#Literacy

#Potential Topic

Reading

Reading to relate to upperclass friends in 9th grade

#Why it Matters

#Vivid Scene Ideas

Finding books I had read or wanted to read in Harvard Coop

The Illiad

reading as membership in a tribe
Timé

arrival of book during the summer

first week of class

seniors throwing them off library







reading this book

Writing

When my second grade teacher photocopied my story and had me bring it to my first grade teacher

My third/fourth grade "novel"

the first of so many giant abandoned projects, convincing Mrs. Zing to take me seriously

conversation with Mrs. Zing

vivid description of story and how it changed over time, physically and ideas

Essay on quitting in 2nd grade

- I read so many great things that way and had some of my first really positive experiences with adult books
- Reading with peers is so different from reading for class or reading alone
- It was also a kind of peer pressure, and I read the books that would help me gain entrance to this particular social group

Too complicated?

Arriving in New Hampshire with a stack of books - my "homework" for the summer week

Dialogue about what I hadn't read, my eagerness to be included

Experimental discipline - writing as punishment vs. writing as processing

Print Shop!

Fight with my parents about quitting violin

No TV

deciding not to write a creative thesis, even though that was what I planned and wanted to do

discovering a love of critical writing, learning about how to make wise decisions about how I work best

??? Will this work?

discovering that my mom kept a folder of my writing from all of elementary school

realizing that writing was a real thing, that it mattered

finding the folder, describing contents

The horrible transition from writing safe papers to interesting papers in my first class with Lois

By the end of it, I wrote papers that considered questions worth asking and used academic writing to help me think about things

writing Malcolm X paper

first day of Lois's class

spoof of high school paper

Both / Other

Paul Simon's *Graceland*

changing from hating the made up words to appreciating the mystery

Driving and listening to *Graceland* as a child and now