe argues, literacy narratives “bring to life our scholarly understandings as well as the complex social, political, ideological, and historical contexts that shape and are shaped by literate practices and the values associated with them.” In other words, literacy narratives can help us to understand how all of our literate lives have been impacted in some way by external factors like the neighborhood we grew up in and whether or not there was a public library there, the schools we attended, the socio-economic status of our parents and whether they could afford SAT prep courses, and so on. In Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read,” for instance, we learn how Malcolm X’s turbulent childhood made it difficult for him to acquire literacy as well as how he later taught himself to read and write when he gained access to a library in prison.

Literacy narratives are a genre or type of writing. Every genre carries with it specific conventions; conventions are rules or features that the person reading a text would expect to see. For instance, when you open a Biology textbook (a genre), you expect it to be organized in chapters that move from simple to more complex (a convention). You might anticipate finding a glossary in the back with key terms and definitions (another convention). Similarly, as a genre of writing, literacy narratives carry with them specific features that you will likely notice as you read through this collection:

• They are organized around a main idea (which is NOT the same as a thesis statement).

• They contain a beginning, middle, and end.

The events of the story may not be told in the order they originally occurred, however. Sometimes narrative writers start with the story’s ending or jump right into the action. For instance, in “Only Daughter,” Sandra Cisneros opens her narrative with a quote from a book she has recently finished writing and then jumps backwards into the past with a story from her childhood.

• Because they are narratives, they contain plenty of specific details that help show the readers the story, rather than telling them about it.

For instance, in Cisneros’’ narrative, she doesn’t just tell us that her dad wound up enjoying her writing. Instead, she uses specific, descriptive details to show the reader his environment (“There were several vials of pills and balled Kleenex”), his movements (“my father punched the mute button on his remote control and read my story” and “he read it very slowly”), speech (including his laughter and dialogue, such as “My father looked up and asked: ‘Where can we get more copies of this for the relatives?’”). Through details like these, we can see for ourselves the impact of Cisneros’’ writing on her father without her having to tell us he liked it.

• They focus on one or two significant moments, rather than trying to capture the writer’s entire history.

Those moments can be positive or negative, happen in or out of school, and occur at any age.

• They are personal and typically told in first person (using “I”).

• They not only describe a story but also reflect on the meaning of the story for the writer’s literacy.

This reflection commonly occurs near the end of the narrative but can sometimes be found earlier on. why was this moment chosen? what makes it significant?

• Many literacy narratives also gesture toward the implications of this story for our larger understanding of literacy.

Why is the story important for all of us to hear, not just for the writer? What does the story suggest about how people read and write more broadly?

Works Cited

Cisneros, Sandra. “Only Daughter.” Writing About Writing, 3rd ed., edited by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs, Bedford/St. Martins, 2017, pp. 101-105

Malcolm X. “Learning to Read.” Writing About Writing, 3rd ed., edited by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs, Bedford/St. Martins, 2017, pp. 106-115.