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Here is the feedback I got from my teacher:
So Cem you need to choose a moment t

Here is the feedback I got from my teacher:
So Cem you need to choose a moment to open your essay with. Is it you at the CCIR? Or is it you as a young child, in a specific space, hating reading and writing? Choose a place, choose people to describe, and then use those sesory details we talked about yesterday. Then I would ask you to make sure the reader understands how you feel this moment affects/illuminates your understanding of your own identity as a reader/writer now. Beyond a simple lesson learned, what do you understand about YOURSELF now?
Context to add:
-The room smelled like ginger, the teacher in the writing center was obsessed with ginger he ate ginger everyday, made us eat for health and made us use ginger cologne.
-The teacher had a very deep voice that I hated.
Notes:
-Start with a brief explanation of how I hated reading and writing when I was young and felt dyslexic.
-Majorly focus on the moment I learned I was admitted to the CCIR program and how it made me feel I had a secret talent for writing as opposed to my initial ideas.
Project Instructions:
Audience: Your peers/other first year college students
Length: 1000 – 1100 words (excluding acknowledgements, title, your name, etc. )
Each of us has an individual relation to reading and writing: we do it or don’t, we love it or hate it, and we define it differently than our neighbors and friends. We probably anticipate that reading and writing will be important aspects of our college lives. This Literacy Narrative sets you up to understand your current relation to reading and writing.
You’ve prepared for the work of completing this Literacy Narrative by completing last Thursday’s homework, which asked you to describe a literacy event in your life, by reading various other writers’ literacy narratives, and by practicing close reading of texts and your own life.
The aspect of “close reading” (or “slow reading” or “critical reading”) is important to the work you will be doing to complete this assignment. I am asking you to closely read and make meaning out of one event from your life that has to do with your understanding of yourself as a reader/writer. This close reading should lead you to some insights about yourself and your individual relation to reading and writing, and, in fact, the creation of your identity as a reader/writer, whatever that may be. Your audience should be left with no doubt about what this moment in your life says about you, now, and how you view yourself as a reader and writer. We are all shaped by events that occur around us, moments that happen to us; how we remember, interpret, hold onto or let go of these moments, molds our understanding of ourselves.
Students should think of one moment from their past that, when examined, illuminates something about the way they think of reading or writing. Perhaps it is a moment a seed was planted, for good or ill. Or perhaps it is a representative moment, one moment that stands in for many.
Audience: Your imagined audience for this paper is students in their first year of college.
Here’s an example of how the process of drafting this narrative might happen:
Literacy Event (example form your professor’s life): When I took the relaxation techniques class in high school P/E to avoid playing sports, (although I was not particularly stressed), the gym teacher asked us to write a vivid descriiption of a meditative scene. When I turned mine in, she asked if she could use it as an example in all her classes. This made me think I was a good writer. Then, 6 months later, when I did not get into a respected summer workshop for high school writers, I thought that teacher was wrong.
Close Reading of event(s) reveals my reactions:
Mix of pride (the teacher thought it was good!) and shame (I was hiding in this class).
Knowledge that someone outside of myself was watching/listening (an audience became real to me).
Surprise at being recognized for writing.
Skepticism that it was any good, which reveals my low estimation of self
Spark of desire to create something others enjoy again.
My shame after the rejection from the Governor’s School for the Arts shows that
I didn’t understand that writing required practice and readers to improve
I believed in binary: of natural talent or not; gifted or not; good or bad
which left no room for growth
The insight developed from my reactions: Writing well will always come easily. Later, when I didn’t win prizes or gain entry into an exclusive writing workshop, because I didn’t understand that writing well takes work, not luck, I assumed that these rejections were an evaluation of my talent. Only years later did I learn that the real writing comes in revision
Student’s final literacy narrative includes:
the literacy event in vivid detail, including
the setting
the people
dialogue
use of the 5 senses and concrete detail to bring the scene to life
But note, do not call it a literacy event in the essay
how you felt then
how you understand those reactions now
the insight you gleaned by considering that event,
a conclusion which looks ahead at your relationship to writing, as you enter college.
The final product should be a 1000 – 1100-word piece of finished writing. It may include links and images, but it should primarily be a piece of writing. You should submit the work as a .docx or .pdf document, through the link on Canvas.
What your professor is looking for:
Thoughtful engagement, in writing, with your own literacy experiences
Narrative summary & sensory detail—put the reader in the experiences
Reflective analysis—reflect on the impact the experiences have had on you as a writer
Looking ahead—what have your experiences prepared you well to do?
What have they not prepared you for? What’s next?
Evidence of intentional choices for narrative structure
Engagement with your audience