When I read the title of the piece titled "Sponsors of Literacy" I thought of AA sponsors. I don't know why, but that was the only kind of sponsor I could think of at that time. After reading the piece, I started to see that although my first connection was quite different than literacy, I saw one common similarity. I saw that both kinds of sponsors motivate.
I now see what kind of literacy sponsors I have in my life, people who have influenced and motivated my processes of literacy. The ones that I think of most, however, are my elementary school teachers. I think it takes a really passionate person to get a child to look at boring letters grouped together to make words and become motivated enough to learn about them. As a future teacher, my goal is to be the best literacy sponsor I can be, just like the elementary school teachers I once had.
The concept I found most interesting about this piece is the fact that the author says the sponsors only teach what they want the learner to know and usually benefit from it. I thought about this in relation to teachers and I started to think about the 4th grade tests. The teachers were all talking to us about our class having the top scores of the area and how important that was to uphold. For a month before the test, that was all my teacher focused on. We went through at least 10 practice tests to get us ready. I think about how we were only taught stuff for that test and the teacher was benefiting from it by getting high test scores. I now see more than ever how teachers fit the definition perfectly of literacy sponsors, the motivate and help us learn to read and write but also only teach us certain things and benefit from it at the same time.
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I really like your post and your take on what a sponsor really is. I had a difficult time wrapping my arms around this idea but reading your post really helped. After reading the essay and your post, I couldn't help but think about the sponsors that sponsor children to go to schools or those people that sponsor individuals to run or walk for a cure. There is a connection. All of these people, including teachers, are sponsors in a way. A sponsor is a person that makes an investment in another individual. There is a reciprocal relationship between the sponsor and the sponsored. "They [sponsors] lend their resources or credibility to the sponsored but also stand to gain benefits from their success, whether by direct repayment or, indirectly, by credit of association" (Brandt 557). This essay and your blog really opened my eyes and forced me to broaden my definition of a sponsor to include many other individuals.
ReplyDeleteI very much agree with your definition of what a sponsor is. After reading through the essay, I couldn't help but think how important of a sponsor a teacher is to children. This really hit home for me because I plan on becoming an elementary school teacher. With this position, it will be very important for me to be a positive literacy sponsor. During the first few years of a child's schooling, they learn so many important skills going along with what literacy is, reading and writing. I do understand that literacy is not just reading and writing but I believe it plays a vital role. This is what I believe teachers are literacy sponsors and can have such a huge impact on a child's life.
ReplyDelete"Sponsors, as I have come to think of them are any agent, 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."556,Sponsors of Literacy,Deborah Brandt. I agree that school teachers are excellent examples of a sponsor who truly affects your life. I believe that your mother is the first role model in your life. Your mother is your first sponsor, who teaches you before you enter school. Upon entering school your meet your teacher who becomes a sponsor and role model along with your mother.
ReplyDeleteSponsors are very powerful people in your life who help mold your into the individual you become and teachers do gain the advantage from this transformation when their students learn.
I think, in a genearl sense, that the idea of a sponsor, is interesting. They are significant in our lives and can aid us and push us forward, yet do you think that for something to be considered to be a sponsor would "gain advantage"? Or could it be purely beneficial for the person being sponsored?
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