Author: cdimler

“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.

collreadwrit2e

This first annotation to me heightened the importance and main topic about the entire reading itself. You can see that Debrah Brandt gives you a good understanding that in order to get anywhere, you’ll need a sponsor. That one person or several people can make or break that path that you choose to go down.  (PG 556 bottom left)

In order to make connections you need to know people, and in this case Brandt talks about the idea that if you don’t have the “correct” financial/political standpoint, it won’t be out of reach, that it’ll be a challenge that can be completed. Although it can make things even more challenging and help them realize it’s out of their hands from that point on. (559 top right)

Where we stand in today’s talk, everything is political, what you say, who you speak to, etc. All these minuscule implications can cause your career to head in the direction you want, or in the opposite. Things like these can destroy it, and Brandt talks about the fact that you must be known. You must fight, and fight hard because its a competition that everyone wants to win.

Reading/Annotations 44 minutes

collreadwrit2e

Brandt explains the literacy printing as way that not only progressed the form of literacy and where it was going direction wise. It added the fact that it took away from the personalization of writing letters, and stories. The penny press took the world to a whole new level, that they weren’t expecting to take.

In the piece that Brandt wrote, she spoke about two different students. Comparing the assistance they had in order to get where they needed to be. For Branch, his sponsors featured the fact that his father had connections to the store where he would go and play video games. From they it went beyond and was used for him progressing his placement in college. He wasn’t held back with financial reasons, or not being smart enough. Branch had all the tools necessary for him to get where he needed to be. On a more personal note, my sponsor was my eighth grade teacher, who required us to write a letter to our older selves. This was used a model to see where I had gotten throughout four years of high school, academically, and what I had achieved personally. It was an excellent bookmark for me to have, and to analyze what can happen throughout that period of time.

This day in age, we find ourselves on our phones, or laptops generally catching up on the latest gossip or newest social media posts. Or in the case of young adults, they are focussed on their work and time. The whole 9-5 aspect where adults work and then come home to watch TV, and maybe watch the news. Each and everyday we do our best to work everything possible into our schedules, not realizing we aren’t taking time to read books, or journal every now and then. Even the little things are allowing the world to change, printed books and printed papers aren’t as common anymore. Technology is taking over, the sentiment of a hand written letter or, picking up the “New York Times” at the corner store is slowly drifting away, and so is reading and writing.

Gee himself analyzes the world from a perspective that in order to make it anywhere you must fit the regulations necessary for a Discourse. In this case he would take the idea that you must take everything that you are given and put it fourth. In general terms you can take the two cases of Branch and Lopez. These two were born in the same year, and lived in the same town in Texas. However their parents had very different jobs that affected their lives. Branch had the best of both worlds and was very fortunate to be raised with nothing holding them back. However, Lopez was assisting not only herself to grow into the young adult she had to be, but to help her father with translation. In the words of Gee, Lopez wasn’t meant to be in the Discourse of school. She never had the connections necessary or the academic support. Lopez needed to attend government funded programs in order to educate herself. She mushfaked her way into the discourse, and made it. Comparing the two side by side you can notice the difference, but she did it. Lopez beat all odds against her, and defied Gee’s perspectives.

Writing time: 1 Hour

collreadwrit2e