sponsors of literacy final

8/7/2019 Sponsors of Literacy Final

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Justin Davis Davis 1

5/2/2011

Mrs. Rieman

English 1103

Sponsors of Literacy

Thank you for Sponsors

The definition for sponsors of literacy as Deborah Brandt describes it is 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(Brandt 407).

According to this definition my literacy sponsors could be a number of people from my parents,

to teachers, pastors, librarians, and also the people that work on the computer software that I

have used. When I sit and think about that, it is amazing how so many people that I do not

know have affected my education from my early years of learning all the way up to now that I

am at this university.

When reflecting back on our early years of education most people think about their

parents and their favorite teachers, but according to Deborah Brandts Sponsors of Literacy

essay we tend to leave out some very important people that deserve credit as well. In Brandts

essay she mentions other sponsors besides parents and teachers, and according to that we are

leaving out people like the creators of things like Hooked on Phonics and Leap Frog as well as

other things. When I look back on my early years of education I remember things like my



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parents sitting my sister and I down to work on our reading, writing, and also our math. My

parents would sometimes give my sister and I assignments to do along with our homework in

order to improve on our skills. They would also go over our homework in a way that it seemed

as if we were being taught the lesson twice, which I believe played a big role in my sister and I

success in school throughout the years.

As I looked back I could also recall my schools hand in my development. With programs

like accelerated reader in order to try and implicate a joy for reading by having rewards for

reaching different milestones. For example, if a student got 100 points they could get some

stickers or a small toy and if they were to get 1000 points they could get a free small pizza for

their hard work. There were also other things to motivate students like candy and longer recess

if the class did well on test. As I got older the incentives were still there, award ceremonies for

your success and also getting exempt from test because of good grades throughout the year

just to name a few.

Lately, I have started to learn that literacy can deal with more than just reading and

writing it has broadened to mean many different things. According to a definition of literacy on

bridgew.edu, Literacy is not in isolated bits of knowledge but in students growing ability to

use language and literacy in more and broader activities(bridge.edu 1). Based on this definition

literacy is not just your ability to write, but also how you use it to help you in other things. In

other words, in the perspective of an athlete their literacy in sports is not them knowing how to

play, but how they use their abilities to read and write in order to help them perform. This can



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deal with things like being able to read over the playbook and understand it so that they can

perform them on the field.

When I look back on my years of education from my elementary days to my now that I

am in college, I realize that there were a lot of people that had a hand in shaping me into the

young man that I am today. Although I know that it is well deserved it would be hard to thank

them all individually and sadly for some of them I cant, but the help was greatly appreciated. A

lot of people have been overlooked for their contribution to our education, whether they are

teachers, professors, or software designers they had a hand in getting us to where we are now

and deserve some kind of credit. With that being said I would like to say, Thank you for

Sponsors.



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Works Cited

Brandt, Deborah. Sponsors of Literacy. Writing about Writing: A College Reader . Eds. Wardle

and Downs. Boston: Bedford, 2011. 406-26. Print

Definition of Literacy.www.bridgew.edu. bridgew, n.p. n.d. Web. 2 May 2011

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