Rewriting the Formula: Exploring Student Engagement and Meta-Awareness in the “New Literacies Narrative”

Abstract

This study examines students’ engagement and meta-awareness of literacy in a modified literacy narrative assignment, the New Literacies Narrative. The traditional literacy narrative (a short autobiographical essay describing the author’s development in reading and writing) is a staple of composition classes but has been critiqued for its tendency to produce formulaic writing and its lack of applicability to other writing contexts. The New Literacies Narrative responds to these critiques by broadening the definition of literacy to include knowledge of a community’s traditions, values, and behavioral norms (drawing on Anne Ruggles Gere, James Paul Gee, and others). Students are allowed to write about their development in reading and writing or in an alternative literacy such as gaming, Greek life, or athletic team membership. This encourages students to question the traditional definition of literacy as the decontextualized skills of reading and writing and to develop a more meta-aware understanding of the cultural and contextual influences of literacy development. The freedom afforded by the New Literacies Narrative can also foster student engagement, as students (especially those who struggle with print-based literacy) can center their narrative on a literacy about which they feel confident. The study covered eleven sections of English 101 (Introduction to Composition) over the course of a semester. Using both textual analysis and computer-assisted linguistic analysis of 111 student essays and 87 written reflections, as well as insights gained through classroom observations and participant interviews, this study demonstrates that the New Literacies Narrative unit led most students to demonstrate a critical meta-awareness of the contextual and cultural influences on literacy. Students also acknowledged the existence of multiple literacies in their written work, interviews, and classroom exchanges. Finally, most students also displayed evidence of their cognitive (intellectual) and affective (emotional) engagement with the assignment and course material.