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The connections between literacy narratives and how this can be used as an insight to that students prior success, failures and other experiences with literacy in general. This also provides an explanation on their decisions in reading and writing as well. In “ Successes, Victims and Prodigies: “Master” and “little” cultural narratives in the literacy narrative genre.” By Kara Poe Alexander she argues that teachers and professors can learn from their students literacy narratives from an cultural aspect and their pass experiences with literacy. She also brings up the theory of master narratives and little narratives. She explains that master narratives are the success stories of the child prodigy. With “little narratives” she believes they are many inside a master narrative and they give small details that help bring the story together essentially. Alexander touches on the point that she doesn’t prefer master narratives to be closed ended due to the otherside can influence the whole story. This information is critical to my belief of the connections between Alexander’s ideas and the ones of my own. I say this because in order to gain a better understanding of a student is the ability to connect to them on a one on one basis.With assigning literacy narratives they are able to gain this further understanding this also allows them to have the student produce better quality work because they could start to understand where you the teacher is coming from. Not only will this be able to let teachers connect to their students it can reflect on that students decisions they make in the classroom. From sitting in the front or back, not talking a lot in class and work production and quality. The other reading I believe has connections to my theory and the reading from Alexander is “Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics:Introduction” By James Paul Gee. In this reading Gee informs you about what a Discourse is what types of Discourses there is and how one acquires a Discourse. He also touches upon secondary discourses like jobs, relationships. I believe there is strong connections between Gee and Alexander. One connection I see is between Gee’s secondary discourse idea and Alexander’s little narrative belief. In Gee’s secondary discourse he informs about how this can be how you get a job and or a career. To get a career you first need to find a master of that subject. After this you need to have some type of apprenticeship with that master to understand the little things needed to be done to be part of that discourse. This can be the little things from clothing, hand gestures and how you present yourself to that discourse.

1. Read: They Say, I Say (pp. 55-68) on “I Say” and for Journal # 11 make observations or connections between 2 of the 3 authors: Gee, Williams, or Alexander. Aim for 3 CONCRETE connections/observations which isolate particularly potent moments in these texts.

1.  A connection I was able to make was between Alexander and Williams. They both recognize that literacy narratives can be shown as someone’s identity. The literacy narratives mirror what type of person the student is and what possible struggles they have had in their academic life. Gee believes that Discourses are an Identity kit and I strongly consider that there is a connection between Discourse and literacy narratives.

2. Another connection I am making is between Alexander and Gee. Alexander states the concept of master narratives and little narratives. Gee theory of the primary Discourse and secondary Discourses to me are like master narratives and little ones from Alexander. The master narratives are like primary discourses and the little ones are similar to secondary Discourses. Once you master the primary Discourse or master narrative you unlock the ability to see things deeper and understanding and learned little narratives and a secondary discourse.  

3. Lastly I see connection again between Alexander and Gee. Gee states that you can receive power and goods from acquiring a secondary discourse. With these goods you are able to grow in your discourse and make strives towards mastership. Alexander believes that to gain power and success you need to have an acceptable understanding in literacy.

 

 

Read: They Say, I Say (pp. 92-105). Journal # 10: post that quotes, paraphrases, or describes how Gee, Alexander, and Williams answer the “so what” question for their readers.  What values, ideas, or outcomes are at stake for these writers? These are pre-writing or topic invention activities to get you started on your first essay

Gee, Alexander and Williams all answered the “So what?” question with plenty of detail and used examples. The authors attempt to provide enough information to the readers so there isn’t any opportunity for any questions to be asked because there should be enough information to silence and give answers to any possible questions. Alexander informs why students decide to write about their own success in narratives. Williams talks about what a literacy narrative is and shows how this gives an insight for teachers to learn about that student in particular. Gee provides important details on how life really works and provides examples on successes and failures in his opinion. In result making the text have questionable parts will keep the reader intrigued and making them an more open minded reader.  

Read: Alexander, 622-29 and They Say, I Say, Chap 2 (pp. 30-42). Journal # 9: Write a journal that summarizes Alexander’s project in a way she would recognize.

In the study conducted by Alexander she reviewed narratives and read them with cultural lenses instead of academic ones. This allows her to understand the narratives with a more personal connection instead of grading them for the criteria. In her study she read and reviewed 60 students papers after each paper she put each one into a category that fit into the cultural difference. The categories she put the narratives into where “Success, Hero, Outsider, Child Prodigy, Victim, Rebel and Other.”. After her study she was able to find that around ⅓ of the narratives she reviewed were a “success narrative” and that just about every student had some sort of success part in each of there narratives.

The “literacy success story” is an example of what Alexander and others calls a “master narrative.” Use direct quotation to define this term, then paraphrase Alexander’s explanation of why the literacy success story is problematic.

Alexander suggests that “little narratives” offer alternatives for representing one’s literacy experiences. What does she say characterizes “little narratives”? Find at least two examples and summarize them here.

Alexander says that “literacy success story ” is a “master narrative” as do other masters  of literacy.  Alexander believes that “incorporating the master narrative that literacy automatically leads success is incomplete and even inaccurate,”  With this said success stories don’t give both sides and are primarily focused on the writers side and they rant able to give a non bias story.

Alexander says ” discovering  the little narratives students employ and who is more likely to invoke certain narratives gives us a richer, more diverse picture of our students'”. I completely agree with Alexanders ideas and if the narrative is more divers and richer it can relate to more readers and give them the ability to connect to the story more. To characterize “little narratives ” Alexander believes that ” more specific, narratives of the literacy that contrast with and challenge the master narrative” . With more small specific ideas and thoughts it allows the reader to challenge the master narrative and gives the ability to look at it in more depth and at a different perspective.

Journal # 6

How different is this new narrative than your project from last term?

Revisit it in order to think in reflective terms.

Does this new narrative change how you see or feel about your own narrative?

Are there any insights gained by looking at yourself from another’s perspective?

 

The narrative from last term was about my personal story and how I felt about it.  The narrative was written from my perspective and I did not have a very open mindset about the questions that can be asked from it. The new narrative lets me think deeper and gives me the ability to have a much more open mindset.  A insight I learned from looking at others narratives is that its always not about you, by this I mean you might be the reason why everything is so hard.

What connections can you make with these (Williams and Gee) texts? specific moments in each text where you are able to place these two works into conversation. Help me understand why.  Work to discuss these specific moments.

The Ideas that Williams brings up about shifting identities ties well with what Gee says about acquiring a second discourse. With the points made that you need to shift your identity to learn better this is how you can start to learn a new discourse. Useful expercies are a key factor in both readings, without real life expercies it harder to obtain good judgement. Good judgement is huge in learning a second discourse.

Return to your LN sketch from another perspective.  Work up a 400-600 word version.  Be prepared to share in groups next class.  (What did you notice?)

I noticed a lot of different traits and other little things in the literacy narratives that I read and also from reading my own from in a different perspective. From the other literacy narratives I read, I picked up on how much most of them were all about me. By this I mean most of the narratives were blaming other people when the real person to put the blame on was there self. I say this because I was able to connect to just about every story on a personal level. For example, one story was about how a english teacher was very hard on this student in particular. Like most people I have had teachers who have seemed to be extra hard on me for some reason that I didn’t understand until later in life. In life there are going to be people who are hard on you because they know that life isn’t fair and, that colleges don’t care if you missed a deadline because “you forgot about it “. These students need to understand that these teachers were so hard on them because they didn’t want to set them up for failure. I personally didn’t understand this until my football coach my freshman year explained it to me. He told me that the other coaches were hard on me because they believed in me and knew I was destined for greatness. Just like a coach a teacher owes there students the same level of expectation from them and to believe them as well. After reading my own personal literacy narrative I started to understand the reasoning to why my Dad made me read the dictionary with him every night in the third grade. He did it to show me the importance of reading and writing and to take it seriously and learn persicatance. He also did it to have quality bonding time with me. As I look back it now it he was killing multiple birds with one stone while doing this which I think is extremely important to learn in life and parenting too. I think overall if the students that wrote about bad experiences with reading or writing should look back and deeply think on why it was so bad. Was it the teacher or assignment or was it you making it harder for yourself ? Once they come to an understanding about it I believe there whole perspective on life will change.