Learning a valuable life lesson
A literacy narrative is a story, typically written in the first person, about the author learning a valuable life lesson, becoming more fluent in a language or skill, or discovering something new about themselves. Simplified, these are stories about becoming more literate, which can apply to many different aspects of life and personal growth. For this response, locate an example of a literacy narrative to read and discuss. This could be a feature story about an individual or an experience (a first person account of volunteer work on a non-profit’s website, an immigrant story in the US or Europe, the story of an athlete discovering their role in the sport or on the team, a travel story about a foreign country or other destination in which the author becomes more fluent with culture or language, the story of a discovery or invention, the story of someone climbing Everest or some other challenging task, a true crime story from a podcast where the investigators must discover important details, a TED speaker who tells a personal story of learning through success or failure, etc…). Where did you locate the narrative, what is it about, who is the author, and how does it qualify as a literacy narrative? What details does the author include to make the story good, what moral or message does the narrative offer, is it written in the first or the third person? What information is provided in the story and what does the author become more fluent in? How, according to the author, have they benefited from this? What did you learn from this? If you were to write a similar piece or a similar narrative, what would you write about and why?
Sample Solution
Living is a never-ending learning process. We continually rise and fall throughout our lives, learning valuable lessons as we go. While some of these lessons are learned by experience, others might be learned, for instance, through reading or watching others. No matter how much we learn from books, there is a big gap between real-world experience and classroom learning. In addition, there are certain lessons in life that we simply cannot learn unless we encounter particular circumstances. Most individuals would agree that sometimes lessons must be learned too late, when we are unprepared and caught off guard. The list that follows reveals some of the most significant life lessons that people discover the hard way.
