Imitation Activities

Imitation Activity #1: What is imitation?

We’ll start with a review of what we talked about yesterday. Imitation is a tool we can use toward self-efficacy in the workplace. Here are the key concepts we’ll want to remember going forward:

• Self-efficacy, according to the Forbes, “Self-Efficacy” article from June 2021, is “not only self-confidence but also a willingness to take risks and to get back up after failure.” For this class, that means that you are responsible for your own work and for understanding the assignments, although, of course, I am always available to answer any questions you might have.
• A key tool for achieving self-efficacy when learning new skills is imitation. Imitation is the practice of making someone else’s expressions your own.
• We learned yesterday how to identify someone else’s expressions. When reading someone else’s work, particularly work you admire, figure out not only what they are doing but how they are doing it. How do they start their sentences? What phrasing do they use to transition from one idea to another? How do they introduce a new idea or concept for the reader?
• Remember, anytime you are introduced to a new genre in this class, you are also practicing a way of to learn any new skill. Find examples, identify their expressions, then make those expressions your own.

In the following lesson, you will practice these skills by finding your own examples for our first deliverable, the Literacy Narrative.

Finding an Imitatable Model: 
First, make sure you understand what the Literacy Narrative is. You might want to review the Onboarding Process Prompt. At it's core, though, the Literacy Narrative is a story. So, think back to stories you have heard or read about how someone learned something new. These often appear at the beginning of a talk or in autobiographies. Which stories have stuck out to you?

Find two (2) of those stories and provide links or citations below.

Note: You cannot include any of the stories listed in the Prompt.

Identify the Author's Expressions: 
Choose one of the two examples you posted in the previous section. I suggest you chose one that most closely matches the Literacy Narrative for this course or the one that is most compelling to you. We already know what the story is doing: informing an audience about a person's path to where they are now. Your job is to identify how it does it. Start with why this essay stood out to you. Don't worry about content too much; instead, note the sentences that make the most impact or the phrasing that grabs your attention.

Write a one paragraph reflection on how the narrative you chose works, the expressions it uses. What concept/belief/issue is it expressing or exploring? How is it doing so? (For example, does it use a single anecdote to tell a larger story? When does the story start (past? present? future?)? How does the first sentence begin? Does it use complex vocabulary you had to look up or more common terms? You are not limited to these examples. What do you notice about this story and why does it stand out?)

Practice: 
Now that you've identified some of the expressions your example is using, lets practice. Just as we did in class yesterday, write out the first sentence of your example below in quotation marks. Then, write the first sentence of your own literacy narrative with the same expressions. Does your example use an introductory clause? Does it start with an example? an idea? Does it paint a picture of a specific moment in time? Determine what your sentence is doing, then do the same but to tell your story.