Final Reflection on Literacy Narrative

The literacy narrative literally made no sense to me when it was first introduced in class. Granted, I hadn't read the syllabus very thoroughly, but did I realize there were three parts to it? No. Did I recognize any literacy beyond reading and writing? No. Was I being responsible in any way? No.

But the heavens parted, and I saw the light. I chose to expand on my musical literacies, and although I felt very confident about my first narrative installment, the multimedia remix made me nervous. According to my classmate feedback, I had left out a lot from my presentation, and that saddened me. I felt I went very in depth with my musical literacies, specifically regarding being a drum major, and others, who had chosen to focus solely on growing up and learning to read and write, seemed perfectly well off. As they should! I enjoyed the nature of their presentations and I provided corresponding feedback praising them for kicking butt and taking names. I loved the different approaches everyone had to their own literacies, but I lost a lot of confidence after my presentation. All of the feedback I received was constructive, and yes, I'm sure the fact that I presented in PowerPoint feedback was a bit of a turn-off and a deterrent for praise, bu I still felt that I had taken something at face value and had parsed it into almost every important element that relates to overall "life" literacies.

I'm a bad creator. And that's not a good excuse for not pursuing mediums beyond what I'm used to (i.e., PowerPoint), but iMovie was impossible. I attempted to create a movie three separate times, and all either magically deleted (on my own computer, not a WC) or made up their own transitions. It didn't make any sense. The class we had one day explaining tips and tricks with iMovie was very helpful, and I had a really good start to my project (it was a fake one at that time because I didn't have my pictures or content, so I deleted it). But then the three consecutive failures occurred. Did I want to resort to PowerPoint? Not really. I mean, yawn? How many PowerPoints have all of us seen in the past two, three, four + years in secondary and post-secondary education? Too many, my friends. Too many. So, I tried to use PowerPoint as a way to showcase my pictures. Didn't work out terrifically well. I thought about creating a composition on my flute or tenor sax to play in class to showcase my literacy, but that sort of took away from the "multimedia" thing...and would have made me look friendless, which would have been fine, I don't mind what people think of me particularly, but honestly no one would have gotten it. I don't even know what I would have played, beyond the different genres I know.

So, the point is, I don't like trying to be creative. I like structure, I like clear rules, I like rigidity and outlines and yes, I'm Type A. So no, the literacy narrative triad didn't particularly please me, and yes, it is my fault that I didn't love it, and no, I won't continue to have a clear set of rules in front of me throughout life, so this project has helped me get used to the fact that I'm not going to have a clear roadmap in life. This has become an existential diary entry, so I digress.

The creative piece was fun. But I'm not sure what it did for me besides providing entertainment. I would have preferred some kind of minimum instruction, like page limits or something. I don't know. It all comes back to the rules I lack in my life, and needing them for limits.

And honestly, I think there needs to be a set of rules or more structured feedback with our pieces. I think that would help more than just me, but who knows.