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Group 1: Raymond Branch.                                   Enrique Lordan, Chloe Park, Nawfal Ibrahimi, Khezer    

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Group 1: Raymond Branch.                                   Enrique Lordan, Chloe Park, Nawfal Ibrahimi, Khezer    

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A-Raymond Brown was born in 1969. He belonged to a middle-class family. His father was a professor, and his mother was a real estate agent. He went to Stanford University. He enjoyed technology and was at his father’s science lab a lot. Raymond lived in a community where technology was rising in ingenuity. As a child, he would go to tech stores sampling new computer games and making contact with founders of some of the first electronic bulletin boards in the nation. He would read a lot to enhance his vocabulary and programming techniques for computers.

B- Raymond had many literacy sponsors. The first and most obvious being his father. His dad was a professor, so Raymond had access to all of the university’s resources. His second sponsor would be the Christmas gift he received, a personal computer, and a modem. The third sponsor would be his community. Raymond was located in an information-rich, resource-rich community that helped him acquire a powerful type of literacy.
C-Raymond’s Dad was a science professor and received a personal computer and modem when he was twelve years old. This opened up doors for him as he was able to access laboratories, new technologies, and most educated personnel. This created his love for computer programming techniques with real users. During the summers of his teenage years, he would wander around computer shops to expand new techniques. So his experiences with these various literacy sponsors helped him gain important skills very early in life.
D-As Raymond was already into programming, his parents bought him a computer for Christmas (pg.250). As he was given his computer I'm sure he became more detailed in programming which helped develop a passion for him. Being fond of computers drew him into making connections with high-tech developers, which could have been a big influence on why he is a successful freelance writer of software and software documentation (pg250).
E-One of the thresholds I see correlating with my sponsor's life is identity-laden. Raymond's life was shaped by the literacy sponsors he had around him, like his parents, his school, and his community(pg. 250). This shaped him into becoming interested in the technological field, as he was brought up with educated parents they provided him with a computer as a child which grew his interest in programming. The experiences he had in his community played a role as computer hardware and software stores started popping up, which during the summers he would roam these stores sampling new games and making connections with high-end developers. These literacy-sponsored things impacted and shifted his interest and helped him gain an advantage that most kids would have that weren't brought up the same way.
G-As college students, our education has many literacy sponsors. The most important being our professors, and our college’s resources. We also have technology such as computers and textbooks. As well as our parents (if they pay for college or at least help out). These literacy sponsors shaped our education to be more technological. As we are learning mostly online, we are gaining a variety of skills on the computer such as Google docs, and Microsoft office.

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Group 2: Soledad Alvarado, Hanna Fite, Marco Duran

A. Name & Brief Bio:

Dora Lopez, a female Mexican American, was born in 1969, in a Texas border town with a Mexican American population of barely 1%. A working family, low-middle class. Her mother worked in a bookstore and her father pursued a degree in technical college, later was employed by the college. Dora used to work as a Teachers’ Assistant in a federally funded summer school program for the children of migrant workers. Dora attended a University, she later transferred to a technical college as she worked in a cleaning company, she also performed extra duties as a translator.

B. Types of sponsorship & literacy Skills/Opportunities

“Dora Lopez was being sponsored by what her parents could pull from the peripheral service systems of the university (the mail room, the bookstore, the second-hand technology market).” (Brandt, p. 251.) When Dora was younger she decided to learn how to read and write in Spanish by reading Spanish books from the bookstore her mother worked at and by writing letters to her relatives in Colombia. Being bilingual, Dora became a translator for the cleaning company she worked for, since most of the staff was Latin American. Because of her bilingual skills, Dora was able to develop her career which led her to become a higher earner in her line of work.

C. Outcomes for identity

Dora’s outcome was shaped by her economic status and ethnic background, her desire to communicate and connect with her own culture led her to engage in Spanish which later on became an integral part of her line of work. Her parents’ minority background also helped in shaping her overall cultural identity.

D. Synthesis

Dora and her family had to work hard to get the opportunities that others in a higher socioeconomic status might have readily available. From grocery shopping to finding newspapers in her own language, her family had to travel for miles in order to receive that information. When it came to writing utensils (the word processing unit), it was an outside source from a second hand seller that her father purchased for her.

E. Writing Concept:

Dora Lopez used the Context-Dependent threshold concept when it came to writing letters for her family, but also when she needed to write in English and Spanish in order to communicate with her staff in the cleaning company. Her skills as a bilingual speaker allowed her to be of used in her career. When Dora needed to communicate with Spanish speakers she probably used another threshold concept, Identity-Laden, as a member of the Mexican-American community, Dora was well equipped to relate to other Hispanics not just Mexican-American but all over the Latino community, since it is likely that her coworkers were from different parts of the Americas.

G. Meta-Moment:

Brandt’s ideas of literary sponsors implies that we, as college students, have gained literary sponsors in our time studying at NOVA, but the reasons why we are here now also implies we have had sponsors in the past that got us where we are today. Although we share the same class, our circumstances might be completely different, and so our sponsors are different. The fact that we are writing this paper together shows that literary sponsors work, at what level they have interacted with us or helped vs discourage our writing is up to the individual to define, but the fact still remains we have gained literacy because of it. And as we continue to grow and educate ourselves through college classes, our sponsors might change or we might gain new ones.

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Dwayne Lowrey: Andrew, Natali, Suraj , Chris

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Dwayne Lowrey: Andrew, Natali, Suraj , Chris

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Dwayne Lowrey is a Caucasian male if eastern European ancestry (p. 254). He was born in 1938 and raised in semi-rural upper Midwest; he came from a working class with 4 siblings. His father was a rubber factory worker, and his mother was a homemaker. As a child his education he didn’t pay attention. Being in a large working-class family his parents didn’t have the time to reinforce it. This resulted in him graduating at the bottom of his class in high school (p. 256) In his own words looking back he said, “he felt bad and should have read more.” He also is noted as only really reading the sports section of the paper as a kid.

As an adult he started off working as working at a factory like his father. However, he was offered a fulltime job as a field staffer in the union, because he was charismatic and a good public speaker. He would work almost double the standard week. He would use other peoples works for inspiration when he was on the job for recruitment and other people skills (p. 255).

Dwayne had several literary sponsors in life. His fathers rampant playing of leftist and pro-union advertising (p. 257). He would find newspapers and he read in breakroom to work on his reading. He received a paid union sponsors grant that let him take off 4 months to go to Washington, DC for training (p.255). He felt that at the training he was unprepared he had a “crash course” on negation, laws, contractional formation, GDP and how it effects pricing. At the end he felt unprepared, he liked the subject and felt it was interesting. He took classes at a nearby university. He kept a literary file drawer to borrow from peoples notes. His wife was also teaching him basic word processing at home. (p. 255) Dwayne’s early life literary sponsors early in lead him to work in a similar profession that his father did. While the sponsors later in life we’re his efforts to stay relevant and a catch-up mechanic.

Lowrey’s story really represents a changing in times. When he started out as a union man you had to be likeable, and a lot of the skills could be learned on the job. As Lowrey got older the skills required more learning and actual knowledge which he was learning too slowly. This led to Lowrey eventually being replaced by a younger person with a master’s degree who had the required knowledge already set as a foundation. Another way to look at it is culturally times were changing in the 90s computers and college degrees were really being pushed. This push led to a lot of older people with experience but no degrees or physical credentials to be replaced in the workforce or “pushed” into retirement early (p. 256).
Writing is impacted by past experiences and identity. Writing is a process in the sense that it is building onto former knowledge. Past experiences, like Dwayne Lowery’s past experiences working in the factory, have added value to the current circumstances. That is to say his past experiences working in the plant have given him a base of knowledge to know what to do for his job. The Master's degree worker who replaced him has a base of knowledge from his/her schooling and they build on it with working since they learn how things are done in practice, rather than contract law straight from the written law as they learned it.
We can tie how a college degree surmounts any number of years of experience into our own lives as college students. As college students, we can decide to continue our education instead of working for experience. While we should know how to put our knowledge into practice, we also need to understand the knowledge we are being taught. Dwayne Lowery could not understand the contracts that were being used in his job, so he was replaced by someone who understood contract law very well. Dwayne Lowery tried to learn contract law in a crash course class at the university, but he was unable to pick up the skills he needed to learn and was therefore unable to do well in his previous job at the Union. In the end, a college degree is worth more than experience and public speaking skills that Lowery had experience in.

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Carol White is a female who was born in 1940 into a poor class family. She grew up in a single-parent household and graduated high school in 1960. She worked in urban firms that did catholic missionary films. She was divorced and had at least five maternity leaves. She has worked in both the public and private sectors. She had the experience of working closely with the vice-president at her job.

Carol White was heavily influenced by the vice president of her firm. She talks about how helping him out with his side job inspired her to go on her own journey. In the text, it is mentioned that she used to type letters and magazine articles for him, and even proofread. She also participated in a Persuasive Communication seminar which further helped her with evangelical work as a Jehovah’s Witnesses. Her desire to take this class came from a place of self-improvement.

Firstly, Carol White was able to develop various rhetorical strategies by spending time with the vice president. Helping him out on his work was helpful to her as well because their interaction helped her learn skills she was interested in. Those learnings played an important role in her career as a missionary. Likewise, the seminar also gave her the skills that would facilitate her journey as a missionary since persuasive skills are helpful to get people to listen.

White was able to value the power of human anecdotes through the help of her sponsor. While observing him, she realized how powerful they can be and was thoroughly impressed. Human anecdotes are important because they make it easier and more interesting to prove our point. They are also fun to read and often cause us to empathize more with other humans, which can also make the writing more persuasive.

The threshold concept that can be seen in the writer’s life is community-oriented. Carol White would not have been able to accomplish her work if she were isolated. She took help from those around her to develop her skills and gain knowledge. “She discussed how typing letters and magazine articles and occasionally proofreading for this man taught her rhetorical strategies in which she was keenly interested (Brandt, p. 260.)”. She then also used the skills she acquired to do evangelical work in her community. “She now uses colorful anecdotes to prepare demonstrations that she performs with other women at weekly service meetings at their Kingdom Hall (Brandt, p. 260.)”

In the article, Brandt talks about how often sponsors influence the learning process because they hold a certain level of power above others. This idea holds true in our life as well, because we have very little control over the course material that gets taught. We can choose our classes but the content itself is beyond our control. Similarly, the idea that the person’s economic condition has a drastic effect on their path to literacy and the kind of sponsors they get also holds true. Some people can afford to spend a long time on their studies, and papers while others cannot because they have to juggle multiple jobs, or have other equally important responsibilities. In the article, he also mentions that literacy sponsors are not always empowering but can disempower or prevent literacies.

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Shermann Alexie by Jacob Butts, James Colmie-Wilson, Ella Sultani

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Shermann Alexie by Jacob Butts, James Colmie-Wilson, Ella Sultani

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A.) Born on October 7,1966, Sherman Alexie is a male Native-American author, novelist, filmmaker, and poet. Alexie grew up on a reservation in a working class home in Washington state. He is part of the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene tribe. Born as a hydrocephalic, Alexie suffered from seizures and found solace in reading. He enrolled in high school and then went on to Jesuit Gonzaga University, but then had to transfer to Washington State University after alcohol abuse. At WSU, he began to write short stories and poems to novels and more. Alexie continues to perform his poetry in festivals and at poetry slams.

B.) The main literary sponsor that Shermann Alexie mentions is his fondness for comic books. He writes about learning how to read from Superman comic panels at a young age, sounding out each word as he went along. Alexie also talks about his memories from school, feeling that his teachers and classmates wanted him to “stay quiet” despite his interest in learning. Outside of school, he developed his literacy skills at home, borrowing books from his father because he was an avid reader. This implies that Alexie’s family acted as his own literary sponsor as well, with his dad providing a way to engage in more rhetorical reading.

C.) The comic books that Alexie was raised on were the stepping stones into literacy. From reading Superman comic books, he was able to get a peek in regards to reading into a new world. As he was teaching himself how to read, he used this knowledge throughout his entire life, by still reciting poems he had written at school and even taking steps necessary to become a filmmaker! Alexie’s relationship with his reservation classmates and elders gave way to Alexie encouraging  those in his community to not be afraid of education and to be proud of their intelligence. This then enabled his “paragraph” of a community to merge with the rest of the state, and then the world. All these stepping stones led the way towards literary freedom.

D.) A paragraph to Sherman Alexie is a cage; he doesn’t know how to comprehend it or what it implies in regards to his life. For example, when Alexie learned the meaning of paragraph, he had said he thought of “everything in terms of paragraphs” (Alexie, p. 130). To learn means to connect with writing, and that’s basically what a paragraph is: to hold something in, or together. He then went on to mention how their reservation was a small paragraph within the United States” (Alexie, p.130) to show that their community was a small cage in a vast state, something held in- not together, though.

E.) One of the writing threshold concepts that connects to Alexie’s story is that writing is linked with identity. Identity laden writing is based on what environment you grew up in, and what you identify with. You can see this reflected in Alexie’s writing when he talks about Native American students and how their environment changed the way they approached literacy. Alexie writes that “They struggled with basic reading in school but could remember how to sing a few dozen powwow songs.” (Alexie, p. 130) This shows how your identity can significantly impact your writing, either helping to develop those skills or subvert them.

G.) Sponsors can inspire people and be a mentor to those college students who look up to them. Some examples of sponsors are professors, political figures, and classmates. The internet is another sponsor. By using all these elements available, college students are able to excel within their educational environment. For instance, a classmate who shares their notes with another classmate can form a team and succeed together, while those who want to be politicians follow other politicians' guidance.

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Malcom X by Marwan, Robert, Sonya, Litzy

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Malcom X by Marwan, Robert, Sonya, Litzy

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A - Malcolm X (born May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), was a well known African American male who was a civil rights leader during the civil rights movement and a strong advocate for Black liberation. Malcolm was also a Muslim minister and a promoter for the nation of Islam within the black community. As a kid, Malcolm lived in foster homes and with available relatives due to his father being killed, and his mother being hospitalized. At the age of 19, Malcolm was sentenced to 10 years of prison for committing the crimes of drug dealing, gambling, and prostitution rackets. He met a man in prison that helped him accept the religion of Islam and change into a much better person. He also changed his name during his time in prison adopting the name Malcolm X to symbolize his African ancestral surname. Malcolm spent his time in prison memorizing words from a dictionary and expanding his knowledge. A while after he got out of prison, Malcolm became a public figure as a civil rights leader and a spokesman for the nation of Islam. Malcolm kept on fighting for the black community and speaking for the nation of Islam which, retrospectively, was one of the causes of his assassination leading him to die as a hero.
B - It is implied from the text that Malcolm used to live a troubled life without much access to education. This is shown by his limited vocabulary and overreliance on slang. His previous life of crime could also be one of his sponsors. Another one of his sponsors would be Elijah Muhammad someone of who Malcolm respected deeply. Elijah being a religious leader means that another one of Malcolm's sponsors would be the religion that Elijah founded and introduced to Malcolm. In this case, it would be the extremely modified version of the Islamic faith call Nation of Islam. Another one of Malcolm's sponsors would be the prison not only because it is the reason why he learned to read, but because it seems like it manages to rehabilitate Malcolm.
C - Malcolm's lack of access to a decent education could be one of the reasons that he lived a life of crime. His criminal life gave him a different perspective on people that other communities would have regarded as criminals. As in the short text he admired and was even jealous of well read prisoners instead of looking down on or fearing them. Malcolm's life of crime allows him to see past the crime that the prisoner has been charged with .The nation of Islam which supported segregation between the races was also another sponsor of Malcolm. Him being inspired by Elijah Muhammad caused him to become a civil rights activist later on in his life. Muhammad teaching would cause Malcolm to support segregation and be put at odd with other political activist such as Martin Luther King Jr. Him being an active practitioner of Muhammad version of Islam would over time cause him to make a journey to Mecca where he will convert to a more widely practiced version of Islam.
D - A typical person would feel trapped when serving out their prison sentence. Things were, however, quite different for Malcolm X, despite being incarcerated. Malcolm said that he had never felt “so truly free in my life”(258). This is due to him learning how to read and write in prison which was, at first, a means to communicate with Elijah Muhammad. However, soon things went beyond just learning how to read and write for the sake of communicating with the outside world. Instead, reading became his means of escape from his current situation as he said “between Mr. Mahammad teachings...and my reading month passes without me even thinking about being imprisoned”(259). This suggests that despite being trapped inside a prison, Malcolm felt the freest because the books that he was reading gave him the ability to experience and explore many different ideas, points of view, and culture.
E - One of the writing threshold concepts that connects to Malcom X would be Identity Laden, and it shows how everyone has had their own way of learning how to read and write. At first, Malcom didn’t know how to do either and when he was in prison he took lots of effort to try and teach himself the meaning behind reading and writing. He read lots of books and even wrote down every definition from the dictionary to learn from. He further went to read Elijah Mohammed’s teaching and grabbed inspiration from him. His dedication to it was fascinating because he went to large extents to do so. One of his literacy sponsors was Elijah Mohammed, his teachings of Islam inspired Malcom to countine to read and write to him. He later went on to join the Nation of Islam, and became a big figure during the black nationalist movement. He spread his learnings and knowledge to others surrounding him. We all have learned to read and write in many different ways and usually it was through school but, It shows that Malcom had the power to push himself in prison to get ahead.
F - (As shown above)
G - Unpacking Brandt’s ideas of literacy sponsors surrounding our education has, as current college students, revealed a new layer of the construct of education that hasn’t been truly brought to light. Brandt discusses how education comes to be within a person and the possible advantages and/or pitfalls one can experience during the conquest of obtaining that education. Through the example of Raymond Branch and Dora Lopez, we perceive the ways in which the tools (e.g. relatives, friends, books, technology) granted during an individual’s upbringing can drive them to a certain achievement. In this case, anyone can work towards getting accepted to a single college, yet paths are never parallel. Some may have to work harder than others, the times in student’s lives that they attain that goal can have a drastic difference, and some may have it easier than others. In other words, there isn’t one clear way to access our education. It was a constant effort in accepting any sponsorships that uphold our endeavors of having an education.
H - Completed