Working in the University Writing Center: Techniques and Strategies for Effective Tutoring

Writing Assignment 1: LITERACY AUTOBIOGRAPHY

This paper will be a first person account of your memories of your developing literacy. It should be one to two pages long, or it could be longer if you get into it. Think about events in your life that turned out to be key experiences in literacy for you. Think about such things as:

• Family experiences such as parents spelling words out that they didn't want you to understand.
• Good and bad experiences with teachers.
• Childhood insights and misconceptions about reading and writing.
• Friends or classmates who were better at reading and writing than you were.
• Strategies for reading and writing, both successful and unsuccessful.
• Experiences with foreign languages and literacy.
• Major breakthroughs and sudden insights.
• Attitudes toward reading and writing at different ages.

Organize the experiences you have picked out into a coherent narrative about your developing literacy. You should develop two perspectives: a "then" perspective which represents your attitudes at that time in the past and a "now" perspective which analyzes and interprets your past experiences from the point of view you have after reading the tutor-training manual and tutoring some students.

Were there experiences that had a negative effect on your confidence or your interest in reading and writing? Do you think some of your tutees have had similar experiences?

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