Literacy Narrative Process Memo

          Looking back at completing the literacy narrative assignment it was a very unique experience for me. I have never done a three-step assignment like this; creating a timeline, writing a paper and creating a slide show for it. I actually had to take a lot time to think about when things happened in my life and how to put my story together for it to make sense.As I sat down in class the most logical place for me to begin my narrative timeline was being at home with my mom. She stayed at home and taught my sister and me how to read and write. At first I had a hard time remembering how old I was when these events took place. Such as remembering reading to my family, but not remembering how old I was. There were so many things that I have done in my years of becoming literate; I couldn't figure out how to put it all in my story for it to make sense. Something interesting I realized about my literacy development while composing my timeline that I never previously thought of is; my mom being the bomb she took of work to stay at home and teach me how to read and write. This is how I noticed the theme throughout my timeline and she is the person I should focus on for my narrative. The experience of creating a timeline told me about myself is; that I really don’t know exactly how old I was when I started writing or reading I just know that my mom is the reason I am the why I am today.

            When writing my literacy narrative it wasn't hard to narrow down my area of focus. It kind of jumped out at me because my mom was the reason I became literate at such a young age. But it was hard to center my thoughts into a clear straight forward story, because I was trying to talk about everything that happened and didn't really focus just on my mom being the bomb. That’s why when I began my narrative it was hard to organize, I was all over the place, I tried to organize it chronologically, but I couldn't put it together to make sense. Before I start writing anything I make a list of all my thoughts and everything that I can write in my paper. For my literacy narrative I made a list of everything that I could remember about becoming literate, before I started writing my draft. After composing my rough draft, I really wasn't sure if my paper made sense. But thanks to the peer editing I made I was able to hear from my peers and made some changes to make my rough draft better. The changes I made were to make the focus of my paper on my mom being the bomb and not all the extra stuff I had in my paper. My peers were very helpful as “another set of eyes” they showed me things that I didn't see while writing my paper and they gave me feedback on how to make my paper sound better.

           Because we had to create a video slideshow about our literacy narrative, when I made final edits to my rough draft I was already thinking about how I was going to turn my story into a video slideshow. It really altered the way I would normally write a story because I just had to focus on my mom being the bomb. Usually I would write about every detail that happened, like the time I read to my family, I would talk about why I read to my family and what they though t about it. But because I had to focus on one thing for my video slide show I had to change the way I usually write completely.My peer review partner didn't chose fifteen of my best sentences because I took all day trying to read my paper in front of my peer review group. So time was running out before she even got a chance to choose fifteen of my best sentences. But the few passages that she did choose were the ones I choose for my slide show. I did find it really difficult to edit my text down for the 52-character limit per slide. 

          One of the strategies I use to edit my text was to shorten my sentences by changing words around .I also used pictures in place of some words just to stick with the 52 character limit. Using pictures really helped because they provided more detail because of the text limitations. I choose the images I use to help tell my story of my mom is the bomb. I used both personal and from the web, I didn't really have enough personal pictures to make my story make sense. The song I chose to help cement the theme in my slide show was Tiffany Evans I’ll Be There (Karaoke version). I chose this song because I felt it was really touching and claiming. I felt this song really fit the theme of my slide show video. I took time to make sure I picked the right pictures and sing to go with the theme of my slideshow.Going back and watching my video again I feel there are a few things that I could have done differently. I wish that I could have took more time and not had my sentences so broken up, I feel if I didn't have broken up sentences I would have gotten an A on my video slide show. 

Overall my literacy narrative process was not quick and easy, it was a journey. I had to do a lot of thinking to remember when things happened. I really had keep my focus on one theme and I had to get familiar with how to use Animoto. Completing this three-step literacy narrative assignment an experience I will never forget.