Our
readings for week two focus on understanding how people's individual
literacy trajectories develop. Your response for the readings from week
two must closely examine the arguments presented by Deborah Brandt in her article titled "Sponsors of Literacy" and consider
how the experiences presented by both Sherman Alexi and Malcolm X could
somehow fit within Brandt's argument. If Brandt had interviewed Malcolm X
and Sherman Alexi, how would Brandt be able to use the experiences of
Malcolm X and Sherman Alexie to help
further her claims in some way? Consider the central claim Brandt makes
as well as the major sub-points Brandt presents in different sections of
her piece and decide how Malcolm X and Sherman Alexie's experiences
might fit within Brandt's arguments.
This
task calls you to deeply analyze Brandt's arguments and then synthesize
a new set of data to help extend Brandt's argument. It is important
that you integrate the experiences of Alexie and Malcolm X. Build
context for your claims by delivering a sense of Brandt's claims. Add
new evidence from the experiences of Malcolm X and Sherman Alexie.
Analyze the new evidence and connect it to Brandt's claim(s).
The best posts will demonstrate critical thinking and will thoroughly address the prompt. The most sophisticated postings will demonstrate an ability to synthesize Alexie's and Malcolm X's experiences with some of Brandt's claims.
The posting for this prompt is due by 11:59pm on Sunday, January 13th.
In Deborah Brandt's "Sponsers of Literacy" Brandt uses her studies on early learning experiences to analyze learning aspects in literacy. Brandt could possibly use Alexie and Malcolm X's stories in her research because they share their learning experiences of literacy. Though Sherman Alexie and Malcolm X learned to read and write in different ways their experiences both could benefit Deborah Brandt's research by giving her more to compare to. She would be able to add to her research how some children are able to connect pictures in comic books, and other reading materials to the actual words; which helps improve their literacy. In this case Sherman Alexie tought himself how to read therefore being his own sponser. With Malcolm X, his sponser would be the prison library because there is were he was able to get the resources to improve his literacy. Malcolm X felt the need to express himself better in his letters ergo he started copying the dictionary word for word. This lead him to begin reading and learning about black history which turned into his interest. Brandt says on page 168 of Sponsers of Literacy "...literacy takes its shape from the interests of its sponsers." So in both Alexie and Malcolm X's case they both found interest in their sponsers which lead them to become great writers.
ReplyDeleteImani Fambro
ReplyDeleteIn "Sponors of Literacy", Deborah Brandt studies the different teachers, or sponsors, of literacy and how they differentiate people's reading and writing skills. Brandt studied how individuals developed literacy skills by comparing an array of people and their experiences. Sherman Alexie and Malcolm X both shared their stories of how they learned to read and write. If Brandt interviewed Malcomlm X and Alexie she would be able to add their stories to her research. Their stories relate to Brandt's study because they are sharing of the ways they learned to read and, for Malcolm X, improve his writing. Sherman Alexie learned to read by his Superman comic book illustrations. Alexie judged by Supermans action's what the text was saying using context clues. Malcolm X could not enjoy reading because he did not understand many of the words in the text, making the story confusing. Malcolm X obtained a dictionary and copied down the first page word by word, once he was finished he repeated what he wrote to really comprehend what he had written. Eventually the whole dictionary was copied and Malcolm X began reading and truly understanding what he was reading. As time went on he became interested in history books and grew to be very wise. Alexie and Malcolm X learned literacy in completely unique ways and at different ages. This correlates to Deborah Brandt's study in showing how ways of learning literacy change with economies, time, and teachings.
Malcolm X and Sherman Alexie were both their own sponsors in a sense. Both taught themselves how to better their reading and writing skills despite their situations. For Alexie, it could be argued that his father was his sponsor because he was his biggest influence in reading. Because of Alexie's father surrounding him with books, he had the motivation to read at a young age. Malcolm X's sponsor was Elijah Muhammad initially but he eventually became his own sponsor by the time he learned of all the history. As he states "Not even Elijah Muhammad could have been more eloquent than those books..." (Learning to Read, page 5).
Overall, Brandt's studies correlate to Alexie and Malcolm X because she studied sponsors of literacy and they were their own sponsors.
Amanda Crawford:
ReplyDeleteDeborah Brandt's study focused on how ways of learning literacy differ with economies,teaching and so on. Brandt uses her findings to analyze learning aspects in literacy. Sherman Alexie and Malcom X could append Deborah Brandts research and give her more to add and compare to, even though they did have different experiences. Both Sherman Alexie and Malcom X sponsered themselves so to speak, but they did also somewhat have sponsers. Sherman Alexies sponser could have been his father and sort of was because his father encompassed him with books at a very young age.Sherman Alexi could have also been his own sponser because he started reading the comic book "Superman and Me" by himself, even though he didnt necessarily read the book at first. He more so assumed what the book was saying by the pictures at first. This also would fit into Deborah Brandt's research because it attaches to the fact in her research that some children are able to connect pictures in comic books with other readings. Malcom X's sponser could possibly be Elijah Muhammad or the prison library because they both helped him learn. Elijah Muhammad helped Malcom originally but the prison library helped him toward the middle. In the end, Malcom X and Sherman Alexie could have added much to Brandt's studies because they both had sponsers and were their own sponsers.
Chet Rosenfeld
ReplyDeleteLiteracy, the ability to read and write, is a very powerful tool. Brandt attempts to answer the question “How do we understand the vicissitudes of individual literacy development in relationship to the large-scale economic forces that set the routes and determine the worldly worth of literacy?” She calls it the “sponsors of literacy” approach. A sponsor as defined by Brandt are “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.” Sponsors, both individual and institutional control our access to literacy. Sponsors remind us that literacy is a privilege and that privilege is powerful.
There are three subsections in Brandt’s essay: first, Sponsorship & Access – stratification of opportunity continues to organize access and reward literacy learning. Second, Sponsorship & The Rise in Literacy Standards – sponsors contribute to the perceived gap between rising standards for achievement and people’s ability to meet them. This is also called the “literacy crisis.” Finally, Sponsorship & Appropriation in Literacy Learning – encounters with literacy sponsors can be sites for the innovative rerouting into projects of self-development and social change.
Alexie’s essay demonstrates Brandt’s instruction to consider “not merely how one social group’s literacy practices may differ from another’s, but how everybody’s literacy practices are operating in differential economies, which supply different access routes, different degrees of sponsoring power, and different scales of monetary worth to the practices in use.” Sherman Alexie grew up on an Indian Reservation. His direct sponsor was his father. His father loved to read and he inspired that same passion in his son. His father was sponsored by the Catholic Church. The Church, Brandt points out is one of the earliest sponsors of literacy. Alexie’s father was one of the few Native Americans on the Reservation that could read and write because he attended Catholic school. His father’s encounter with this literacy sponsor sparked a curiosity that lit a fire in his son. Sherman Alexie started reading at age 3. His house was “filled with books.” In the first subsection of Brandt’s essay, she tells the story of two people of the same age that grew up in the same town, but had very different literacy opportunities. Race, gender and socioeconomic status all play a large role in literacy opportunities Here are people of the same age, race, gender, socioeconomic status growing up in the same place, and yet he is different. His opportunities were different. He was something of an oddity for his peers. He defied the stereotypes and rebelled against the social constraints. Brandt’s second assertion is furthered because Alexie realized at an early age the power of books and the power of knowledge. He knew that “a smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike.” He attended school on the reservation, a would-be sponsor, but he surpassed the expectations of his teachers and classmates. Alexie recalls reading everything and anything he could get his hands on. School on the reservation was considered by many a pointless enterprise because of prejudice, but Alexie choose to rise above the status quo. Brandt’s third subsection is demonstrated here. Once he realized the power of books and the power of knowledge, Alexie knew that he had the power to change the world around him. He shocked even himself when he became a writer and now inspires young Indian children. He has become the sponsor.
Chet Rosenfeld Part 2 (continued)
ReplyDeleteMalcolm X’s story is watching a citizen cope with life as he finds it. Malcolm X is a self-educated man, his formal education ended in the 8th grade. He was convicted of a robbery and spent seven years in prison, during which time he taught himself to read and write. He practiced daily, copying the entire dictionary. Once he learned the definition of words, he began reading books. He, like Alexi, also devoured books, reading 15 hours a day. His primary sponsor was institutional – prison. The prison where he served his sentence had a library that consisted of the private collection of Charles Parkhurst, a wealthy clergyman and reformer. Malcolm X read books and authors that primarily fueled his hatred of the “white man.” It was in prison that he felt truly free. Prison changed the course of his life forever. It gave him passion and focus. It gave him time. Subsection three of Brandt’s essay is demonstrated in the life of Malcolm X, he misappropriated the intentions of the sponsor. He used his time in prison to further his self-interest. He used this time to learn about human rights and he advanced his life. If he had never served time in prison, would he still have become such a powerful leader?
I think that Brandt would have liked to interview both Sherman Alexi and Malcolm X. I think she would find both men fascinating case studies. Both men were influential in the world around them and both attribute that influence to their ability to read and write. They both demonstrate the power of education and its ability to promote change. Both men sought out their education. Both men defied expectations.
Deborah Brandt could use Malcolm X and Sherman Alexi in her interview for "Sponsors of Literacy". In her study she shows how people gain the power of literacy through sponsors. Also she shows how each person can have a different sponsor to help them develop in there ways of reading and writing. Well if she would have interviewed Malcolm she would have seen how he gained his ability to learn how to write using the prison library. He uses a dictionary to teach himself how to comprehend how to read and write better. He shows how he went from skipping words just to finish a book and only knowing the ways of the streets to being able to finish book after book with ease. Not only that but he taught himself how the world was actually like through the words of books. His interview could show how literacy can truly change a person’s life. In an interview with Alexi she would have seen how one boy’s struggle with reading can change by seeing his sponsor. I believe his sponsor was his father’s love for books which in turn lead him to his desire to follow in his father’s footsteps. Where he found that by just attempting to read even though he was never actually taught can change anything. He could talk about how he started to use his comic book pictures to help him learn how to read. Then he would return to reservations to be a sponsor to other children that were just like him and wanted to excel. So yes I believe the two of them would have been great interviews showing how both of them helped to sponsor themselves to be great people. Also it shows another way of how different economic classes and races find a sponsor to improve their literacy.
ReplyDeleteMichelle Balaban
ReplyDeleteThe recounts of both Sherman Alexie and Malcolm X would have served as strong argument points to Deborah Brandt’s essay for many reasons. She would have found their memoirs especially useful in the area of “misappropriation”.
In the case of Alexie, his father was the sponsor of his experiences with literacy. He goes on to say, My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well, The Joys of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me, page 11. Alexie recalls looking at the words in the books and realizing paragraphs, then later creating his own stories about the pictures he saw in a comic book well before he could read and make sense of those words.
Brandt could have added to her research the importance of parents and key adults in the lives of children as they model an interest in literacy and make it available to children. It is a well known fact in the area of Early Education that adults play a crucial role in facilitating the ability to read and write (Schickendanz, 1999), and that those children have a much higher success rate in school and beyond. In creating stories from the pictures in the comic book, Alexie exhibited a preoperational stage of reading in which a child believes the words come from the pictures alone (Schickendaz, 1982, 1999). This experience is greatly enhanced when parents and adults read often to children. One can only imagine what Alexie’s life would have been like without his father’s example and hunger for reading.
I found Learning to Read by Malcolm X fascinating and an important argument point for Brandt’s essay in the area of misappropriation or reappropriation, which I found to be a more appropropriate verb. Here is a man, incarcerated for robbery, who was able to turn his life around by empowering himself through literacy by way of his sponsor, the prison library. He actually accredits his time alone as the opportunity for which to study as much as fifteen hours a day! The prison library was available to all the inmates, perhaps as a way to pass the time and keep busy, however, Malcolm X used the available literature to the fullest right down to the humble dictionary. History records his achievements and calls him one of the most powerful leaders of the Black community; he was a mover and shaker of the 60’s.
I met a most interesting man in the church I attended. We’ll call him “Leo”. Leo was convicted in 1987 for a crime he committed before he became a devout Christian. Sentenced to twenty years, he used the time to study and earned his ministers license. Miraculously, and to the amazement of family and friends, he was released just eight years later. He then returned to the system, but this time, not as an inmate but has a spiritual leader. He has helped countless young men who find themselves in situations much like his own.
In conclusion, an individual can use the sponsorship of others as a vehicle for recreation only, or as a way to education oneself and perhaps, change their future.