Devlin 1 Rebecca Devlin Dr. Rieman 1103 Honors September 15, 2011 Sponsor Me!

Self-Assessment: I believe in this paper I accurately portrayed my journey to literacy. I think that I have clearly showed my positive sponsors and negative sponsors. In the future I will work on telling more about my writing skill as well. Though I do not really have any special memories I could draw information from. I believe that though I did learn how to write, it is not my most important literary aspect. In Debora Brants article Sponsors of Literacy, Brant defines a sponsor of literacy as, any 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 (Brant 166). This seems like a very broad definition to me; though I understand how it could be like this. I my experience my sponsors have always been people close to my education. Brants definition of literacy sponsors is so large that essentially I could included my whole school, system from elementary to high school as a sponsors of my literacy. I had many sponsors in my elementary school years. These were mostly positive sponsors. I was never that fond of reading in elementary school. In fact I refused to learn how to read until I was in the third grade. I think I did this because I wanted to be different from my twin sister. Up untilthe third grade I avoided the unknown at all costs. This frustrated my mom and my teachers and they endlessly tried to convince me to want to learn how to read. I guess my seven-year-old self never saw the point in reading book when there

Devlin 2 were pictures in them. I stayed like this until I flunked down into remedial reading. I was in a small reading group full of not very smart or nice people. The teachers name was Mrs.Bennett and she could see though my act very well. Mrs. Bennett knew that I had the potential to read and the correct sponsors, unlike so many of the students in the class with me. Mrs. Bennett, along with my mom, was one of the main positive sponsors in my journey to literacy. I had a greatmom who was constantly pushing me to learn how to read and write better. I still persisted and refused tolearnhow to read better. This wenton until Mrs. Bennett gave our small group a paper book to read in the fourth grade. The fourth grade! What were we doing reading paper books in the forth grade! I was shocked, I felt asif my education had just made a huge leap backwards. We were not little kids anymore, we were forth graders! This was not how I wanted my life to be.These kids in the class with me were not my kind of friends. After this realization I decided to start reading more often and on my own. I asked a friend of mine what I should do and he suggested reading the dictionary. I was not that stupid. I instead picked the hardest book I could from my science teachers bookshelf and started to read. I still remember the whole plot to My Name Is Regina; my first book that I read on my own. It was a hard read; as I was not used to the level of comprehension needed; but it was interesting. The book was about an American colonial girl whose family lived near Indian Territory. One day the Indians stole her from her family and she was forced to adapt to a new life. She went from hating the people who captured her, to almost forgetting where she came from. Once I finished that book I started to ask my friends what books they were reading and I read some of those too. I especially like reading books about Greek myths. I read several series about the Greek gods and fictional stories that have an ancient

Devlin 3 Greek plot. This newfound fascination of reading was discovered by my mom and Mrs. Bennett who quickly had me tested to see what my reading comprehension was. On the day of the test I was so scared that I would be stuck in the stupid kids class forever. When I was taking the test and after I was sure that I would fail. But when my mom got the test result back she said that I had placed into advanced reading! Advanced reading! It was the first time I had ever been above average. I was so happy. And it was just because I started to read more often. In a way I became my own sponsor by pushing my self to learn how to read. I began to read more often andwith greater vigor. I still love the books thatI learned to read with in elementary school;mainly any book that has to do with Greek mythology or Calvin and Hobbes. These book topics have stayed with me through all my years of schooling. I still buy Calvin and Hobbes and I just finished Edith Hamiltons, Mythology. Later in my schooling I started to work at the local library stacking books. This was great job for me as I have held onto that drive to read and learn new things. Every time I stake the junior fiction section of the library I pass all the books I learned to read with and I am filled with a sense of accomplishment. Even now I strive to become a better reader. I read any book I want, though I do set aside some time for a more challenging book. For example over last Christmas break I read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This book, at first, was not a book that interested me. I mainly pickedit up because I knew that if I read it I would improve my comprehension. Now I read this book once every year because I love it. Over the summer I read The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. I did not like this book, but I did learn some interesting writing styles. I try to do these harder and more challenging books whenever I have the free time or the patience to struggle over them.

Devlin 4 Then there are the other literacies I have learned. I know how to read and write in Standard English as well read mathematical terms and use the Dewy decimal system. Though in all these types of literacies I am proficient, though I would also like to learn how to read and write in other languages. This skill has eluded me, as my foreign language department at my high school was not the most supportive. My Spanish teacher expected me to teach myself Spanish with enough success that I would pass his difficult tests. In that way I could not successful learn Spanish because of thus negative sponsor. Though I do want to learn how to speak in a foreign language, I cannot say that I did not have the potential to learn. I believe that the sponsors of literacies are very important, but so is your belief in yourself. Without self-motivation, even the most supportive sponsors are not able to help you.

Rebecca, Your journey from reluctant reader to advanced reader and the role you played in making that transition is quite interesting. You do a good job here of addressing the role that reading played in your life and how it still figures prominently. Here are some thoughts to consider as you revise: You know that the prompt asks you to address writing as well as reading. If you dont have as many memories about it as you do of reading, maybe think about why now. You also have your present relationship with writing to consider. See marginal comments for other ideas. On a surface level, please visit this WRC site and read a bit about semi-colons. They can be easy to overuse. Heres the link: http://wrc.uncc.edu/Resources-for-Students

Devlin 5 Finally, be sure to include a works cited page when you cite anything in your paper. The highlighted sections are places where you have some surface issue that needs attention.