Samantha Martineau

* Taking on the role as the victim in literacy is completely different from having a success narrative.

• Does your analysis have components that do not quite fit a straightforward application of the scholars’ existing ideas?

This analysis does have components that do fit with an application of scholars’.

• Does your analysis suggest that your area of focus may be SIMILAR to another area that gets discussed in the scholarly work?

Yes, this topic could relate to multiple different literacy narratives.

• You have hopefully identified some interesting things in your analysis. Good. Of course, we are always limited by our data, the material we use in our investigation. What are some LIMITATIONS of your analysis?

I feel that I am limited to talking just about victims in literacy and how sponsors effect that. I’m not sure how I would add more to that in the overall paper overview.

*Within the literacy Discourse there are multiple things that can cause a change of

identities and one of those is a literacy sponsor.

• Does your analysis have components that do not quite fit a straightforward application of the scholars’ existing ideas?

This analysis does have components that do fit with an application of scholars’.

• Does your analysis suggest that your area of focus may be SIMILAR to another area that gets discussed in the scholarly work?

No, but I could relate it to another idea.

• You have hopefully identified some interesting things in your analysis. Good. Of course, we are always limited by our data, the material we use in our investigation. What are some LIMITATIONS of your analysis?

Sponsors, but also I feel that there is a lot to talk about with sponsors.

*The author was a victim but ended up turning into a success narrative in the end.

• Does your analysis have components that do not quite fit a straightforward application of the scholars’ existing ideas?

No.

• Does your analysis suggest that your area of focus may be SIMILAR to another area that gets discussed in the scholarly work?

Yes, but I feel that is analysis is similar to other parts of my essay where I could fit it in there rather than having it by itself.

• You have hopefully identified some interesting things in your analysis. Good. Of course, we are always limited by our data, the material we use in our investigation. What are some LIMITATIONS of your analysis?

This analysis is too specific and maybe talking about it before in the paper so there’s little to discuss.

*The simple switch of engaging with the students and giving back so positive feedback made a world of difference for this student and caused him to become a success narrative in the end.

• Does your analysis have components that do not quite fit a straightforward application of the scholars’ existing ideas?

Yes, Success Narrative.

• Does your analysis suggest that your area of focus may be SIMILAR to another area that gets discussed in the scholarly work?

Yes, this analysis is really discussing a literacy narrative that I discuss in the paragraph.

• You have hopefully identified some interesting things in your analysis. Good. Of course, we are always limited by our data, the material we use in our investigation. What are some LIMITATIONS of your analysis?

I don’t feel that there are any strong limitations in this analysis.

Conclusion

Many students have been a victim in literacy at some point in their literacy journey. They could have become a victim from a sponsor who withheld literacy or from ____. I think that these students are not victims forever, in fact, many people go on to become a success narrative in the end as we saw from the different literacy narratives I discussed. The switch from victim to literacy is not always easy and sometimes it is even forced upon us but that change affects our whole experience within the literacy Discourse. The switch is important in many literacy narratives and it is important to understand why it happens.

Original 1:

Within the literacy Discourse there are multiple things that can cause a change of identities and one of those is a literacy sponsor. A sponsor could be a teacher, coach, or, relative; they “are any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy” (Brandt 556). Many of the literacy narratives that I have encountered in the document Rising Cairn had a scenario where a student had a teacher in previous years that in some way affected their reading or writing and that set them back for years to come. Some teacher gave bad grade on work the student thought was excellent, some did not engaged with their students, and others acted unkind to the student. Some of the literacy narratives I thought showed this the best was “The Progress for Getting a Better Teacher for English” written by Hien Nguyen and “Learning to Not Hate English” by Austin Scaglione.

Revised 1:

Within the literacy Discourse, there are multiple things that can cause a change of identities and one of those is a literacy sponsor. A sponsor could be a teacher, coach, or, relative; they “are any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy” (Brandt 556). Many of us can recall a literacy sponsor in your life, maybe form younger years or even from college. Many of the literacy narratives that I have encountered in the document Rising Cairn had a scenario where a student had a teacher in previous years that in some way affected their reading or writing and that set them back for years to come. Some teacher gave a bad grade on work the student thought was excellent, some did not engage with their students, and others acted unkindly to the student. These literacy sponsors are withholding literacy from these students because they are holding them back from becoming fully emerged in the Discourse. Some of the literacy narratives I thought showed this the best was “The Progress for Getting a Better Teacher for English” written by Hien Nguyen and “Learning to Not Hate English” by Austin Scaglione.

Original 2:

Taking on the role as the victim in literacy is completely different from having a success narrative. As defined by Alexander a victim is “a victim of negative literacy experiences, in or out of school; casts blame for negative literacy experiences; discusses how someone took the fun out of reading and writing” (615). While a success narrative would be defined as “Equates literacy acquisition with success, liberation, development, progression, and upward mobility” (Alexander 615). While reading multiple literacy narratives from the Rising Cairn document I found that these identities connected with each other. Many of the students had a situation that caused them to move forward with a negative outlook on literacy but later they took on the success identity, because a different event changed their view to have a positive outlook on literacy.

Revised 2:

Taking on the role of the victim in literacy is completely different from having a success narrative. As defined by Alexander a victim is “a victim of negative literacy experiences, in or out of school; casts blame for negative literacy experiences; discusses how someone took the fun out of reading and writing” (615). While a success narrative would be defined as “Equates literacy acquisition with success, liberation, development, progression, and upward mobility” (Alexander 615). While reading multiple literacy narratives from the Rising Cairn document I found that these identities connected with each other. Many of the students had a situation that caused them to move forward with a negative outlook on literacy but later they took on the success identity because a different event changed their view to have a positive outlook on literacy. Often times the thing that changes the literacy narrative is a sponsor. Many times a student will have a sponsor that withheld literacy from them and that caused them to move forward in literacy with a negative outlook. But later in they ancounter a different sponsor that helps them and pushes them to become better with literacy even though before they were held back. The big factor within literacy narrative is the sponsors that those people have had. Often times we remember the negative enperiances and no the postive, so the negative stays with us for longer causing a longer effect. 

1. My peers think I might be doing affirm and add. There was evidence in the narratives that I’ve left out of the draft so far that I could add to make my paper stronger in the final draft. In my paper, I am trying to inform the reader about being a victim and how a victim literacy narrative can change into a success narrative over time.

2. My peers thought that I needed some more to my introduction when explaining A/B/W. I think in my introduction I need to discuss the sources more and summarize them so the readers get an understanding of what I am talking about.

3. For my evidence, I think that the ones I have in my draft are good ones to include but I also think that I can find one or maybe two more that can connect in a different way than the previous literacy narratives that I used. I think that doing this would add a lot to my paper in the final draft.

Learning to Not Hate English 

By: Austin Scaglione

The author discusses how he was a victim but with curtain, teachers became more successful. A victim in literacy is someone who has has a negative experience in or out of school involving literacy. “In sum, the popularity of the victim cultural narrative is important because it allows us to understand that although students may view their literate futures in terms of success, they view their literate pasta in terms of victimhood” (Alexander 618). Overall looking bad you can see the impact curtain situations have has on you and how they are affecting you now. When looking at how his writing had changed between the different grades granted to him, he was able the better understand the positives that affected him and the negatives. “The ideology of just breezing through a class, not doing any work, was replaced with one of which planning, outlining, and revising took over every aspect of writing” (Scaglione 4). In the beginning, the student was a victim in literacy, the teacher he left did not care and that had a negative impact on him. When you look at him later he has a different teacher that has had a positive impact on him and that changes his outlook on literacy and how to approach it. The author was a victim but ended up turning into a success narrative in the end.

The Progress for Getting a Better Teacher for English

By: Hien Nguyen

Freshman year this student had a teacher who affected his literacy negatively then sophomore year he got a new teacher and everything changed. This student started out as a victim but grew into a success narrative. “In victim narratives, students wrote about negative school-based literacy experiences that stigmatized and marked them, including being misread by poor or insensitive teachers, having a “masterpiece” ruined by a teacher’s notorious red ink, or being forced to write research papers and read books for critique rather than pleasure” (Alexander 617). The first teacher this student had only graded on in-class participation and with little time in class sometimes he would receive a bad grade. This teacher was not conducting a positive literacy environment for this student and that caused him to not continue to go for forward with literacy. When the student moved forward in school he received a new English teacher. This teacher changed literacy for this student. “In addition, my writing was improving throughout the year. I received my first essay with tons of red ink. My face was bright red and I was filled with embarrassment. Seeing so many red marks on my paper I assumed that I was getting a bad grade. However, the marks were not all negative, there were also positive feedback” (Nguyen 3). The simple switch of engaging with the students and giving back so positive feedback  made a world of difference for this student and caused him to become a success narrative in the end.

I enjoy reading literacy narratives that have a victim in them at the start, then they have an identity shift to a success narrative.

• Sophomore Year From Hell – By: Abbey Small
• How Title one Changed my Life- By Chelsey Haughey
• Living in a Fairytale- By Skylah Buchanan
• Dona and the Truck She Placed Me Back In- By Caroline Wilson
• The Year I started to Hate Writing- By Hannah Clark
• Learning to Not Hate English- By Austin Scaglione
• The Progress for Getting a Better Teacher for English- By Hien Nguyen

Kayla:

Concept- Victim.

Quote- “Is a victim of negative literacy experiences, in or out of school; casts blame for negative literacy experiences; discusses how someone took the fun out of reading and writing.”

Quote From Text- “When I was forced to read things I didn’t like, I lost interest really quickly.”

Explain- Throughout the narrative you are told about the negative impacts different events have had on Kayla and how that has made her dislike literacy.

Sam:

Concept- Literacy Winner.

Quote- “Includes accounts of winning extrinsic awards, rewards, and prizes for literacy, such as young author’s awards, verbal…”

Quote From Text- “I enjoyed just being able to get lost in the moment of sharing my thoughts on a piece of paper.”

Explain- Sam overall had a positive experience with literacy and found the positive in all of their literacy events that took part in.

Hannah:

Concept- Hero.

Quote- “Equates literacy acquisition with success, liberation, development, progression, and upward mobility; emphasizes individual, rather than literacy, perseverance, self-reliance, and determination; establishes self as hero of literacy story.”

Quote From Text- “Although, we may never fully understand why teacher’s want us to achieve more. They constantly push us to go the extra mile. They push us and get us to turn our work into something amazing. They try to teach us to not get so caught up in personal content rather of a story than the assignment itself no matter how difficult that may be.”

Explain- Hannah in her writing emphasized individual father then the literacy in her writing.

Blake:

Concept- Success Narrative.

Quote- “Equates literacy acquisition with success, liberation, development, progression, and upward mobility; emphasizes literacy, rather than the individual, and improving reading and writing skills; invokes optimistic and future-looking rhetoric; views literacy as utilitarian and useful, a means to economic, cultural, social, and political success

Quote From Text- “I see now it was because she was holding me to a higher standard because she knew I had the ability to succeed in my work, but I would rush through it and not worry about it.”

Explain- Blake had a literacy sponsor that helped him succeed and that helped him go further in life and continue to.

Turn Around? -Kayla Farrell

Passion For Writing -Sam Michaud

Expect The Unexpected -Hannah D

Recess and Distress -Blake Beverage

Relationships – between texts.                  Question and Relationships – relating

sponsor and sponsored.

Questions – Understanding.            Questions – relation to sponsor and                                                                                               teachers understanding students.

Understanding of skills – Definitions .       Questions – Connections –                                                                                                                         Understanding – Definitions

Samantha Martineau

Professor Cripps

English 110 I

25 October 2018

Reading Responses

In the reading “Sponsors of Literacy” written by Deborah Brandt she touches on the topic of literacy sponsors. Brandt defines literacy sponsors as “any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy – and gain advantage by it in some way” (556). I connect this text with my literacy narrative and the literacy event I chose to write about. I wrote about my experience in elementary school when we had to do online testing for reading. I had a negative experience during these test and I feel it has affected we till this day. I think I suppressed those feelings and I ended up withholding my literacy ability because I was scared about being wrong or not being good enough compared to my classmates. I feel that if I had pushed myself out of my comfort zone and didn’t suppress the way I had felt I would be a completely different person in the Discourse of literacy.

Sense literacy is so valued, many of us have complicated relationships with reading and writing this is because we are introduced to literacy at such a young age that as we grow we carry that tool with us through the bad and the good. We can connect “Literacy, like land, is a valued commodity in this economy, a key resource in gaining profit and edge” (Brandt 558) with Alexander when she says “literacy can lead to possibility, hope, and power, it can also marginalize and disempower people” (610). Through Alexanders text you can see that literacy can cause someone to become less confident in their literacy Discourse. I can connect with this because throughout my time in the education system I have had many ups and downs with literacy. Overall I would not consider myself to be confident in the literacy Discourse because of past experiences, for instance in middle school we were forced to read every night for homework. Now from that experience in middle school I have a negative outlook on reading because I was forced to participate in that Discourse when I did not want to.

In the text “Sponsors of Literacy” written by Deborah Brandt, she discusses what a literacy sponsor is “the figures who turned up the most typically in people’s memories of literacy learning: older relatives, teachers, parents, supervisors, military officers, editors, influential authors” (557). So when you are writing a literacy narrative many people are suspected to write about a curtain literacy sponsor. For me I could write about my english teacher senior year of high school and how he helped me improve in the literacy Discourse. While looking up to someone like a literacy sponsor as a role model you can begin to take on some of their identities. In “Heroes, rebels, and victims: Students identities in literacy narratives” written by Bronwyn T. Williams this author says “intriguing to consider the identities students construct for teachers” (344). We can see in this text that not only do students gain elements from teacher identities but they also take on a different identity when they are around a teacher. I’m sure everyone can relate to this because we would not talk to a teacher they way we would talk to our peers or even our parents. The identities we take on can vary considering the setting.