1st response:
In his piece, Brandy explains the several roles a sponsor plays in the literacy of those that they sponsored. In my own literacy narrative I explained how my teacher gave me a bad grade in my freshman year of high school. I explained how she did not like my elongated writing style and I was then able to change it in order to please her, rewrote my essay and received a better grade. In this instance by teacher, or my “sponsor”, at the time bleed through my work even after all these years. In this experience my teacher both “taught” and eventually “supported” my literacy. Brandt did not go into detail about too many examples, but she explained the basic, overall idea of this concept a lot. She explained how poorer people would give their services and become “indentured servants” to people to give themselves and their family better oppurtunities. She also went on to say that even those high people probably answered to an even higher person maybe even over seas. She related this instance to how sponsors in literacy have people do their work through them and how they spread their ideas. Through this example they showed how sponsors “regulated” their lives and literacy.
2nd response:
Brandt explains how important a commodity literacy is how it can help you gain valued things in life that you want. This highlights the importance of literacy, and basically anything that is important or worth having is difficult to obtain. Because it is so difficult to get and so highly valued, it creates a high stressed and complicated relationship. Many students and adults alike have very harsh relationships with writing due to past experiences. These include difficulty in writing, bad or mean teachers, bad grades and other things that would crush a person’s spirit and ruin their confidence. Because literacy is such a valued commodity it means that people get really frustrated when they are told they are not very good at it, because it makes them fear the future. Because they begin thinking they might never obtain this important concept well or even at all then they think they will forever be a step behind and will not be able to succeed. Some people, instead of trying to push through or even disregard the negative opinions they become angry at others and themselves. Because literacy is so highly valued when people have bad experiences with them they blow it out of proportion and a very harsh and complicated relationship can blossom.
4th response:
In Alexander’s essay he explains that when it comes to literacy narratives there are several different types. These include both positive and negative instances and both general and specific examples. Of these concepts one of them is the “hero” archetype in which the experience is mostly positive and they make themselves the focus and the hero of the story who perseveres through obstacles and eventually is triumphant. This is a very widely utilized concept in literacy narratives and many different people at least mention or relate in some way in their story. I relate to this concept because I really enjoy the “hero” motif from greek legends, to history of war, and to modern day heroes. While these stories will not be as exciting, it is very interesting to see a hero’s journey with perseverance and eventually accomplishing their goal. Another crucial concept Alexander mentions is the “rebel”. He explains that they neither hate nor love writing, but in general they go against the social norms and do what they see is right or necessary rather than other people. I relate to this concept as well because they idea of a rebel is also exciting as going against society is a continuous entertaining idea. Also, with writing I like to write my own way, on my own time, and with my own ideas and style, so I get the motivation behind it.
