Turn Around by Kayla Farrell is a perfect example of the victim narrative. She had a passion for reading and writing that was ruined by her teacher.
Child prodigies are every parent’s dream, but this parental dream comes from a constant push from parents. “Unless children are exposed to school literacy and learn these values at an early age, they will not be successful”(Alexander 619). Alexander describes the “child prodigy” literacy narrative as children who “excel at reading and writing from an early age and is put on display for others to see his or her brilliance and intellectual acumen”(615). Child prodigies are not your average student who have good grades, they are the ones up till three am making sure their essay is as perfect as it can be. Child prodigies are pushed by their parents every day to be smarter than any other child in their classroom. I believe that this is one of the more important literacy narratives because a child who Is constantly pushed and pressured to be better grows up to one of two literacy narratives. Child prodigies either turn out a literacy winner or a victim.
In many cases of child prodigies, they become a victim. Alexander describes a victim literacy narrative as “ someone who is a victim of negative literacy experiences in or out of school; casts blame for negative literacy experiences; discusses how someone took the fun out of reading and writing”(615). Unfortunately, Alexander’s depiction of a victim narrative is one many students can relate to, as he states, “many students gravitate towards the victim narrative: over 80% of students incorporated it at least once”(615). Why is it that 80% of our students experience a negative literacy experience? Many blame the relationship between a student and a bad teacher, “ students wrote about negative school-based literacy experiences that include being misread by insensitive teachers, having a ‘masterpiece’ ruined by a teacher’s notorious red ink”(Alexander 617). The reason many students have negative learning experiences is that they had a poor relationship with a teacher who did not “appreciate” their work.
