Writing Portfolio

Running, Coffee, Poetry, and French: The Literacy of Identity

The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN) is a rain forest of people’s personal histories learning a subject, about the growth of literacy in individual persons. It is a kudzu network of communication, sprouting between the cracks in the foliage of old pedagogical practice and showing the light of how knowledge is actually absorbed. In my delving into this overgrowth of truth, I cut through four separate species of literacy narrative and distilled them down to their fundaments, their essential oils, their building blocks that constitute literacies in modern man.

The four literacy narratives I studied came from four dispirit corners of the learning jungle, which were: “How I learned to Speak French,” by Lynn Lewis, where Lewis discusses her organic learning of French from her francophone mother outside of any academic context; “Reading and Running,” by Sarah Foster, in which Foster reveals how her inspiration from a book led to her achievement in running and academics; “Poetry, a Way to Build Literacy Skills,” by Carolyn West, whereby West extolls the virtues of teaching poetry to children as a means of improving all of their academics; and finally “From Bitter to Dear: My Journey of Discovering the Significance of Coffee,” by Agah Duzenli, a narrative describing Duzenli’s character arc from being a coffee hater to a coffee aficionado. I was drawn to these narratives because they were so different and because they were all topics that I myself identify with. I found myself relating to each of these stories (except for Lewis’, as I do not have a francophone mother [though I am learning French in a similar organic manner]), and in relating these stories to myself I feel that I was better able to find meaning in them. The following are divinations that I have gleaned from the lines etched in embers of their oracle bone stories.

You cannot ignore one’s social history or family background when taking account of their literacy. In his book “Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language,” literacy scholar David Barton takes care to define literacy in its modern sense. A very rough summation of his ideas is that literacy is the competency that one achieves in any given domain. Thus, literacy equally applies to its canonical sense as one’s ability to read and write as it does to one’s ability to play tennis or to have decorum at a fancy (or unfancy) dinner. As such, a literacy narrative is the journey one undertakes to achieve literacy. Further on, Barton writes that “...literacy impinges on people in their daily lives, whether or not they regularly read books or do much writing. Literacy is embedded in these activities of ordinary life” (Barton 4-5). A common thread within the narratives I explored corroborates this sentiment.

Literacy indeed was embedded in the ordinary lives of each of these narratives, though I believe that literacy went even deeper than the ordinary: it touched on identity. Just as I chose these narratives because they resonated with me, the four individuals achieved literacy in subjects because the subjects too were close to them. Lewis connected with her francophone mother in learning and speaking with her in French (Lewis 0:10-0:30). Foster used her identity as a runner as a nucleus for her interests, synthesizing success through her comparative readings of “Running with the Buffaloes” with her own running and academics (Foster 0:28-0:40). West seeded the roots of English literacy in underserved youths by getting them interested in authentic expression through poetry that connected with their vernacular rather than the abstract artifice that is public school-ese (West 1). Finally, Duzenli learned to appreciate the nuances of Turkish coffee and later the mélange of arcane coffee brews by exploring its ties to his Turkish roots (Duzenli 1-2).

As mentioned, Duzenli’s acquired taste for Turkish coffee overflowed to encompass all manner of coffee traditions. What is more, Duzenli also gained confidence in learning in general. Of the experience learning about coffee, Duzenly wrote in his conclusion that it “...has taught me the value of pursuing knowledge and interests outside of my comfort zone” (Duzenli 4). On a similar note, interest in poetry carried over to language in general for West’s students and led to “Ninety-five percent of the participants improv(ing) their vocabulary, reading comprehension skills, (and) descriptive writing skills” (West 4). Foster fostered the running journaling habit she learned through her reading of “Running with the Buffaloes” into journaling habits around other domains of her college courseload, which led her into becoming a more successful student (Foster 1:03-1:27). Finally, the ease with which Lewis grasped French lessened the load of her grad school language requirement, a task that hindered her peers that lacked an organic grasp of a foreign language (Lewis 1:35-2:05).

The conclusion I draw from these narratives is that literacy in one domain leads to literacy in related domains, potentially leading to literacy in all domains. Put poetically, each subject is a garden, and literacy is one’s ability to cultivate that garden. Duzenli’s exploration of coffee also garnered skills he learned while working as a barista at Starbucks and blossomed his writing skills that followed in the writing of his literacy narrative (Duzenli 4). West’s aiding her poetry wards publish their poems was a nascent pollen that exposed the underprivileged to honeyed life paths of self-expression they otherwise might not have been exposed to in the publishing world (West 3). Both of these examples demonstrate that when one has tamed the weeds of one’s backyard, one’s current query, then one can peer over the fence and comprehend the common soil between subjects. With enough skill at literacy itself, one can break down walls between subjects and perceive the threads that weave the intertextual fabric of knowledge, like Foster was able to do connecting running to scholarly subjects (Foster). And so, a literacy narrative is an occasion where someone learns literacy. And literacy—literacy is the ability by which one learns.

In his work “The Literacy Myth: Literacy, Education and Demography,” literacy professor Harvey Graff takes pains to describe literacy myths and their obscuring effects on modern pedagogy. Literacy in this context refers to the literacies one learns in traditional academics (viz. the three R’s: reading, writing, and arithmetic); the literacy myths he refers to are the limiting, quasi-religious beliefs that literacy can only be attained through traditional avenues like higher education, and that it is necessary to be literate before anyone can achieve even a modicum of success, economic or otherwise (Graff 17). Our societal outlook on education is a rotten tooth plaqued over by just such a literacy myth. The power of identity in the literacies acquired by the participants in these literacy narratives and participants at large in the DALN prove that a top down, traditionalist approach to teaching is not the most effective for learners. Rather than pursuing the tooth pulling that is elementary education, tomorrow’s tutors might better follow the example of Lewis’ mother in her raising her daughter alongside a subject (Lewis 00:00-30). Better to brush as one grows than to gingerly await gingivitis. To further this tooth grinding metaphor, the DALN is a tube of minty-fresh stories whose lessons are a cleanse ready to backwash today’s instructional halitosis; we need only go through the swishing motions by reading, comprehending, and implementing the lessons of these narratives to start fighting back against our cloying academic tradition. Perhaps the pedagogical dentists of tomorrow will wield this mighty Excalibur-scaler and cleave a relieving root canal against the cavity-causing pedagogies of the present. It is time we brush our teachers.


Works Cited:

Barton, David. Literacy : An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Blackwell Pub, 1994, pp. 1-53, 209-218, https://gastate.view.usg.edu/d2l/le/content/3547592/viewContent/74271016/View. Accessed 18 April 2026.

Duzenli, Agah. “From Bitter to Dear My Journey of Discovering the Significance of Coffee.” The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, pp. 1-4, https://www.thedaln.org/#/detail/32005ce6-c568-483d-b51f-3274f601d879. Accessed 20 Apr. 2026.

Foster, Sarah. “Reading and Running.” The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, www.thedaln.org/#/detail/90dcf3e7-556c-441f-b40b-175bb6c6cebf. Accessed 20 Apr. 2026.

Graff, Harvey. “The Literacy Myth: Literacy, Education and Demography.” Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, vol. 8, 2010, pp. 17–23, gastate.view.usg.edu/d2l/le/content/3547592/viewContent/74271246/View. JSTOR. Accessed 20 Apr. 2026.

Hugo, Victor. “À Propos D’Horace.” Les Contemplations. 1856. Edited by Pierre Albouy, Gallimard, 2019, p. 59.

Lewis, Lynn. “How I Learned to Speak French.” The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, www.thedaln.org/#/detail/90dcf3e7-556c-441f-b40b-175bb6c6cebf. Accessed 20 Apr. 2026.

West, Carolyn. “Poetry: a Way to Build Literacy Skills.” The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, pp. 1-5, www.thedaln.org/#/detail/90dcf3e7-556c-441f-b40b-175bb6c6cebf. Accessed 20 Apr. 2026.