Brandt Reading

Summary: This reading basically talks about how literacy sponsors affect our world and how they gain benefits through their teaching. I learned what kind of literacy sponsors there are and what kinds benefited me or didn't benefit me. Literacy sponsors help organize and administer stratified systems of opportunity and success.

Synthesis: I think I have had well experienced literacy sponsors because of my opportunities I have been offered. I'm glad that my most useful literary sponsor was my teacher because teachers are there for a reason and that's to teach and since they're teaching they would have adequate backgrounds.

Questions for discussion and Journaling:

1: Brandt defines sponsors as powerful figures who bankroll events or smooth the way for initiates. Some examples of literary sponsors would be older relatives, teachers, priests, supervisors, military officers, editors, and influential authors. Sponsors gain benefits from their success of resources or credibility.

2: Brandt claims that sponsors always have something to gain from their sponsorship because they always pass something on that keeps on giving. Such as a teacher that teaches a student, the student will then go on to teach someone else. Therefore sponsors always have something to gain.

4: I think Brandt is referring to the social class structure when she talks about stratified systems. I think this makes sense because she later says their are levels of competition in the system, which there are. When Brandt refers to stakes I think she is referring to one class always pushes another class and that's why there is a struggle for competitive advantage.

Applying and Exploring:

1: I had opportunities to have a well experienced literacy history because of where I grew up. My school system was highly rated and I learned from the best. My primary literary sponsor were my teachers because during the school year your with them all the time and its hard not to learn from them. I think my literary sponsors were adequate because my main literary sponsors were from a school setting meaning that had to have a good background. Some literacies I have not had access to were priests because I wasn't the most religious person.

2: I haven't really had any literacy sponsors that have held me back. My school never banned any books or anything like that. My school did force certain kinds of literacies though, we were forced to read certain books that followed our curriculum. I really never had a problem with the forced books on us because they weren't that bad. Finding different sponsors for different kinds of literacies were easy because of the opportunities I had.

Meta Moment:

I think the goal of this article is understanding literacy and who taught it to us. We all have had different sponsors and different experiences from those sponsors causing us all to be different. I think I am currently going through different kinds of literacy because in college, teachers had limited us to certain types of requirements.