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Ashley Nilson
Professor Maika J. Yeigh
CI 521
13 May, 2014
Literacy Biography
For my literacy biography, I interviewed a 9
th
grade student at Roosevelt High School.
For the sake of privacy, I will use the pseudonym Lottie in lieu of her real name. We have been
working together for the last nine months, and through this time we developed enough rapport
that I feel comfortable asking questions about her personal literacy. Prior to our conference, there
is a fair amount of information I already know through either direct interactions or inferences
developed by our association. Some basic facts are: she is a 9
th
grade student at a Title I funded
school, she is bilingual in both Spanish and English, she has a 4.0 GPA, and she wants to go to
college to become a marine mammal veterinarian. Additionally, prior to starting high school she
earned 5 credits through summer school and classes taken at her middle school. However, she
fears failing or demonstrating an inability and so rarely pushes herself to try new things or
challenge herself academically. If she is unsure about an assignment then she would prefer to
have her teacher walk her through it than try to figure it out by herself. She is an excellent writer,
though she claims to be a sucky writer, and though she tests at an 11
th
grade reading level, she
claims to not read for pleasure, and dislikes the books offered in her English Language Arts
classroom. However, next year she is taking a Spanish language course that focuses on literature
in that language. Im not sure if that is because shes interested in the literature or because thats
the only Spanish course offered at her language level, though.
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Prior to meeting, Lottie and I discussed the questions I would ask so that she could
consider her answers in advance and not feel so put on the spot. The questions themselves varied
from inquiries about her home life and literacy to her academic perceptions. For this paper,
though, I will simply summarize our conversation. Oral storytelling was an important part of
Lotties childhood. Her parents told her a multitude of stories as she grew up, and every single
one was verbal. She doesnt remember ever having a book read to her, or reading one herself
until she was in school. Though there is some text in the home, little of it is in English there
except for what she or her older brother would bring from school. The magazines, books, bills,
and other paperwork in the house is primarily in Spanish. Her parents emigrated from Mexico
just a few years before she was born, and though they speak English well enough to get by, they
are not as fluent as she and her brother are. As such, Spanish is the language spoken at home.
However, her parents always encouraged her academically and so supported her education in any
way they could.
When she was younger and she brought home books from school or assignments, they
painstakingly read through them with her in order to both make sure she understood the text and
also so they could help her if needed. As she got older, though, her parents both started working
more and so she got less help and more expectations. By the time she reached middle school it
was expected for her to do her work independently, and anything less than a 4.0 GPA was
considered unacceptable. College was always considered a requirement and not an option, since
her parents want her to have a better life than the one they have. As such, her parents
constantly push her for academic success. Though she sometimes resents the expectations her
parents place on her, Lottie finds it preferable to doing nothing with her life. However, books
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and other forms of literature were always considered part of school, so she doesnt see them as
something someone would want to read for fun.
When we discussed the idea of literacy outside of the classroom, Lottie denied that
existed. She spends a lot of her free time at school texting her friends, updating Facebook, and
scouring blogs and articles on everything from fashion to cooking. However, she doesnt see this
as reading or writing, activities she views as dull. Rather, she considers her digital activities as
fun and therefore separate from the dreary world of reading and writing. When I asked her to
show me some of the things she does online, she showed me a long and thoughtful response she
made to an article discussing whaling in Japan. She read a few of her Facebook posts, which
varied from quick updates about how boring school is that day to diatribes about various topics
bugging her. She also showed me one of her favorite blogs, called Creativity in Doses. Its a blog
focused on budget DIY projects, sewing, and cooking. She reads every update, and has even
tried a few of the projects in the blog, or used them as starting points to search for other projects
that would be more feasible.
Based on the information we discussed, Lottie has a strong background in literacy.
From her parents she developed oral literacy, and the ability to understand academic literacy
when it comes to both reading and writing. She also is very capable with digital literacy and
demonstrates the ability to do independent research, write or respond to digital media, and
understand various online texts. However, she doesnt view her literacy skills as very proficient,
because she doesnt consider any work outside the classroom to be real work, and though she
earns good grades she doesnt show interest in her class texts or written assignments. Even when
offered assignments that are open ended and allow her to choose her topic, she goes with the safe
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route by choosing something being studied in class, an act the negates any possible interest she
could develop in the assignment.
To support Lottie with her literacy I think I would focus on her digital skills. She seems
to engage more with any form of text when its viewed on her iPad or phone than when she is
given the paper format. Also, I would encourage her work online by asking questions about what
shes looking into, checking for updates on the articles she reads, or suggesting articles or blogs
she might be interested in. Perhaps, as a teacher, I could even develop an assignment around
each student creating a blog or website as a final portfolio. However, that doesnt change the fact
that she still views academic literacy as boring and actively chooses work that perpetuates that
idea. I think the biggest challenge to get past in that respect is her fear of failure. If she always
chooses the safe and boring route, then shes never going to see school as anything but a chore to
get through. As such, if I were to create an open ended assignment, I would most likely try to
work with Lottie one-on-one to determine how she might bring her own interests into the
assignment and explicitly work to help her understand that just because something isnt boring
that doesnt mean she isnt learning.