Literacy Narrative Brainstorm

Due: Wednesday, September 15th

Before you set out to tell a story about how you’ve gradually acquired and developed your literacy in a given discourse community, I invite you to first unpack your working knowledge of three potential topics, from which you will then choose one in particular to serve as the focus of your literacy narrative. My hope here is that you will hash out some of the key narrative moments that have come to define your literacy in these topics, while also enabling in you the means to further explore the close-knit, interconnected relationship between your memories of the past and your imagination of the future.

• Conventions: What are three specific conventions associated with the discourse of your topics? 

Topic 1: Robotics

• Assembling the robot to complete specific tasks
• Writing the right codes to complete the tasks
• Testing the robot

Topic 2: Distance learning

• Having the right materials needed
• Adjusting to new websites and meetings
• Completing homework tests and other tasks.

Topic 3: Rare and endangered species 

• Finding ways to save these animals.
• Spreading the word to people everywhere
• Donate money to those who take care of these animals.

• Discourse community: Can you describe two memories in which you joined in conversation with members of the discourse community associated with these topics? 

Topic 1: Robotics

• In high school I was on a team and my job was to assist in assembling the robot.
• During the coding part of the robot I gave the coders ideas on how to make the code easier for the robot.

Topic 2: Distance learning

• During online school each class had a zoom meeting and at the end of class we would give our opinions on how online is different from in person.
• I wrote an essay for college about how distance learning is less beneficial than in person.

Topic 3: Rare and endangered species

• One time I heard from people that the giant elephant in the museum of natural history was real.
• I would spread the word about saving the elephants and the tigers on social media.

• Literacy sponsor: Can you describe two specific ways in which a literacy sponsor has introduced you to the discourse communities and/or conventions of these topics? 

Topic 1: In high school I took coding and robotics as classes for the first time. Before I joined the robotics team there were people who joined in the past to explain how everything worked with the team.

Topic 2: When remote learning first started the principal had a big zoom meeting explaining how each class would work and how we would log in and complete work. Then during each class the teachers told us what websites we would use and how we complete assignments.

Topic 3: I noticed through a lot of commercials that talk about the people that hunt animals like tigers and elephants for their skin. I personally love animals and hate to see that so I spoke to someone over the phone and they helped me donate some money and told me how I can help. That’s when I started posting on my social media about it.

Key terms from Join the Conversation 

• (Genre) Conventions: The content and style associated within a specific genre. For example, the genre conventions of a business letter, a genre of writing, include formal letterhead and a signature.

• • Note: I would like to add to this definition by stating that conventions ultimately represent an unstated or unspoken set of connected rules or standards by means of which members of a discourse community communicate and interact with one another, thus establishing a common set of goals and values that then structure a given discourse.

• Discourse: “Refers both to any act of communication intended to inform or per-suade others, as well as more specifically to the shared set of linguistic and metalinguistic attributes specific to any field or profession. Rhetor James Paul Gee writes that “Discourses are ways of being in the world; they are forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothes.”
• Discourse community: “A group that shares a set of linguistic and metalinguistic attributes specific to their field or profession. A writer or speaker may identify a specific discourse community intended for their use of language when they identify a desired audience—such as a publication, a venue, or a professional group.”
• Literacy: Up to the 1970s, literacy was traditionally regarded as the ability to read and write in a given named language (such as English or French), but since then, the definition of literacy has broadened to the ability to utilize language within a specific discursive space, within or beyond named languages.

For more information, head to JTC’s table of contents and click on Key Terms.