Students may utilize many different identities within their literacy narratives, which may result in a shift in overlying identities. The beginning identity may not be the same throughout the entire literacy narrative. There is strong evidence to support Alexander and Williams’ idea that an identity shift usually starts with a student who has experienced something negative within their life, and is able to turn it around to further appreciate, and grow their love for literacy. However, there are some literacies, such as “Living in a Fairytale”, that complicate this idea. While only examining few narratives, there may be evidence of more identity shift patterns that go beyond Alexander and Williams’ ideas. For the most part, their pattern is one that can be used to evaluate many different literacy narratives. However, this pattern should not be the only one considered. There is some evidence that complicates this idea, but one may argue that this pattern is one most commonly used among students who utilize identity shifts within their narratives.
