A.  Name & Brief Bio: details upbrining 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. To be provided during breakout rooms (3-4 Sentences)

 

E. Writing Concept: Connect one of today's writing concepts 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 college students? (5-6 Sentences)

 

H. Conversation as Inquiry: Read your peer groups' profiles & come up with two critical questions to ask to at least 1 group. Post your (2) questions as a comment on their padlet post. If certain profiles are lacking a peer response comment, please choose one that needs it.

 

F. Share & Submit! Hit Share on Padlet Website. Click on save as jpeg or PDF (other profiles may be a part of this document). Submit 1 PDF or JPEG to submission folder here on Blackboard.

Lowery was a part of many sponsorships in his life. To start, his father’s union publication brought a political influence upon him. He gained a basic education at his small high school. In post-high school education, he enlisted in the Army and gained Army values but left and attended union workshops. At these workshops, he mostly did readings and presentations to learn about regulations, systems, and laws. The newspaper was another sponsor for Lowery, he often read the newspapers as a kid to keep up with the sports column but also in the morning when he worked in a municipal utility department in his later years. His last set of sponsors would be a Union-sponsored workshop to improve his communication skills and learn about new legislation and courses at a university to better his briefing skills.

His father's publications made him shun politics and newspapers as a child. This eventually wore off as Lowery began reading the newspaper to get information and starting to become a little more political. After his retirement, Lowery found himself engaged in local democratic party politics. His small high school education slowed him down in the real world when he was becoming a worker at the union. He wished he would have paid more attention in class because he had a tough time grasping the knowledge. But after getting the job he continued to take more classes and workshops to improve his skills and allowed him to gain many years as a union worker. 

Lowery had a recursive relationship between the demands for job skills and the changing standard of literacy in that the demands of his position outgrew his skill potential. Lowery was replaced by a recent graduate from a master’s degree program, even after Lowery continued going to workshops and classes to better his skills. This younger individual possessed the skills necessary for the changing demands of this profession.

One of the Threshold Concepts that relate to Lowery is “Writing Is Impacted By Identities And Prior Experiences”. This conveys that our experiences are involved in our writing practices, attitudes, strengths, and weaknesses. At his small semi-rural high school, Lowery graduated at the bottom of his class. This affected him in his later years at the union-sponsored workshops. He felt like if he had paid more attention and read more he would've had an easier time grasping concepts at the workshop.

The idea of the changing standard of literacy can relate to our education right now as college students. Our graduating class has had to learn virtually for two prominent years of our education (senior year and freshman year of college). Therefore, there may be a gap between the knowledge that we have attained compared to younger generations who will learn in person for these prominent years. Brandt talks about literacy skills going vulnerable due to shifts in every new generation and new literacy requirements while decertifying older ones. This relates to Lowery, as a younger individual had an advantage over him, causing Lowery to retire early.

   Malcolm X felt free in prison because being in the position allowed him to expand his knowledge of topics he really cared about. Having access to the prison’s library gave Malcolm the freedom to read about anything he wanted. Being in prison also gave him time to better his penmanship skills, which motivated his yearning to write.

   One of the writing concepts we can connect with Malcolm X is that identities and prior experiences can impact writing. Malcolm X learned to read when there wasn’t much access to proper education and prison education programs to help facilitate his literacy development. However, Malcolm X took the initiative of his own learning and used whatever resources were available to him, and created something bigger than himself. According to Writing About Writing, “ But if we stop to think through our experiences with literacy, our feelings and experiences can begin to make more sense. We can be empowered to own and explain them and to take control of them.”
    Brandt defines a sponsor of literacy as someone who is usually older than you that possesses more knowledge. As college students, professors play a big role in being sponsors of literacy. Professors are imperative in the way we process necessary information we need to succeed and learn continuously. With literacy, we will never stop learning how to read and write because of the various contexts literacy presents itself in society. Books and digital resources also hold an important key to a better academic future. Also, as college students, we learn from each other and gain insight from each other's experiences. Being at Howard University allows us to dig deeper into literacy and what it means for us individually and as a community. 

Brandt defines a literary sponsor as “someone or something that affects literacy learning in two powerful ways...”. She states that the most common sponsors are older relatives, teachers, pastors, influential authors, and supervisors. Lopez has had multiple sponsors, one of these being her father. Her father was an educated man who received an accounting degree at a local technical college. He had a large impact on her literacy learning due to his education. Her mother also went to technical college as well. Her mother worked at a bookstore with computers, this allowed Dora access to computers at a young age. Dora’s parents were big sponsors in her life. 

Lopez's sponsors were her educated parents. With this being said she got most of her academic exposure after her adolescence. Lopez did not get exposure to computers and other resources until a late age. She was not able to obtain a rich learning environment without these resources. Because of her sponsors she was not able to really get into literary learning until after her childhood. Her literary sponsors delayed her learning track. 

I was never provided a question in my breakout room.  

The writing concept that writing is impacted by prior experience really connects to Lopez’s life. This concept really focuses on how a person's past experiences, mostly their childhood, can affect the way they write and even read. For example, if a person is raised in a different country, with a different language and culture, attempts to learn english, it will be a lot harder for them to learn versus someone born and raised in America. This concept rings true in Lopez’s life. Her parents were her sponsors, her childhood is really what shaped her learning. Lopez’s literacy skills are shaped by people in her past. 

Brandts ideas of literary sponsors ring very true with me here in college. Brandt states that “sponsors enable and hinder literacy, often forcing the information of new literacy requirements while decertifying older ones”. In this English class I have learned alot about writing that has clashed with learnings I have been taught before. The idea that writing is not about the grammar and correctness, but the content, is new to me. In high school our writing was graded heavily on the grammar and format.