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This semester, you'll work on three projects; each will build off of
the previous project. Our overall goal will be to use The Autobiography of Malcolm X
as a point of inspiration; a departure point for considering how narrative and argument produce individual
understandings of literacy. In other words,the way we write and the "things"
which influence how we write contribute to how we become literate (how we produce ideas).
Our challenge is to write an Autobiography of ____. The blank is the name you will rename yourself as - much
in the way Malcolm X renames himself.
"People are always speculating - why am I as I am? To understand that of any person,
his whole life, from birth, must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our
personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient" (Autobiography of Malcolm X 150)
Project One:
Malcolm X's experience is shaped by a variety of influential factors, which involve place, culture,
street life, ethnicity, etc. Among those influences are:
Nebraska
Lansing, Michigan
Roxbury, Massachusetts
Pimping
Working for the railroad
Jazz
The Nation of Islam
Drug culture
The dictionary
Malcolm X considers himself "literate" (i.e. able to produce ideas and meaning about his life and events
surrounding him) because of these influences.
For your first project, collect as many references, images, sounds, newspaper clippings,
comic strips, literary references, etc. which you feel contribute towards making you
who you are.These items should be both private and public items.
Your collection will be both textual (writing about the influences which make you who you are)
and visual (imagery).
For the visual component of this project, you will collect both "found" imagery (cut out from newspapers, magazines,
downloaded from the Web) and you will take pictures with the camera you have purchased for this class. You must take pictures too.
Put all of your visual elements online in your ftp account.
Make a folder in your account and call it projectone.
Make the first page of your project: index.html
On paper, turn in the text part of your project, along with the URL for the online portion.
(1,000 words)
Peer Review Guidelines
Project Two:
Renaming Oneself: Starting the Autobiography of _____
Malcolm X renames himself X. The reason for doing so stems
from the ways Malcolm X feels meaning is constructed in a society dominated by racism.
His cultural influences lead him to this conclusion.
For your second project, rename yourself something.
The missing
element in the above title is the name you rename yourself as.
The reason for renaming yourself and the name
you choose will come from the work you did in the previous project.
All of the items you collected define who you now are.
In this project, you will describe the reason for renaming yourself and support it with evidence from
the first project.
Think about how your influences you described in the first project define you. Before
you choose the most obvious idea (i.e. the first idea that comes to you - FRIENDSHIP, LOVE),
figure out how your influences connect. What patterns do you see in the details of your influence
descriptions? What's in common? What details are shared by influences you
wouldn't normall think belong together?
Put all of your description up on the Web.Use images wherever you feel they are needed and support
your claim to rename yourself.
Make a folder in your account and call it projecttwo.
Make the first page of your project: index.html
(1,500 words)
Project Three
Based on the work you've done for the first two projects, write an Autobiography of ____.
The point of your autobiography should not be mere factual repetition (I was born in Detroit; I grew up
near Six Mile...). Instead, you should use the work you've done
for the first two projects (and in class) as the basis for how you feel you have
become a literate person.
In other words, how does this new name you have given yourself define your own grasp of literacy?
Put your autobiography on the Web. Use all of the visual elements you collected for the first project
and any new ones you wish to include.
Make a folder in your account and call it projectthree.
Make the first page of your project: index.html
(2,500 words)
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