Personal Essay

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Arguably, our assumptions about how writing are formed when we are very young, and are changed and reinforced throughout our lives in spaces like school, at home, in church, among friends, etc. We have already spent some time thinking about these in our literacy maps. For this assignment, you'll use what you discovered in your literacy maps, what you wrote about on the first day's writing, and the readings we've done so far to discover a topic about learning that may still be influencing you today.

So, for your first paper, pick one of the moments you wrote about on your literacy map and generate some possible topics that might help you, and the people reading your paper, better understand how "learning" happens.

Most likely, these papers will be based on one or more important personal experiences you've had. Certainly these experiences have influenced how you learn about yourself and the world. Use these, but use these so that someone reading about your experiences/topic might gain something from hearing about your story.

For Example:

An important part of my literacy map was taking AP English in high school. It was here that I figured out that reading and writing about "literature" didn't have to be knowing important facts about the author, understanding plot or poetic structure, or reporting what the teacher told me to know about literature. From this, I understood that every person brings a specific understanding of literature that can be analyzed in relationship to the text itself. As a teacher, I might write about some ways that I can help other teachers teach this approach to literature to his or her students.

Keep in Mind:

The purposes in personal narratives such as this one are often more subtle than in other types of essays. While they may revolve around the simple purpose of sharing an experience, they often suggest a lesson or open a topic up for further thought and discussion. In thinking about your own topics, the purpose may not be clear from the beginning – this is okay!
What is important to keep in mind as you generate topics is that you see potential to go further. This is not to write about how “Being read to as a child was important to you." As you pick and narrow your topics, choose something important to you, but that might have some affect on an outside audience

Both the teachers and some of your classmates will be reading and responding to this paper, so do not choose an experience that you feel is too personal to share.