Anita Chaudhuri & Subrata Bhowmik
Assignments & Activities Archive
Assignment Description
Writing a personal narrative assignment is commonplace in first year composition classrooms and the proposed assignment presents it as a literacy autobiography (LA) which can, according to Canagarajah, focus on individual learning journeys and underline “in-between identities and discourses” (p. 13). The transnational identities of our diverse student body can communicate niche and personalized learning – experience, association, communities, interactions, and understanding of education. As well, moving between diverse personal experience and learning objectives connects with translingualism that addresses invisible hierarchies related to race and language. Complex questions, as listed below, are important discussions for first-year students and approaching them from the standpoint of how we learn and approach academic or dominant learning expectations can develop their critical thinking abilities. What is language ownership? What is linguistic justice? What do we do when we see and hear differences in language articulation? First-year composition students are active participants who communicate, collaborate and engage (themselves and/or others) with ideas in academic and social platforms. Therefore, this assignment will foreground this dynamic nature of language use and ask them to re-contextualize their written draft into an audio/visual format.