Literacy Narrative Assessment Snapshot

Originally published in May 2024

Instructors seeking pedagogical approaches that value cultural and linguistic diversity in the learning process may consider developing a Literacy Narrative assignment. A Literacy Narrative can meaningfully respond to scholarly developments in critical pedagogies that call for anti-racist writing assessment practices (Yasso, 2005; Inoue, 2015). This assessment strategy creates an opportunity for students to identify and explore how their personal experiences influence and shape them as writers and readers. Students are invited to develop their narrative alongside unpacking powerful questions, like “what does good writing in our discipline look like?” By connecting and reflecting on key moments in their literacy learning journey, students develop confidence in their disciplinary writing voice, skills in creative and scholarly expression, and a greater sense of cultural awareness in global academic contexts.

Literacy narratives can be particularly effective assessment strategies for instructors teaching courses with first-year students, where students are encountering university writing for the first time in their programs, or for developing writing skills with diverse linguistic and cultural learners. With the emergence of generative AI tools, instructors can also adopt Literacy Narrative assignments to help students reflect on what makes their writing voice authentic and to show powerful contributions from diverse voices. Through engaging with literacy narratives, students can explore their own relationship to writing, contextualize it within their discipline, and envision the type of writer that they aspire to become.

Designing the Literacy Narrative Assessment

Develop prompts to effectively support students with their reflective process. For example, in a first-year English class, Writing Consultant Dr. Kaia Bishop, invited students to:

brainstorm key events, activities, and experiences that have shaped how they think about literacy. Prompts can include:
- Are you a good writer?
- What do you think of as good writing?
- What makes writing good?
- What are some examples of good writing?
build timelines of impactful reading and/or writing learning moments.
share beliefs and feelings about their reading and/or writing.
consider important places or influential people in their reading and/or writing journey.

Planning in the Term

When Literacy Narrative assignments are sequenced at the start of a course, instructors can collect valuable information about their students’ learning journeys and relationship to writing. This can provide instructors with additional opportunities for scaffolding written assessments throughout their courses.

Evaluating with a rubric

The personal nature of these narratives can initially feel difficult to assess and evaluate. The rigor in reflection assignments like this is commonly demonstrated by the student’s choices and description of experiences, sense-making of experiences using a course-specific lens, clear identification of learning, and application to current and future experiences (Rolfe et al., 2001; Ash and Clayton, 2014). The rigor of the assignment is also reflected in the composition, where evaluative questions involve: How effectively has the student addressed the audience and purpose of the assignment? How effectively have they structured and organized the overall narrative with this audience and purpose in mind? How effective are their choices about style and voice given their audience and purpose? To learn more about designing a meaningful rubric for consistent, transparent, and accurate evaluation, please see TEI’s Designing Clear Rubrics resource and reach out to educational developers on the TEI team for support.

Supporting Students through an In-Class Workshop

The TEI team works alongside colleagues in Writing Services at Laurier who support student skill development on writing assignments. Writing Services work with faculty to develop and deliver a Literacy Narrative in-class workshops to help students write an effective Literacy Narrative. Contact Writing Services to book an in-class writing workshop about literacy narratives or other writing assessments.

This Assessment Snapshot was created in collaboration with the work of K. Bishop and C. Wright-Taylor. (2024). Literacy Narratives: A Tool for Inclusive Pedagogy and Writing Self-Efficacy. Writing Services, Wilfrid Laurier University. CC-NC-2024

Curated Resources

Alexander, K. P. (2015). From Story to Analysis: Reflection and Uptake in the Literacy Narrative Assignment. Composition Studies, 43(2), 43–71.
Canagarajah, S. (2020). Literacy Autobiographies in Transnational Space. In S. Canagarajah (Ed.), Transnational Literacy Autobiographies as Translingual Writing. Routledge, 16-35.
Lindquist, J., & Halbritter, B. (2019). Documenting and Discovering Learning: Reimagining the Work of the Literacy Narrative. College Composition and Communication, 70(3), 413–445.
Literacy Narrative Explained | CUNY
Narratives of Reading, Writing, and Other Literacies | Georgia Tech
Young, M. (2004). Teaching Literacy Narratives: Reading, Writing, and Re/Visio. In Minor Re/Visions. Southern Illinois University Press