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This autoethnography should tell
stories of your experiences learning to write that include or
are followed by your analysis of both pedagogical method and the
social, cultural, and economic circumstances of your schooling.
Analyze the way you were taught
and be truthful with the stories even if they contradict (or reinforce)
established theories of writing pedagogy.
Your autobiography can be inclusive
of early pre-school experiences and run up through college to
the present. Or, you can focus on a period or periods that you
think was crucial. Since you are planning on becoming a secondary
school teacher, middle school / high school is obviously area
to consider carefully. You may be inspired to look back over old
pieces you have written, talk to friends, parents, and former
teachers as you return in your memory to your experiences with
writing.
This is a "multigenre"
paper; feel free to include samples of your writing or teacher
assignments, interviews with teachers, parents or classmates,
recreated dialogue, poetic expression/analysis, memories, illustrations,
reportage, etc. Focus not only on yourself but try to remember/research
what was happening to other students in the class or in other
classes/tracks. Exploring the way tracking effected your education
is often one of the best ways to look at the influence of social
and economic factors on the way you were taught.
One purpose of the exercise is to
"know thyself" so that when you draw on your own student
experience as you become a teacher you will act in a highly conscious
way, making careful choices and recognizing the diversity of the
students you will teach. This assignment should also help you
put your experience in perspective, helping you explore how the
way you learned to write may have differed from others.
I think you could and should write
at length on this topic, yet, given the time and expectations
of the course, I would consider twenty pages a satisfactory minimum
length. Of course the final draft should be nicely presented,
well-edited and so on.
Look at the syllabus to check dates
on this assignment. Note that at different times before the final
assignment is due you need you need to bring specific pieces to
add to the autoethnography.
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