Sponsors of Literacy Paper

8/7/2019 Sponsors of Literacy Paper

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Sarah Steen

Professor Jan Rieman

English 1103 TR

February 3, 2011

Each formal paper you turn in to me will include a self-assessment, written in italics, and placed

right here in your paper (under your identifying info and before your title.) In this section you

will talk about what you think works well in this draft of your paper and why, what you think still

needs work and why, and you can ask any questions you have for me as a reader to think about

as I read. You do not need to write these self-assessments for the Writing to Explore Pieces.

Sponsors of Literacy, as defined by Deborah Brandt, are any agents, local or distant,

concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, and model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress,

or withhold literacy. Literacy can cover almost any area imaginable, including music, visual arts,

and sports, which I have learned in my lifetime. These are the particular literacies that I have

had access to and had sponsors for. My sponsors varied greatly, from my immediate family to

manufacturers of sheet music that I will never know. These people, companies, and institutions

have equipped me with the skills that allowed me to become the person that I am today.

I consider my church to be a part of my early education because I have attended since my

birth and because although it did not contribute to my academic literacy, it gave me many other

kinds of literacy. One of those literacies was music. Since I was three years old, I have been in

church choir. I also participated in a community choral group for nearly seven years, and

attended many various auditions. For four years, I traveled with the North Carolina Baptist All-

State youth choir, singing all across the state. It is because of these opportunities that I am able

to sight sing and read music. I can recognize many pieces because I have sung them before or


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heard them in church. This was extremely beneficial to me this past semester in my music class.

Upon arriving, I was already familiar with most of the vocabulary and I recognized several

pieces of music that we studied. On tests, we were asked to identify the title of the excerpt

played for us. Music has provided many opportunities for me and has introduced me to many of

my closest friends. It is because of this, as well as my love for music, that I am so grateful to the

sponsors I had. My sponsors ranged widely, from the composers of the pieces I have sung to the

clinicians that have coached me. Sponsors open numerous doors and provide more information

than before. I imagine sponsors as an expansive network. For example, the director of my

community chorus made available trips to festivals and master classes that otherwise I would not

been able to attend. In a way, by choosing what trips to take or what pieces to sing, my director

was restricting my access to musical literacy. If she chose to teach us pieces of all one genre, she

would have been limiting my musical literacy to all of the other genres. Overall, I am satisfied

with the skills I have acquired and the music I have learned.

Another area that I have been introduced to is visual arts. I will admit that I am not as

literate in this subject matter as I am in music. During high school, I took a few interior design

classes, and developed a passion for the subject. I learned different techniques and styles from

my teacher, but also from magazines, and CADD, a computer design generator. These were all

sponsors of my visual literacy. I learned to identify what was aesthetically pleasing and how to

create what I was picturing in my minds eye. To do these things took time, and art is one of

those interesting areas where nothing is ever really wrong or right. I memorized the color wheel

and studied the relationships between hues. I was lucky to have such an excellent teacher. She

practiced what she preached by buying and living in a house, fixing it up, and selling it again.

She knew the system of buying and selling homes and had a kitchen design published nationally.


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Her experience taught me and my classmates, of which there were few, so much about design.

She also provided the resources necessary to design floor plans and create furniture. This is an

area which has served me well outside of school. In addition to earning elective credit, I am able

to apply these skills where ever I go. Now, when I am home, my mom will ask for advice on

where to place the furniture to make the room look bigger or how to arrange the den so the vents

are not covered. I believe my sponsorship was adequate in visual literacy and am grateful to

have had access to such a practical subject.

The third area of literacy that I have been exposed to is sports. My father grew up as an

avid sports fan and with three older brothers, I was exposed to sports constantly. Anyone that

knew me as a child would tell you that I was a tomboy. As the only girl with three older

brothers, it was hard not to be. We all played Optimist soccer and church league basketball. My

dad was the coach and he developed a stronger bond with each of the children at the time that he

had us on his team. As a family, we attended nearly every home basketball or football game at

Wake Forest University, a short drive from my house, and many away games as well. I

dedicated much of my passion and energy to supporting Wake Forest sports since I was a very

young child. This seemed to be the one subject that we all loved and we cherished every

moment of it. Sharing sports with each other brought us together as nothing else did and because

of this factor, we spent copious amounts of time discussing players abilities, coaching strategies,

and college athletics in general. Clearly, my immediate family was and is my main sponsor of

sports literacy. However, they were not my only sponsor. As with any subject, the literacy came

from many different sources. I listened to television announcers and radio broadcasters more

times than I care to count. Those men and women were sponsors of my literacy, as well as the

stations broadcasting the game to begin with. It comes as a surprise to most of my male friends,


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but I know more about college sports than many of them do. I enjoy sports immensely and my

knowledge of them is adequate.

In contrast, one literacy that I missed out on was an academic opportunity that the

Winston-Salem Forsyth County school offers. At my high school, students had the option to

take classes at the career center, where many occupational classes were offered and you could

earn certifications for nursing or automobile engineering. They had a shuttle once a day from

each of the high schools in the county, but there were requirements for riding the shuttle.

Therefore, if you didnt have a car or didnt meet the requirements, you couldnt take classes at

the career center. I did not drive a car, so I missed out on all of those opportunities. I cannot say

how my literacy would be different if I had been able to take classes there, but I am sure it would

have been broadened.

One literacy everyone seems to have is oral literacy, although they differ from person to

person. There are thousands of dialects all over the world, in addition slang terms, accents, and

mannerisms. At Ardmore Baptist Church, the church my family has attended since my parents

were in college at Wake Forest, the Steens are known as loud and social people. All six of us

have distinct personalities, with a few mannerisms that we all notice, share, and laugh about

between ourselves. However, the scene at home is very different. Communication has never

been a strength for our family. My dad was raised in the Deep South, so he was taught not to

talk about his feelings, and we all take the lead from him. As a result, whenever there is a

problem, we tend to shut ourselves up in our rooms until no one is mad anymore. We do get

along, but the relationships we have with each other are very different from our relationships

outside the home. We are all more open and honest with our friends than other family members.


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I think we have all noticed this over the years, yet no one really brings it up. Perhaps this is a

common family problem; I wouldnt know because it is all Ive ever been exposed to. Family

conversations at my house tend to be more formal, but we do occasionally drop our guards and

relax around one another. Another interesting characteristic of my family is our accent. My

mom traveled all over the South as a preachers daughter and oldest child of six. My father also

moved a few times; he was the son of a preacher as well. My brothers and I were all born and

raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Between my mom and dad, and both sets of

grandparents, I have had my share of exposure to Southern life and expressions. My friends here

at UNC Charlotte mock me at least twice every day for my pronunciation of words or an unusual

expression. They have noticed that my accent is much more pronounced when I get mad, and

they love every bit of that!

As a nineteen year old attending a state university, sponsors are obviously continuing to

grant me access to new literacies. My major is birth through kindergarten education; I am

studying to become a preschool teacher or daycare provider. I will be taking classes specifically

targeting my area of interest. With these classes, textbooks, and required observations, I am

preparing for my chosen life-long profession. I will be using and applying the teaching

techniques I learn in the next four years for the rest of my life. Many psychologists believe that

college is more about developing and perfecting social literacy than any academics we will learn.

College is the time in someones life when they not only interact with other students, but must

live in the same buildings. People learn about themselves in college; people learn how to cope

with angry neighbors, follow the resident advisors rules, and manage their time. I will be

learning these social skills without even realizing it. Attending college may be the most

beneficial experience in a persons life because of all the literacies it teaches us.


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In conclusion, sponsors come in every shape and form. They may teach us new skills or

withhold information from us. Every person has a unique set of sponsors, just as they have

different kinds of literacy. By interacting with those people whose literacies are different than

our own, it is possible to learn their skill as well as learn even more about ourselves. We can

compare and contrast our opportunities with others as a way of identifying our sponsors of

literacy and who they have helped us become as individuals.

Sponsors of Literacy Paper

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