Month: February 2017

EVENS

2.What is a “master narrative,” as Alexander describes it in her paraphrase of Lyotard? What, according to Alexander, are some problems with these narratives? Revisit your own literacy narrative from English 122. Do you find her point about them convincing? Why or why not? Support your response with textual evidence from Alexander and reflection on your narrative. (15 minutes) “Master” is more common because more people can relate to it. Little narrative is more specific. Little narrative challeneges  are in almost every literacy narrative. She believes Literacy Narratives are more important because “I couldn’t just let my mind go free. I had to write about what I was assigned. i couldn’t just let my mind go free. The required course materials are what tore my love for writing”.

4.Table 1 identifies eight distinct cultural narratives of literacy (Alexander 615), and the bulk of our reading selection is dedicated to discussion of these types. Pick any two types of “little narratives” that interest you, explain each of the little narratives and Alexander’s view on the type, and discuss your reasons for being interested in each type. (Note: “Success” is not a little narrative, so it is off limits for this question!) Be sure to quote from Alexander. (15 minutes)I chose Child Prodigy which is someone who excels in literacy at a young age. I like the term prodigy because it makes you stand out from the rest of the pack. Alexander describes Child Prodigy as “when students portrayed themselves as child prodigies, they conceived of themselves and their literacy abilities as exceptional, highlighting moment when their skills were put on display to amaze and astonish their audience.” The other term I chose was hero which is when you have a ton of success and establishes themselves as a hero in a literacy story. I thought hero was interesting because its usually the main focus in a story. Alexander quotes “it contextualizes theses claims within an individual account, as we see in Lauren’s account of how she faces and overcomes challenges”.

6.Select at least one of the cultural narrative types identified by Alexander (614-22) and explore the ways that Alexander’s discussion of that type connects to any two of the following concepts from Gee: filtering, transfer, apprenticeship, nondominant secondary discourse. You might consider how Gee’s concepts help to explain Alexander, how they complicate Alexander, or both. Be sure to quote Alexander and Gee in your response. (20 minutes) Child prodigy is similar to Brandts statement. Alexander believes “when students portrayed themselves as child prodigies, they conceived of themselves and their literacy abilities as exceptional, highlighting moment when their skills were put on display to amaze and astonish their audience.” In Brandts passage, the quote used is  “… a range of human relationships and ideological pressure that turn up at the scenes of literacy learning”. These two have a lot in common. You can’t be a prodigy without assistance from a sponsor. 

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3. A “master narrative” is defined as an “overarching story people tell themselves about their experiences in relation tot he culture, literature, or history of a society” (610). According to Alexander, some problems she has with these narratives are that they have “the unfortunate result of gross overgeneralization and act invisibly to structure and define our lives” (610). When looking at my own literacy narrative, I do not believe this to be true… The way we write/what we write about does not define our lives. The stories or experiences that students write about could be something that they overcame, and are not in that same situation anymore.

5. Child prodigy is when someone excels at reading and writing at an early age – put to display for others to see their brilliance. Alexander’s view on the child prodigy is that, “unless children are exposed to school literacy and learn these values at an early age, they will not be academically successful”. In other words, you should be exposed to school literacy at an early age to succeed. Outsiders portray self as an outsider in relation to something else in the story. Alexander’s view on this is that the students who write about this narrative “regret over not viewing them selves as readers or writers” (622). Both of these narratives interested me because I do not come across them often (read about them/write about them). As the child prodigy is more common than the outsider, I still have not read one (that I can remember) in my years of schooling.

7. I believe that the success narrative relates to apprenticeship, and filtering. I feel as though you cannot become successful overnight – as Alexander writes, “Equates literacy acquisition with success, liberation, development…” (615) and I feel as though you cannot reach success through development without the help of others – an apprentice. Along with apprenticeship, I feel as though a student can gain success through filtering. As a successful student learns, I feel as they would be able to filter certain knowledge from some classes and mix it with another class or certain studying techniques.

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“A narrative that assumes the more literate one is, the more successful he or she will be” (Alexander 609). In basic concepts, the believes that the more practice and opportunities to express your skills will better your future. It will better the academic levels that you can grow to and it can help you in the future when to something as rigorous as college or something like Medical School. My literacy narrative is compiled of me realizing what skills I had progressed, in just from a simple letter that I wrote when I was in eighth grade. There isn’t evidence to provide considering the fact that four years passed and there wasn’t much to keep up my skill level.

Alexander has highlighted the key concepts of “master” narratives which to her seem to be more orthodox,and legitimate. Contrasting with the “little” narratives which are proposed as “gaze in wonderment at the diversity of discursive species, just as we do at the diversity of plant or animal species”. Master is more common and seen as the aspects that most people can relate to and in a setting where the majority can understand. However the use of “little” narratives take over the whole view point when the calculations from the students are very relatable from the other students. In the paper she mentions a small paragraph from Kristy. She spoke about the factors of not wanting to write anymore. “I couldn’t just let my mind go free. I had to write about what I was assigned. i couldn’t just let my mind go free. The required course materials are what tore my love for writing”. So the item that is supposed to be helping student progress, is whats holding them back.

The child prodigy narrative offers a similar aspect of what Brandt talks about. From the perspective of Alexander, its said that the prodigy is prepared well before they need the skills. “when students portrayed themselves as child prodigies, they conceived of themselves and their literacy abilities as exceptional, highlighting moment when their skills were put on display to amaze and astonish their audience.” (619 Alexander)Putting them ahead academically which benefits them, allowing them to continue these skills in later years. Brandt identifies the sponsor as someone that will help you gain a form of advantage. “… a range of human relationships and ideological pressure that turn up at the scenes of literacy learning” (558 Brandt). In this case its easy to comprehend that the two factors have a lot in common. The child prodigy can’t be a prodigy without a sponsor to get them where they need to be. They need the assistance from a parent or maybe a teacher to help them progress. The parent or teacher is the sponsor.

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Here I highlighted how education = power. When reading about these narratives, the most common narrative was about success, which is what all students aim for. Along with a successful education, you gain power.

Here, the text says that little narratives are told by groups such as women and minorities. My question is, why women and minorities? Why are they subjected to their own “little” group?

Here I highlighted how every student wants success. The success narrative is appealing to everyone despite their social background and can enlist hope, status, income, and reputation to literally anyone – any student.

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