Hope Crawford 1

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Hope Crawford

Professor Jan Rieman

English 1103-002

February 8, 2011

I enjoyed writing this essay and reflecting on all of my sponsors of literacy I

have had throughout my life. I believe I took some risks that I have been too

afraid to take in previous English classes for fear of getting a bad grade. The

first risk I took would be the title. I got the idea from Michael Moores

documentary Capitalism: A Love Story and I thought the title fit well.

Another risk I took was in the fourth paragraph where I took more of a

scientific method approach. Being a science-y person I have always wanted

to conduct experiments and share my results within an English paper but I

am not sure if I fits too well and would like to hear your opinions on that

particular paragraph. As far as the conclusion goes, I kind of burned out and

had no idea what I could add, so I am aware that that needs improvement.

Another area that I believe my paper needs improvement is the third

paragraph. I could not think of anything else to include.

Literacy: A Love Story

Deborah Brandt, the author of Sponsors of Literacy, defines a sponsor of literacy to be

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

166). In twenty-first century America, being literate is something that people often take for

granted. I will admit that I am guilty of taking my own literacy for granted at times, as I cannot

remember in detail the process of my literacy education. Although I cannot remember many

exact details of my own literacy training, I can remember in an instant the people and objects

which encouraged me to learn to read and write - my personal sponsors of literacy. I had several

sponsors of literacy, but my main sponsors were my parents, teachers, and childrens television

programs.


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My parents literacy education, as they have described to me, was very difficult. Sadly,

my mothers parents preferred her little brother over her and were no help to her while she was

learning to read as a child. My father grew up on a farm where he was encouraged to miss school

as a child in order to plow the fields which led to him not being fully literate until he was in

junior high. Feeling cheated by their parents in regards to their literacy as children, my parents

vowed to become my and my sisters main sponsors of literacy. In fact, my parents were such a

huge part in my sisters and my literacy that we all were reading simple books such as Cat in the

Hat before we entered kindergarden. I actually have a picture of myself reading a fifth grade

history book to my kindergarden class and to several other curious teachers who later praised my

parents for being so helpful to my literacy. My parents sponsored me by buying me tapes that are

similar to todays My Baby Can Read DVDs. These tapes would say a word while showing the

spelling of the word, show the action and encourage the viewer to say the word and perform the

action simultaneously. Another way that my parents encouraged my literacy was to reward me

every time I finished a book. I would jump at the chance to read a book because I was always

looking forward to the prize that came with successfully finishing it. The prizes would range

from a trip to McDonalds to a new game for my Gameboy. By rewarding my successful

completion of a book, I soon became trained to enjoy reading which has really helped me in the

long run because I still, out of habit, jump at the chance to read a good book. Even today, my

parents are big sponsors of all forms of literacy for me because they still reward me for the

successful completion of goals related to literacy. For example, my father has made a deal with

me and my sisters that as long as he lives, if we bring home all As from school, he will give us

$100. It was fairly easy to earn the $100 my dad promised in middle and elementary school, but

when I got to high school, I realized that I had to work much harder to earn the prize. Now that I


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am in college, the prize does not mean too much to me, but I still have the drive to work hard

because the thought of an easy $100 bill makes me put a little more effort in to all of my

schoolwork.

Even though my parents were and are still are the main sponsors of literacy in my life, the

teachers I have had throughout my school career have also been huge sponsors of literacy for me.

Teachers fall in to the category of sponsors who, as stated in Brandts definition, gain advantage

by it in some way. The advantage that they gain is obviously money, but there have been a few

selected teachers I have had that do not seek the money reward as much as they seek the success

of their students. The differences between teachers who seek nothing but the financial rewards

and those who rather see student success are found within their teaching methods. Teachers who

seek nothing but money are the ones who discourage class discussion, creativity and

individualism. Although they are still considered sponsors of literacy because they achieve the

main goal of teaching the material, they are not as helpful to student success in the long-run. For

example, an student whose teacher simply gives his/her students assignments and letter grades

is a student that will not retain the material being covered for a long period of time which can

prove to be a detriment to the students literacy in the long-run. For example, I once had an

English teacher - my sixth grade year - who discouraged all types of creativity. This teacher

would simply give students assignments, read the paper, and give us number grades based on

what she thought we deserved. This was the English class which focused on how to use proper

grammar. Although I did fairly well in the class, I did not retain any of the information taught in

that class and I eventually had to be taught proper grammar all over again the next year. On the

other hand, students who have teachers that encourage class discussion will retain information

much longer because class discussion is much more interesting and hands-on than just listening.


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I had a teacher like this my junior and senior years of high school. She would ask her students

what they thought they deserved and had a class discussion every day of class. I never received a

letter grade in her class without justification. Because of this teachers method of teaching, I was

able to retain all of the information learned in her class. Teachers are sponsors of literacy in areas

other than just alphabetic literacy. History teachers hope for their students to become literate in

past events, band teachers hope their students become literate in reading music and playing

instruments, and so on.

Television has become one of the major sponsors of literacy since the late twentieth

century until now. When I was a child, almost all of childrens television programs are meant to

teach a child something they did not know before. Sesame Street helped teach me how to

count, Gullah Gullah Island taught me how to sing, Blues Clues helped teach me how to

read, and many other shows either taught or helped teach me something that I did not previously

know. Because I have not watched any childrens programming in a very long time, I conducted

an experiment to prove that childrens television programs are still sponsors of literacy by

watching four non-consecutive hours Nick Jr - the only program offered on the campus cable

network that is meant for children. While watching I took notes of what I saw and on almost

every program that I watched, the characters taught the viewers how to count to at least ten, to

spell out simple words such as cat, and how to identify written letters and numbers. On more

advanced programs I watched, a foreign language was being taught. The episode of the show

Dora the Explorer taught viewers how to count to ten in English and Spanish, to say simple

phrases such as hello in Spanish, and how to identify the primary colors (red, orange, yellow,

green, blue, indigo, and violet) in Spanish. I was very surprised that a program meant for toddlers

was teaching Spanish lessons to its viewers and I wondered if any other program was designed to


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teach children a foreign language. I was extremely surprised to discover that there is a program

that teaches simple Japanese, this show being Ni Ho Kai-Lan. This show was actually

interesting to me because before I watched, I had no idea how to count to ten in Japanese. By

conducting this experiment, I believe that it is safe to say that childrens television programs are

still aimed to teach literacy to children whether it be number, alphabetic, Spanish, or Japanese

literacy.

My sponsors of literacy can be found in many different settings but the main ones that I

attribute to my literacy is my parents, teachers, and childrens television programing. Having

these sponsors makes me very well equipped with the tools I need to succeed and I feel fortunate

to have these sponsors. I believe that if everyone takes the time to examine their own sponsors of

literacy, then they will become less likely to take it for granted.

Hope,

This is great! What makes it so great is how broadly you explore the idea of sponsors of

literacies, how detailed you are in your paragraphs, and how you follow your curiosity to

examine these ideas of literacy and sponsorship. What could still use work here is trying all of

your paragraphs together and making sure that your paper has an overall cohesiveness, which is

what you may be feeling is lacking in your conclusion. I really enjoyed reading this. Please let

me know what questions you have.

Works Cited:


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Brandt, Deborah. The Sponsors of Literacy. Albany, NY: National Research Center on English

Learning & Achievement, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1997. Print.

Cite the essay from our book:

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

Wardle

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

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Hope Crawford 1