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when you choose quotation there should be proper reason

Brandt sponsorship: literacy narrative is not only based on person’s past experience

 

 

 

 

According to Alexander, there are various kinds of literacy narratives. Success master narrative is the most common narrative written by the students and some of the other narratives follow.  “Outsider narrative” is one of the other narratives. In Alexanders passage, she descries outsiders as a student who construct themselves as a stranger in a foreign land, not interested in furthering their literacy skills.  They stuck in a place called limbo, wondering where their place is in the world. Teddy Miller’s narrative in the rising cairn shows this trait of outsider narrative.  Throughout the years of high school, he maintained as an average student and disliked the writing assignments. He was not very interested in classes, floating around the grades of B or Cs. He did not fit in at school classes and portrayed himself as an outsider towards writing classes. He displayed negative attitude toward school. This example of his behavior shows the characteristics of outsider narrative.

 

Alexander describes traits of victim, and rebel narrative in her passage.  The author shows the moment when he felt victimized by reading/writing in victim narrative.  In rebel narrative, the writer seems to ‘rebel’ against certain school settings. In David’s literacy narrative,  he took a literacy exam in high school. The question was asking him to interpret certain meaning of the words in a poem. However his answer was judged wrong and he felt victimized by the standardized interpretation of the literature interpretation. He couldn’t accept the fact and tried to challenge the given answer. After debating with the teachers his answer finally was accepted as an alternative answer. This example shows both of victim and rebel narrative.  He went against certain decision made by the teachers in school. This shows the characteristic of rebel narrative.

 

In Brandt’s passage, he explains the idea of sponsorship.  Sponsors support and teach those who are getting sponsored by. In Tuzzo’s passage, he describes how certain sponsor changed his general mindset toward in English, and further his school life. He describes in detail how his sponsor affected him.  Through his teaching he could establish growth mindset on English class. This proves the statement in Brand’t passage that sponsors affect a lot on students who are in the path of literacy learning.

 

 

The idea of sponsorship is important in one’s literacy narrative. Sponsors can have positive affect to the ones who are getting sponsored by. According to Brandt, sponsors are any agent who enable, support, teach. The concept of sponsorship is suggestive for explaining the outcome of one’s literacy success. “Sponsors” is a fitting term for the figures who affect a lot in people’s memories of literacy learnings such as teachers or supervisors. In Brandt’s passage, he gives an actual example of how the quality of a sponsor can affect people. A person named Raymond was supervised by some of the most powerful agents of the university, while Dora Lopez was being sponsored by her parents who worked part time jobs at a local university. The outcome of Raymond and Dora was completely different. Shamus was affected by two different sponsors. His mindset toward English was negative when he met his first teacher. The first teacher was ignorant sponsor who affected his students in a poor way. However the situation changes as Shamus enters new school and meets new teacher. The new teacher knew exactly what is needed for success and eventually lead him to change his mindset. The new teacher had a quality of positive sponsor in contrast to the first teacher. This is certain part from his narrative which explains the situation. “There are teachers who will ruin things for you, change you and make you want to quit. But all it takes it that one teacher, friend, and/or mentor to change your mindset.” This supports the example in Brandt’s passage that the characteristics of sponsors affect a lot on those who are getting sponsored by.

 

 

The literacy narrative is comprised of different types of narratives. The little narratives provide information that master narratives don’t. According to Alexander, little narratives show us that students contextualize their literacy experiences with specific and personal accounts. Little narratives contribute to a more comprehensive view of student’s literacy stories. Readers could find several pieces of stories through this. Little narratives also contribute to learning more about the student’s particular literacy histories. These characteristics of little narratives reinforce the master narrative, providing readers with various information. I found the example of this at Shaylee’s literacy narrative. She tried to make more points through little narratives. The reason why she had to ‘rebel’ against the teacher and her firm attitude were all explained through little narrative. Her main idea which was explained in her master narrative was “don’t get shot down for being different by their own choice. It shouldn’t matter what you like as long as your not hurting anyone.”. After reading her little narrative, her claim in the master narrative seemed more obvious to me. “She just kept telling me to put it away. I put it away, that time, and the next day I took the book to read again. That time I got the book taken away from me, I was mad.” This quote was a part of her little narrative which made me realize why she had to stand against her teacher. Shaylee’s example supports the statement that little narratives supplement master narrative.

 

 

 

The idea of sponsorship takes significant role in one’s literacy narrative. Sponsors can have positive or negative effect to the one’s who are getting sponsored by. According to Brandt, sponsors are any agent who enable, support, teach. The concept of sponsorship is suggestive for explaining the outcome of one’s literacy success. “Sponsors” is a fitting term for the figures who affect a lot in people’s memories of literacy learning such as teachers or supervisors. In Brandt’s passage he gives two examples of how two different sponsors can affect people differently. The characteristic of the sponsor determines the color of literacy narrative a person writes. According to Alexander, rebel narratives are written by the students who resist traditional literacy beliefs, conventions, and ideologies by rebelling against them. The students portray themselves as resisting the system rather than to dislike reading and writing. In Shaylee’s narrative, her teacher acted as a negative sponsor to her. Her teacher would always take her book away whenever she was reading the books. Shaylee quoted, “My story isn’t the only one like it, so many people are shot down for being different by their own choice. It shouldn’t matter what you like as long as you are not hurting anyone.” As shown in this example, Negative sponsor can lead one to write rebel narrative.

 

  There are various types of literacy narratives. The most popular type of narrative is success master narrative and the little narratives provide information that master narratives don’t’. According to Alexander, success narratives are often told abstractly, without reference to a specific time, place, or instance in the student’s life. It contains broad, abstract claims about literacy. Little narratives show the readers that students contextualize their literacy experiences with specific and personal accounts. Little narratives contribute to a more comprehensive view of student’s literacy stories. Readers could find several pieces of stories through this. Little narratives also contribute to learning more about the student’s particular literacy histories. In Shamus’s narrative, he wanted the readers realize how important it is to meet proper teacher or a mentor. His little narratives made the readers realize it. According to Shamus, “She was not only my teacher, she was my friend. She liked to act like a child and fool around, but get work done in a fun way so it wasn’t painful to do. She was the person I could count on to always help me.”. By describing what the teacher did, it helps the readers acknowledge about the situation and understand the master narrative better. Master narrative is rather more abstract than the little narrative. Little narrative shows specific details that master narrative don’t as shown in Shamus’s example.

 

 

 

complicate: “things are actually more complicated than..”

victim narrative:  Alexander “haunted, took away freedoms”

“school based literacy: oppression+cruelty”

“privileged students”

“took the fun out of literacy”

What societal imperatives are fulfilled by forcing people to write?

According to Brandt, literacy is an individual development to an economic development. What can the idea of ‘Sponsorship’ contribute to the individual literacy development? And does the outcome of one’s societal imperatives depend of their sponsors?

 

2.

How much can other people affect you in a literacy narrative?

According to Alexander, she claims success narratives are the most common literacy narrative written by the students. This narrative is based on the idea that anyone, no matter their social background can achieve social success. According to Brandt, however, the sponsors of the individual affects a lot on the outcome of one’s success. How can Alexander’s idea be explained in the view of Brandt?

 

A bit of Gee, alexander, brandt, and a bit from the question banks

-ex)

in what ways do incentives and compliances relate to rising cairn?

(this is language of Brandt connect it to Gee)

Fill out the first table

Connecting Gee, Brandt, and Alexander

1.

We’re familiar with Gee’s idea that literacy in a “dominant secondary Discourse” brings “social goods.” How do Alexander’s findings confirm this notion? Notice on p. 556 how Brandt characterizes her own contribution to the conversation helping to fill in the “bigger picture” of the social and economic conditions that shape individual literacy. What does she mean when she writes that social and economic conditions shape individual literacy? What does her insight connecting individual literacy, social goods, and larger historic economic patterns mean for your own study of literacy narratives?

 

Alexander divided the literacy narratives based on the characteristics of the stories. The most common narrative written by the students is ‘Success narrative’. Success narrative view literacy as a mean to economic, political success and there is no limit of one’s background for achieving success. According to Gee, there is a discourse called ‘Secondary discourse’ and this is further divided into two types of discourses. One is ‘Dominant Discourse’ and the other one is ‘Non-Dominant Discourse’. Dominant discourse allows for the acquisition of social goods and status points, while Non dominant discourses do not. I think Alexander’s idea of success narrative connects to the Gee’s idea of Non dominant discourse. They both pursuit social success in our culture. When Alexander writes social and economic conditions shape individual literacy I think this relates to Brandt’s idea of sponsorship. Sponsors are usually located at higher social status and they enable, support, teach literacy to the individuals.

2.

Pay attention to stories of Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez. Brandt summarizes her findings then explains what they mean in terms of her study. Could we say that these fit the pattern of what Alexander calls the “literacy success story”?  Support your answer by pointing to and explaining particular details in their stories. How might Brandt’s analysis of their stories complicate your initial response?

 

Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez lived in similar period but their background was completely different. Branch received his first personal computer from this parents when he was twelve, and he had contact with the founders of the electronic bulletin boards in nation at early age. This lead him to become a successful freelance writer of software. He was in rich learning environment which was perfect for him to pursue his literacy development. However in the case of Lopez it was different. Her grandparents worked as farm laborers and her parents were part time workers. The first time she was exposed to computer was when she was thirteen. She needed to try harder than Branch to reach for the material and communicative system. She ended up working as a translator at a cleaning company. What this means in Brandt’s story is how important the sponsor is when it comes to achieving one’s literacy development. If there is a gap between the status of sponsors it affects to the person who is getting sponsored by them. I think these does not fit the pattern of what Alexander calls the “literacy success story”. Alexander claims anyone can achieve success regardless of one’s background.

3.

Now turn to your set of student literacy narratives from the Rising Cairn Which of your chosen narratives include a literacy sponsor? Does this sponsor act in the ways Alexander and/or Brandt observe? Give two examples. Which ones seem to complicate their claims and how?

 

Brandt explained different types of sponsors in her readings. Sponsors recruit, regulate, suppress and withhold. I found two examples fitting to her standard of sponsors. In my literacy narrative, I acted as a regulator. I corrected the error of the exam I took in high school. By refuting the claim of my teachers I made it clear that interpretation of the literature could vary between people. Also in Shaylee’s narrative, her teacher acted as a suppressor. She put an end to the Shaylee’s reading book by authority.

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Signal phrasing is the key factor when doing homework

Sponsorship

 

Sponsors: help people develop literacy skills

Embedded is a context-values beliefs, customs, language

Selfless

 

Concrete agent of literacy: can get connected in person

Abstract agent of literacy: not connected through in touch

 

Literacy: individual literacy, economic development

The author wants the readers to expand individual to the society level.

 

Master: supervision, leading people

Journeyman

How could literacy free you (liberation)

Development: go back and get sth from there

Progression: everybody got sth to learn

 

Difference between hero and success story

Pg626: whats puzzling about the victim narrative-written by privileged class students

 

Victim literacy: trying to blame it to other person so I don’t take the responsibility for the bad result.

 

I will see the master narrative at every stories

Personal imperative: thriving, surviving, respect, growth, comfort, admire

Context/connect

1. Agents: a person authorized to act on another’s behalf, a person that has the power to act, a natural force used for obtaining specific results

Concrete: a concrete idea, a notion having an actual thing as its referent

Abstract: something that concentrates in itself the essential qualities of anything more extensive or more general.

 

Recruit: to furnish or replenish with a fresh supply, renew

Regulate: to put in good order

Suppress: to put an end to the activities of people, to do away with by authority

Withhold: to hold back, refrain

 

At one of the examples at Brandt, African Americans in slavery taught each other to understand the Bible under the sponsorship of Baptist and Methodist ministries. I think this relates to the ‘recruit’ function of the sponsorship    since Baptist and Methodist are supplying new materials for African Americans. Also in my literacy narrative, I acted as a regulating sponsor. By arguing about the right way to evaluate the literacy interpretation ability, I tried to put wrong things into right order.