This morning, you will compose a reflective essay focusing on the process of planning, drafting, and revising your literacy narrative. If you are still in the process of completing your essay (since you have until Friday morning’s hard deadline to post it without penalty), your reflection will address your work in progress. Instructions for your reflective essay are included below.
Directions
Compose a short reflective essay that documents the processes of planning, drafting, and revising your literacy narrative. Questions to consider include the ones listed below. You do not need to address all the questions. Focus on the ones whose answers reveal the most about your work.
- In the brainstorming stage, did you follow the model in the August 25 blog post for using AI ethically? If so, did the conversation help you choose a topic? What other useful information did the AI assistant provide?
- When you began transferring the words from your handwritten draft onto the screen of your laptop or tablet, what did you observe about the process?
- What aspect of the writing seemed the most challenging? Determining the focus of your narrative? Developing the story? Beginning a scene? Introducing dialogue? Crafting the conclusion? Why did that aspect of the writing seem the most challenging?
- Did you change the subject of your narrative? If so, what was the original subject? What did you change it to? Why?
- Did you change the organization of the narrative? For example, did you initially present the story chronologically, then begin in the present and move to flashback?
- What do you consider the strongest element of your literacy narrative?
- What is the title, and at what point in the process did you decide on it? Did you change the title during the writing process? If so, what was the original title?
- What image did you include in your blog that documents part of your writing process away from the screen? Why did you choose that particular image?
- What relevant website did you link to your blog post? Why is that particular site relevant to your narrative?
Include in your reflection a minimum of one relevant quotation from one of the assigned readings (“Me Talk Pretty One Day,” “The Day Language Came into My Life,” the excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird, “A Bridge to Words,” “Creativity is Key,” “The Journey of the Greatest Story”). Introduce your quotation with a signal phrase and follow it with a parenthetical citation.
At the end of your essay, include the heading Work Cited followed by your works cited entry. (If you followed the preparation guidelines in yesterday’s class notes, the information you need to complete steps three and four is recorded in your journal.)
Remember that the writing following the quotation should demonstrate its relevance. Although you are required to include a quotation, its presence in your writing shouldn’t seem obligatory. In other words, the quotation shouldn’t appear to be there simply because you were required to include it.
Kudos
Congratulations to Claire Jahnke, Brenna Murphy, Sebastian Olander, Layla Rothberg, and Kel Wadley. As the first five students to correctly identify the typo in yesterday’s early-morning email and Blackboard announcement, they have earned a bonus assignment credit.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, review your journal entries on Scrabble and the blog posts devoted to the game. Also, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page.
Jane Lucas 