CITI Check-in (2-10 min)

How’s this going? Due by today so want to check in.

What’s a Literacy Narrative? (20-30 min)

Take the next 2 minutes and choose the annotation from another person that got you thinking the most and explain why: it could be something you found insightful, something that made you think of a question you had, something that reminded you of something else from your own experience or another’s experience, etc.

Okay, partner up with someone new that you haven’t partnered up with yet. This involves walking around the room! Introduce yourself, make sure you know each other’s names. Share the annotation that stood out to you and why it made you think.

Let’s report back. What did you talk about?

What is a literacy narrative? Who is writing literacy narratives? Where do we see them? For what purpose?

Let’s look at an example literacy narrative. Now, this is the first semester I’m teaching an “information literacy narrative” so I don’t have examples of that. However, the form or possible structure of them can be seen in past student writing so I am sharing them here to talk about. Go to our Blackboard page and “Syllabus and Other Course Documentation” for two literacy narrative examples. Let’s read one and see where and how some of Liao’s criteria are being used (see prompt, too, for what these criteria tend to be).

What’d you notice? What’d you like? What might you want to try out?

What criteria for literacy narratives do you see at play in this example? What do you not see?

Potential Topics

The Rhetorical Situation and Your Process vs. Practice (30-45 min)

For your first draft of your Literacy Narrative, the rhetorical situation would include information like the following:

• Purpose is to explore your history as an information user and evaluator
• Audience is me and your classmates; possibly others if you imagine writing this for other readers, too.
• Constraints include following our prompt’s guidelines for what I expect to see (e.g., word count, making sure you say what you mean by “information”), deadline of 9/13 for “shitty first draft”, working in Microsoft Word (or whatever word processing platform) and what you can and can’t do there, and other circumstances in your life.

Once you have a sense of the rhetorical situation, it is time to figure out the full context of how you’ll do your writing:

1. the process we use for going from ideas to words on page (and back again to ideas and back to words and so on).
2. the practice you will develop to get you into a space to do some writing, reading, revising, etc. (e.g., the time you will write, the place you will write, the sounds you want to hear, the ways you’ll nourish your body)

So, on this Google Doc, share the order of ways you try to get writing done. What do the different stages look like for you typically? Try to describe it as best you can and in the best detail you can. Some examples: outlining, brainstorming, editing, revising, writing a bunch at once, writing pieces here or there without thought for how they fit together, writing on note cards and piecing them together in different orders (however these labels and examples are very broad and not very detailed so try to get into much more detail than words like these–including when they happen and in what order and if it is linear or more recursive/circular).

Is your process always the same? When does it deviate? Should it deviate?

Reading and Writing Practice

A writing practice is carefully considering what environmental conditions help you read and write best and to try to set those conditions as much as possible when reading and writing.

Some examples are:

• What time of day do you write best?
• Do you like noise or silence?
• Do you prefer a desk or somewhere more informal?
• How do you manage distractions?
• If you like music to help, what kind of music works best for you?

For now, I just want you to think about how/when/where you do your best writing. We are going to do more on this in the next couple of classes, but I wanted you to think about this now because it is important. Writing is a fully embodied experience; it is not just your words on a page.

As you keep up with your Labor Log and your Working Writer’s Journal, you will (and probably should) change your mind on much of this as you get more experience and reflect more.

On this other Google Doc, let’s try to answer some of these questions of writing practice. That is, what you think works well for you.

Tell me about the last time you had what you would call a “successful” writing experience. Take that to mean what you want it to. For example: you were proud of your writing, you felt like you were in a “flow” and got a lot done, you enjoyed yourself (as much as you can if you don’t like writing that much!), etc.

Respond to these questions on the Google Doc as well as providing a brief reflection on why your writing practice that day helped you have a successful writing session.

Other Questions:

All of this is about when you write, where you write, etc.: is any of it about how to write? Do we need to learn ways of writing, of the specific topic and ways to write about it?

How does reading factor into all of this?

If Time: Let’s Try a Guided Writing Practice/Process (15 min)

I’m going to pass out a Writing Session Plan handout. Let’s start it by at least saying what you plan on doing. You can also download the form from the same place on Blackboard as example literacy narratives. I want you to get started! And fill out this writing session plan to help you think through how things are going and what you are trying to do. Let’s go through the sheet.

I also have on Blackboard a “Distraction Management Techniques” handout that can give you some good tips on managing distractions.

Next Time (2-5 min)

• Read “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott
• Post at least three annotations
• Have your Thursday to Wednesday Labor Log completed
• Write your weekly Worker’s Journal
• GET STARTED WITH INFORMATION LITERACY NARRATIVE ASSIGNMENT–NEED SOME VERSION OF A DRAFT FOR SEPTEMBER 13