Literary Sponsors & Identity by Katherine Pope https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw 112.547N en-us 2021-08-26 01:49:25 UTC 2024-03-04 20:49:55 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f913.png Directions for your Padlet Profile thxmb5vgpz https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1763474480 In NARRATIVE FORM, address the following items:
 
A.  Name & Brief Bio: details upbringing regarding class, gender, and any other pertinent information you found in the reading and/or Google search. (7-8 Sentences)
 
B. Types of Sponsorships & literacy Skills/ Opportunities potentially gained: Think about what's implied in the text, not just outright stated. Sponsors can be anything from conversations in family breakfasts, comic books, actual school, online chats .... (7-8 Sentences)
 
C. Outcomes for Identity: What effect did these experiences with various literacies sponsors have on this individual, early on or later in life? (5-6) Sentences

D. Synthesis: Answer your SPECIFIC profile related question about your individual. (3-4 Sentences)
  •  Raymond Branch - How did a singular christmas gift become a sponsor for Raymond? 
  • Dora Lopez - What does it mean when Brandt says that Dora has "to reach much further afield for communicative systems needed to support her learning"?
  • Dwayne Lowrey - In what ways does Lowrey's story represent the recursive, dynamic relationship between the demands for job skills and changing standards of literacy? 
  •  Carol White - How did White come to value the power of human anecdotes? Why are human anecdotes an important part of communication?
  • Malcolm X - Why do you think that Malcolm X felt the most free in prison?
  •  Sherman Alexie - What is the significance of the writing element of a "paragraph" for Sherman Alexie?
 
E. Writing Concept: Connect one of week 2 lecture's writing threshold concepts (also located in WAW Ch.1) to your profile. How do you see any of the concepts discussed in class lecture today at play in your sponsee's life? (5-6 Sentences)
 
F. Multi-Media: Find an image, short video, short song, or draw a pic... to add to your profile here. Do not just arbitrarily pick something. I would wait to find your multi-media element until you have completed the written portion of the assignment.
 
G. Meta-Moment: What are some implications of Brandt's ideas of literacy sponsors for your education right now as a college student? (5-6 Sentences)
 
H. Wait to do Part E- Until Mid-Class - Writing as Inquiry: Read another group's piece and come up with TWO critical questions and post to the group's profile. Please share the love! Try to be ensure an even distribution of questions. Extra Credit + 2 = Relate the question to what we are learning about literacy narratives (hint WAW. Ch. 5 or an anchor/theme). +2 Answer your peers' questions.

F. Share & Submit! Hit Share on Padlet Website. Click on copy link. Post link to assignment folder on BB.
]]> 2021-09-23 16:09:18 UTC https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1763474480 Dora Lopez https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1818285165 Group 2- Patricia, Aline, Ying, and Ana

Dora Lopez is a Mexican-American born in 1969. Her family were farm laborers who lived in Texas. In the 1970's her family moved to the Midwest where the Mexican-American population was barely one percent. Her parents both went to technical colleges, her father worked as a shipping and receiving clerk at the university while her mother worked part time at a bookstore. Growing up in the midwest as a Hispanic family was difficult for them in the aspect of not having access to simple necessities such as suitable groceries, literature in Spanish, or even listen to the radio (which they could only get if the reception was good since it was 150 miles away). As a teenager she taught herself how to read and write in Spanish. Eventually even corresponding with relatives in Columbia through letters in order to perfect it. She sought out novels where her mother worked, specifically from Hispanic authors. She didn't have access to computers until she was 13-years-old through a federally-funded summer program. Although Dora was admitted to the university, she ended up transferring to a technical college.

 The literacy sponsors in her life would be her parents, the letters she wrote, and her supervisor. Her mother encouraged her interest in learning how to read and write in Spanish by access to books written by Hispanic authors. As for her father, he was able to purchase a word processing machine when she was first admitted to the university in her town. By making this purchase he wanted her to have access to better resources that she might need during her college years. Going back to her youth, we believe the letters she wrote to her relatives helped her practice her understanding and communication skills in written format. This helped her in her professional life when she began working for a cleaning company bringing us to our last literacy sponsor, her supervisor. She was the translator between management and the cleaning staff who primarily spoke Spanish. Her extra duties included translating written text such as job duties. 

Facing the challenges she had with literacy as a child made her become persistent in learning two languages and prepare her for her future. She didn't allow her background to limit her pursuit for knowledge. Coming from a Mexican-American family who were primarily farm laborers she was already at a disadvantage because they didn't have access to adequate income, resources, nor technologies that could advance from an early age. She was very determined, much like her parents, to sponsor herself by teaching herself the things they were unable to teach her. 

As mentioned before Dora was "sponsored by what her parents could pull from the peripheral service systems of the university (the mail room, the bookstore, and the second-hand technology market)" (pg.583). Being "a female member of a culturally unsubsidized ethnic minority" (pg.583) in the 70s and 80s, Dora's family didn't have the economic resources needed to support her learning. ]]> 2021-10-14 23:16:50 UTC https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1818285165 Group 5: Hannah Pope Shad Siddiqui Yessica Vasquez https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1818335240 Part A: Malcom X was born in Omaha Nebraska in 1925. He converted to Islam and led a life of political activism and served jail time during his life. He became good friends with a Mr. Muhammad and maintained a friendship with him for several years. A fellow prisoner named Bimbi also inspired him to become a more knowledgeable person, he wanted to be able to control a conversation and actually understand what was being said and have a valuable contribution to that conversation.

Part B: Malcom X had several sponsors, including but not limited to jail and Mr. Muhammad. He had access to the jail libraries and took full advantage of the resources offered their. He would read 24/7 even at the risk of being caught reading after "lights-out". The dictionary also served as a sponsor, he would copy the definitions and words until he understood the meanings. Harvard and Boston universities provided certain jails with instructors for limited courses to be taken by the inmates, Malcom also took advantage of that offer. Mr. Muhammad also showed Malcolm how the black men had been left out of history books by the white men who had written them which fueled Malcolm to learn as much as he could about black Americans.

Part C:  Later in life he became well versed in most subjects as a result of his veracious reading. He learned to appreciate his own history and the history of others and their cultures. He learned about various sciences including genetics. He also became engaged in the present day issues that the world and America were facing at the time. He became a more well-rounded person and had a deeper understanding of most subjects and issues. 

Part D: He felt most free in prison because he was able to escape his prison cell through reading books. The freedom he found through reading and becoming engaged in the books was a profound experience for him because he had the ability to live a different life. He gained an immense amount of knowledge and was able to understand things at a more advanced level which gave him the freedom of comprehension.

Part E: Community Oriented.... This concept can be seen in Malcolm's life when the professors from Harvard and Boston University came to teach at the prison he was at
(259). It is also seen in his continual usage of the community prison library(259). He also uses this concept whenever he engages in discourse with Mr. Muhammad.

Part G: The college institution itself along with its amenities and staff are all influences on our personal literacies. Each experience we have and share with this institution add on to our growing knowledge base increasing our own literacies. Every time we utilize the library or see a poster or flyer on a subject we are interested in, the college becomes a sponsor to a particular literacy in our lives. The clubs and groups offered as socialization provide us with a new community Discourse that we can utilize to increase literacies and make new sponsors or sponsor other people.]]> 2021-10-14 23:57:51 UTC https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1818335240 Group 1: Agnes Shin, John Ventura, Sana Afridi, Katherine Marquez https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1818345678 A: His name is Raymond Branch and he is of European-American descent. He comes from a high socioeconomic background due to his father being a university professor and his mother being a real estate executive. He was born in a mid-sized university town in the midwest in 1969. He attended first grade in 1975 and used a computer that was hooked up to a mainframe computer at Stanford University. He enjoyed using the computers and learning programming in his father's science lab. When he was 12 years old, he received his first personal computer from his parents. In the 80's he was living around computer hardware/software stores so he had much information within an arms reach of him. 

B: He had financial support from his parents due to them being a fairly middle-high class family so they could provide him with the materials he needed/wanted to improve his literacy with technology. He first got his own computer when he was 12 opening up a world of opportunities for him. When he started going to the shops and started to make contact with founders of some of the first electronic bulletin boards he could build connections that can be advantageous for him in the future. Him being from a high socioeconomic background and being a native-English speaker, he could reap the benefits of being in a university town because the resources he needed was right there and it was something he could understand. Raymond, being sponsored by being the son of an intellectual, had a wide range of technology available to him by having access to the Stanford Campus. This could have facilitated Raymond Branch's ability and will to learn more easily than in the case of somebody who did not have these same opportunities.

C: Him getting a personal computer helped him learn more about software and software documentation causing him to be more successful in his later career as a freelance writer. We think him living in a university town and because his parents are well-educated, well off people, it made him want to go further with his education. These literary sponsors allowed Raymond to be able to have a good career in Computer Programming by learning and having that willingness to be able to be literate in that realm of literacy.

D: Him getting a computer as his 12th Christmas present encouraged him to learn more about software and software documentation. He went around from shop to shop building and making connections after he got his gift. These experiences helped him enabled him to develop his skills in programming.

E: The threshold concept of writing being a process could be applied in Branch's life of literacy when it comes to technology.  Branch probably had gone through trial and error to be successful with his career as a successful freelance writer of software and software documentation. He didn't start by knowing everything about programming but by going to the shops and learning how the technology actually works, the final result of him being successful in the IT field makes sense.

G: As current college students, the technology we have at our hands could be considered a literacy sponsor for us because we are taking online classes, our readings, assignments, and assessments is provided to us via our technological devices. Knowledgable teachers and college resources is also a literacy sponsor for current college students because they can provide us with the material for learning and tools to help us out regarding our education. Literacy sponsors can be anything from a place, a person, or a thing. For example, the public library is a literacy sponsor for some people. This institution promotes people to borrow books for a set amount of time and this permits students, or just regular people, the freedom to read books that interest them. ]]> 2021-10-15 00:05:06 UTC https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1818345678 Group 6: Sherman Alexie https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1818349020 By: Chrystalia Balanga, Tharwat Ghet, and Jessica Hathaway

Sherman Alexie was an idigenous short story novelist whose best known book is The Lone Ranger. In his early years, lived on a reservation. He stated in his reading that outside of the rez he would've been considered low class, but on the rez he was considered middle class. And the reason for that, was because his parents could find one or another middle-wage job. Growing up as a man, he looked up to his father who introduced him to the Superman Comics, which kickstarted his love for literature. Although he loved literature, there were obstacles.  In the passage he says that, "back in the day, he was never taught to write poetry or novels." He also states that he was socialized to believed that "writing was something beyond Indians." 

Sherman Alexie's father was one of his earliest literary sponsors. He was one of the few Indians that went to Catholic school and was an avid reader. After noticing his father's love for reading, he adopted that love for reading as his own and started to read whatever his dad had, picking up his books and reading them too. And due to the love he had for the Superman comics, where each panel had a picture and dialog, he began to see the world through the lense of paragraphs. Due to the comic books, and seeing that superman was kicking down doors, he assumend the meaning of the dialog in the panel which eventually taught him how to read. Another literary sponsor could also be the people he grew up around and the socialization was motivation to not just be "another Indian." But also, his upbringing with his vamily, being in poverty could be part of the motivation to give himself, and them a better life in the future.

Sherman Alexie defined a paragraph as "a fence that held words." And those words "worked together for a common purpose." (Sherman Alexie, 1997, p. 130/para. 1) Which delighted him because he could consider everything in terms of paragraphs. His reservation was a small paragaph within the US, his house was a small paragraph separate from the other houses around him, his family a paragraph wihin that, and each person, a paragraph within the family. It was a way for him to organize and compartmentalize the different parts of his life. 

Looking at the writing threshold concept, writing is a process. We can see through this story that the process of writing has more levels than just the physical writing of it. It comes from his life. Him growing up on the reservation, inheriting his father love of reading, and reading the superman comics. Everything became apart of his journey which became apart of the process. He took his childhood and broke it down into understandable parts for his readers.

Brandt's ideas of literary sponsors hinge on identity. Our group consists on people of both gender and ethnic minorities, so our experiences in both society and school are our literary sponsors. Whether our professors believe in us enough to teach us well (like our current professor), can be the difference on whether we can expand our literacy well or not.
 ]]> 2021-10-15 00:07:13 UTC https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1818349020 Group 3: Nataly, Celina, Yerusalem, and Alexandra https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1818379141 A. Dwayne Lowrey was a male of Eastern European descent from the upper Midwest of the United States. Lowrey was classified as part of the middle class in America. He was the third born child of five children. Dwayne graduated at the bottom of his class. His father was a rubber worker and his mother was a homemaker mother.
 B. One of Lowrey’s sponsors was his father as he was influential to his life. In addition, the army was another sponsor as it could have changed his perspective and the way he went about his life. The automobile assembly line was a point of realization for him. There was a point where Dwayne Lowrey became tired of doing the same routine everyday. This realization helped him to look for a fresh start and other opportunities to help him flourish in different ways. Lowrey’s biggest sponsor was the grant he received from the union he was involved in. That grant gave him a gate to begin his literacy journey.\
 C. Dwayne Lowrey in his early age did not have sufficient literary skills for his education. He did not have the necessary tools to improve. Until the age of six, Dwayne was finally able to read and write. This impacted his education as he grew up in school. His father’s influence through being politically involved, helped Lowrey motivate himself to improve himself. Ultimately, this impacted Dwayne’s application for the union grant. 
D. The demand for jobs and education is constantly evolving. Literacy changes as the demand fluctuates. There is no longer a shortcut to file an appeal or complaints for a union. There has to be a legal background in place to do so. As time has passed technology, learning, and overall the way things are done has changed entirely. There has been a major modernization of the world. With these advancements more opportunities are available and it is easier to accomplish more. 
E. TBD
G. As college students our sponsors are based on our identities and past experiences. We are influenced by technology we use on a daily basis. Overtime, technology has become our literacy especially as the pandemic progressed. The classes we take online, family, and friends are sponsors for us as well. 

]]> 2021-10-15 00:24:59 UTC https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1818379141 Carol White - Group 4 https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1818387496 A. Carol White's roots are Oneida - pertaining to the Iroquois Native American Tribe. She grew up in a poor, single-parent home in 1940. Graduated high school in 1960 and is a divorced mother of 5 kids. A surge in need for administrative workers brought on opportunity for Carol to work in clerical positions in various pubic and private sectors. 

B. She experienced early on both the Catholic and Jehovah's Witness religious spaces from a financial and administrative perspective. She was able to absorb education and literacy as part of her day-to-day job experience. Through desire and  dedication, she learned persuasive techniques using anecdotes to succeed in her professional endeavors with the church. Her sponsors include managers, corporate space, motivation, door-to-door, family responsibilities, available opportunity, type writing (job responsibilities), and writing catalogs from scratch.

C. Carol's experiences definitely helped. She experienced early on the bureaucratic environment of corporate America and it introduced her to writing and persuasive writing. Coupled with her experience door to door with the Jehovah's Witnesses, her writing became more persuasive and her literacy improved. Drawing from religion and anecdotal jargon/argument her voice and intent are supported by pillars of spirituality. 

D. White came to value the power of human anecdotes through her job. Her work typing letters and magazine articles piqued her interest in anecdotal writing and the power of persuasion. Anecdotes provide familiarity. A common ground is a good place to start in communication as she presented biblical principles. 

E. Literary community can be applied to Carol White's journey. The influence of others' writing in her early jobs sparked an interest. Through more experience, trial and error, and persistence in door-to-door communication, Carol White improved her literacy. Code-meshing can also be seen as she uses techniques from other sponsors in her endeavors with the church. 

G. As literacy grows as a valued commodity, the institution as a whole can be seen as the collective sponsor to literacy. Access to resources, tools, and educators is vital in promoting and improving literacy. The opportunities to develop more skills also highlights the importance of college institutions as sponsors of literacy. 

]]> 2021-10-15 00:29:06 UTC https://padlet.com/thxmb5vgpz/3sjlnqpdxj41o8sw/wish/1818387496