Storytell Your Literate Life

A great way to start storytelling with your friends or students is to recall the memories of your literate life: stumbles and falls, triumphs and "ta-das."

Here are some possibilities to get you started. You add to the list!

• your first visit to the library, your first library card, a library "incident" (from being shhhusshed to falling in love)

• the first book you recall "reading" (even if you "just" memorized it)

• the moment you realized you could read

• a teacher, librarian, mentor who brought books or encouraged reading in your life

• a family member who in some small or big way believed in you as a reader, writer, performer, thinker

• the first time a "hard" book grabbed you

• going on a reading (or writing) binge - pulling an all-nighter or going into seclusion for a weekend

• rereading a book and finding either you or the book had (or hadn't) changed

• discovering you like a certain genre or finding a series you loved

• any experience buying a book or being given a book as a treasured gift (or not treasuring the gift)

• any experience handling books old or new (job in a book store, janitorial work in a school, etc.)

• an image from a book that has stayed with you a long time, an image from a poem or memory of learning one

• what were your reading (writing/performing, drawing, painting) gaps - times you got away and longed to return

• what started you up again after a gap in reading etc.

• what was the moment or a time when your reading and writing intersected and you became aware how connected the two were

• when did you take part in a play and just love it (or not)

• when did you ever see performing connected with your skill in reading/writing

• a time when a teacher, parent, sibling, friend, or other person affect your self-esteem as a reader, writer, speaker, listener, or learner in general

• when did your vision (need for glasses) or your dislike of wearing glasses affect your literacy

• when did you ever teach someone else to read or love reading (writing, listening, performing, speaking publicly