Re-Mapping Literacy Events

The first time that I did this mapping assignment I found a quote that was hanging on the wall in the common room of my dorm room.  When we got in groups in class we all decided that we would do messages and quotes as the concentration for our project.  I was actually rather excited for this topic because I am fascinated by all sorts of quotes.  Our group decided to look through the library to find quotes and messages.  I posted pictures above of some of the different messages that I found.  One place that I found to be particularly helpful was the round computer tables.  There were these tri-folds that had different pictures with a message on them.  I thought that the most interesting part about these messages was that they didn't really go with the picture in a sense.  Well that was appropriate for the library, I thought.  They definitely got the point across though.  It made me start thinking about how people can interpret these messages in so many different ways and how that is actually perfectly fine!  I sometimes wonder how people can interpret things differently, even when it's in the simplest terms.  This assignment has made me look at things differently now, and by that I mean looking deeper into its meaning.  Before this class I only thought about stuff on the surface and never got into deeper detail.  I think that it's really cool that I was given this opportunity to look at quotes and messages around the library here at UNC Charlotte.

Hidden Literacies

As I was looking around campus for hidden literacies I came across this canvas on the wall in my room.  I thought that this quote was completely appropriate.  I first read it as though you aren't willing to look stupid in public.  The more and more I thought about it, I thought that you could use this quote for writing.  You need to be willing to silly/risky when you are writing.  Earlier today Lacy told me that I needed to take more risks in my literacy narrative and then I stumbled upon this quote shortly after.  I thought that it was fate in a way that I saw this and actually understood what it was saying today.  I wonder what literacy would be like if the authors weren't willing to take the risks that they did.  Would people enjoy reading or writing as much?  Literacy would be very bland and not interesting.  I think that one of the most important things in life is to take risks and to not be afraid of what other people think.  

Literacy Narrative Organization

In class we were working on are literacy narratives and Lacy asked us to make an organizational chart to help us write.  I thought I would make a chart that showed my literacy history in chronological order.  I thought this would be easiest because it put all of my information in an organized manner.  When I was making this chart, my thoughts flowed easier thinking about my literacy history because it made me think about all of the different events.  I was actually able to think of a lot more events that happened when I was doing this assignment.

Midterm

For our midterm assignment in English 1101 we were assigned to go to Atkins Library and find a mentor text that would assist in writing our literacy narrative.  Once we found the mentor text of our choice we were asked to do a "write beside the text" in our day books.

My group went to the library on Tuesday morning at 8 a.m..  It was an extremely muggy and yucky Tuesday morning.  This weather made me want to crawl right back in my bed but I knew I couldn't do so.  My group was supposed to meet at the front entrance of Atkins Library.  When all of my group members were there, we headed into the large and extremely overwhelming library.  We stood at the front desk at the computer but didn't exactly know what to look for.  We were searching and searching but didn't know where we wanted to go with this project.  Chris then thought of the idea of using The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.  I wrote down the call number and we were on our way.

We got to the 2nd floor and found to CIMC section and began looking.  We were totally confused to why we were looking through text books and other kinds of teaching aids.  We couldn't even find the text book that we were looking for.  The group came to a unanimous decision and decided to go back down the to front desk and find another Tom Sawyer location.  In doing so, we found the real Tom Sawyer book in the juvenile section on the 5th floor and we headed up there.

The 5th floor is much, much smaller than the 2nd floor so it took us no time to fine the isle that our book was on.  I started down the isle and was looking for the appropriate call numbers.  My group members were following behind me to make sure I didn't miss anything.  On the right side, on the middleish shelf, I found the mentor text we were on the mission to find, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  I pulled the book off of the shelf and we flipped through the pages and began our five minute "write beside the text."

As I was writing in my daybook I realized that this is probably the best book that we could have chosen to aid me in writing my literacy narrative.  My group was really happy that we decided on this book because there were so many different elements that we could all use.  I actually really enjoyed this assignment because it gave me the opportunity to really think about my literacy narrative and how I could incorporate many different elements.  My group worked really well together in this process.  We knew what book we wanted and we were on the mission to find it, and we did so.