Time

45-55 minutes (approximately)

Learning Outcomes

• Synthesize narrative themes
• Practice asking good questions
• Draft a conclusion for a literacy narrative

Prerequisite Reading

Emily W. Blacker’s “Ending the Endless: The Art of Ending Personal Essays”

Assignment Description

1. Choose a literacy narrative from the archive and briefly read through it. (5-10 minutes)
2. Delete or redact the last 1-2 paragraphs of the narrative. (1 minute)
3. Choose a partner to work with. (1 minute)
4. Role play a consulting situation in which you are a client and your partner is the consultant. You are writing a personal literacy narrative, but you do not know how to end it. Using Blacker’s ideas and the assignment prompt as a framework, work with your consultant to brainstorm ideas about how to end this narrative. (10 minutes)
5. Reverse roles and repeat the process. (10 minutes)
6. Draft your own rough conclusion to the literacy narrative you have selected and share with your partner. (15 minutes)