Potential Topics- Literacy Narrative

Potential topics: Writing in elementary school vs. writing in middle school, Ap history class (how i learned to write differently)

Writing in elementary schools vs. middle school: 

1) A clearly identified event: What happened? Who was involved? In elementary school I loved to write, it was a way for me to be creative and express how I felt. I had teachers who told me I would never have a problem with writing, that I would always succeed in it as long as I put effort into my work. Then I made the transition to middle school where writing was no long for the purpose of gaining experience and becoming comfortable with writing but now was more of a test, and way to be graded and prove that you had the skills to succeed in writing, basically writing was no longer fun. It turned into solely a means for a grade, and 9 times out of 10 you had to write what your teacher wanted to hear in order to receive that grade, which completely cut out the creative part of it I loved.  

2) A clearly described setting: When and where did it happen? 

First my elementary school with bright yellow walls, tiny chairs, and children’s art hanging everywhere.  Next the bigger school with the bigger chairs; the middle school. Instead of the orca mascot I had been use to for 6 years (K-5th grade) I was now starring at the huge panther mascot which laid on the floor. Instead of children's art there was more helpful things hanging on the walls like such as dictionaries, atlases, and maps.

3) Vivid descriptive details: What makes the story come alive? To include vivid descriptions and make my narrative come alive I will describe the setting of my class rooms by adding sensory imaging, how it smelt, what I tasted, and even things such as how the room itself made me feel. I will describe my classmates who impacted my story and most of all my agate teacher Mrs. Kragen.

4) A consistent point of view: Who's telling the story? Because this is a story from my life that affected me it will be written from my point of view which will allow me to include what I am thinking at times and how I feel about certain situations I was put in.

5) A clear point: Why does the story matter? This story matters because it had a huge impact on my life by making me the writer I am today and impacting how I viewed/view writing. 

My 10th grade AP world history class:

1) A clearly identified event: What happened? Who was involved? In my ap world history class I had to learn a different type of writing than I was use to. In the beginning it was a struggle for me, in former english classes I was taught to write and expand on ideas on most papers teachers would give an amount of words or pages you paper would have to meet or exceed, that was not the case in ap world. My teacher Mr. Bernal would assign a paper or prompt and would tell us it must be less than 2 pages. We were taught to included only what was needed and nothing more. 

2) A clearly described setting: When and where did it happen? I will include this in my narrative by describing the setting of my 10th grade Ap world history classroom and the library in which we used many times to work on projects, papers, and to find information.

3) Vivid descriptive details: What makes the story come alive? To included vivid description, I will add sensory details in my writing by talking about emotions I felt trying to figure out this new type of writing that I was not understanding at first, and how I felt once I finally understood it.

4) A consistent point of view: Who's telling the story? Because this is a story from my life that affected me it will be written from my point of view which will allow me to include what I am thinking at times and how I feel about certain situations I was put in.

5) A clear point: Why does this story matter? The point of this story is to show that even when your older and have already learned and so called mastered the fundamental writing techniques, there is always the chance that a teacher will expect something different than what you were taught. This story also matters because it has made me the writer I am today and throughout my ap world class i learned many of useful writing techniques that I believe I will use for the rest of my life.