Writing Assignment 3 (15%)
Making use of Deborah Brandt’s concept “Sponsors of Literacy” (Chapter 2, Literacies in Context) and Barton and Hamilton’s “Literacy Practices,” (Chapter 3, Literacies in Context) explore these concepts in relation to your research site. Identify the agents sponsoring literacies for you and others at your site and describe the way literacy has (or does or will) “pursue[d]” you within your field of study. This assignment must be 6-7 pages in length.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Wikispace!
I want to connect our two class pages, so here is a link to our Wikispace. Check it out--especially if you want to access, download and/or print out class handouts.
http://1024u.wikispaces.com/
http://1024u.wikispaces.com/
Monday, September 14, 2009
WA-2 Literacy Practices at a Particular Site
Writing Assignment 2
This essay calls upon you to describe literacy practices as they function in a particular place (in your church, in your workplace, in your home, in a store you frequent, or someplace else).
In developing this essay, you should consider questions like these: What texts are involved? At church, this may include the church bulletin, Bibles resting on the church pews, and hymnals, but they might also include notices posted in the church entrance, signage indicating where members should go, and so on. At home, relevant texts might include any and all reading materials found on the shelves, on the coffee table, in your room, in the rooms of the people living in the home in which you grew up.
Name these items. Tell us where in the home these materials are located. Discuss where the reading typically takes place (and who is typically involved). Don’t forget to discuss the reading of magazines and newspapers (even if it is just to locate coupons or information about the latest game) and any reading/ writing that takes place online (gaming, blogging, research). How are these texts put to use by the people involved in this context? Who develops these texts? Where do the people making use of these texts typically procure them?
Requirements: You must make use of Barton and Hamilton’s article and either Moss or Mirabelli (or all three), especially as they describe the theoretical framework you will be using. Take some time to unpack the Barton and Hamilton’s key arguments, then those made by Moss and/or Mirabelli and your position in relation to them; next consider how they are (or are not) true of your own experiences with literacy acquisition in the particular place you are describing. You might also find Brandt’s key arguments helpful here, especially the metaphor of “sponsorship.”
This essay calls upon you to describe literacy practices as they function in a particular place (in your church, in your workplace, in your home, in a store you frequent, or someplace else).
In developing this essay, you should consider questions like these: What texts are involved? At church, this may include the church bulletin, Bibles resting on the church pews, and hymnals, but they might also include notices posted in the church entrance, signage indicating where members should go, and so on. At home, relevant texts might include any and all reading materials found on the shelves, on the coffee table, in your room, in the rooms of the people living in the home in which you grew up.
Name these items. Tell us where in the home these materials are located. Discuss where the reading typically takes place (and who is typically involved). Don’t forget to discuss the reading of magazines and newspapers (even if it is just to locate coupons or information about the latest game) and any reading/ writing that takes place online (gaming, blogging, research). How are these texts put to use by the people involved in this context? Who develops these texts? Where do the people making use of these texts typically procure them?
Requirements: You must make use of Barton and Hamilton’s article and either Moss or Mirabelli (or all three), especially as they describe the theoretical framework you will be using. Take some time to unpack the Barton and Hamilton’s key arguments, then those made by Moss and/or Mirabelli and your position in relation to them; next consider how they are (or are not) true of your own experiences with literacy acquisition in the particular place you are describing. You might also find Brandt’s key arguments helpful here, especially the metaphor of “sponsorship.”
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
WA 1 - Your Literacy History
Writing Assignment 1 (5%) “This essay calls upon you to reconstruct key moments in your literacy history by identifying the agents sponsoring this literacy and narrating the way literacy has ‘pursued’ you in a variety of concepts (consider literacies those around you expect you to have).
According to Brandt, ‘[s]ponsors…are any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy—and gain advantage by it in some way’ (166, emphasis mine).
How does this definition match up with your understanding of what a sponsor does? How might a sponsor ‘gain advantage’ from sponsoring someone else? What ideas, conversations, and past experiences does Brandt’s exploration of ‘sponsorship’ call up in you? What can you learn by accepting this definition? What can we learn by resisting this definition of sponsorship?
Be sure to more than merely describe your experiences with literacy and literacy education. Instead, analyze your findings using—among other things—the relevant arguments from Brandt’s ‘Sponsors of Literacy.’ Take some time to unpack Brandt’s key arguments and your position in relation to them; then, consider how they are (or are not) true of your own experiences with literacy acquisition” (LC 39). This paper should be in the MLA format and 3-4 pages in length.
According to Brandt, ‘[s]ponsors…are any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy—and gain advantage by it in some way’ (166, emphasis mine).
How does this definition match up with your understanding of what a sponsor does? How might a sponsor ‘gain advantage’ from sponsoring someone else? What ideas, conversations, and past experiences does Brandt’s exploration of ‘sponsorship’ call up in you? What can you learn by accepting this definition? What can we learn by resisting this definition of sponsorship?
Be sure to more than merely describe your experiences with literacy and literacy education. Instead, analyze your findings using—among other things—the relevant arguments from Brandt’s ‘Sponsors of Literacy.’ Take some time to unpack Brandt’s key arguments and your position in relation to them; then, consider how they are (or are not) true of your own experiences with literacy acquisition” (LC 39). This paper should be in the MLA format and 3-4 pages in length.
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