Deborah Brandt's 'Sponsors Of Literacy'

He was quite lucky to be moved from a planation slave to a city slave. Although Frederick had hated his life as a plantation and thought that being a city slave would be better he came to realize that city slave owners could be just as evil and cruel to their slaves. Since the slave owners who lived in the city had neighbors and had a reputation to uphold when they whipped or beat the slaves they would be more secretive about it in order not to have to deal with a bad reputation. Frederick recalls that in his time as a city slave that the house that was directaly across from them lived slave owners who were unnecessarily cruel to their slaves. The slave owners would beat the slave and the slaves would have pieces gone from their head, head neck and shoulders. Frederick states that he saw the slave owners beat them with cow skin and would draw blood from the blow (p.21.) Fredericks slave owners weren’t as cruel to him as the slave owner who lived close to him. Although his slave owners were not as cruel to him by whipping they were still hurting him not physically but mentally. The slave owners told Frederick that the idea of slaves wanting to learn to read or write would possibly lead to the enslavement of whites and the freedom of blacks and that it would cause the slave to become hard to keep. Frederick says “These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering”

In Sponsors of Literacy, Brandt argues that individual and group literacy stem directly from sponsors in the form of role models, educators, media, and many more sources of language and communication acquisition. Brandt claims that sponsors, through intentional or unintentional actions, influence an individual’s ideologies and relationship with literacy. Through the interviews which Brandt conducted in the 1990s with people of varying literary and sponsorship experiences, Brandt discovered that an individual’s access to literacy opportunities: libraries, computers, or traditional education, had a monumental impact on their career, ability weather political or economic upheavals, and capacity to function profitably in society. Sponsors distribute

“Sponsors of Literacy”, written by Deborah Brandt, is an academic journal article that attempts to define literacy sponsorship, as well as connect literacy as an economic development to literacy as an individual development. Brandt studied literacy sponsorship by conducting 100 interviews from a varied group of people all born in the same century. Brandt concludes that a literacy sponsor is anyone or anything that influences a person to read or write, weather it be in a positive or negative way. A literacy sponsor usually benefits in a direct or indirect way. Brandt also found that there are three factors that influence people’s literacy: stratification of opposition, competition and reappropriation. In order to show stratification of opposition,

In Deborah Brandt’s essay “Sponsors of Literacy,” Brandt describes the process of how people become literate, the effect of their experiences, and influential people on their learning. The term that Brandt uses frequently to describe those who have a profound influence on a child’s learning is “literacy sponsor.” She defines literacy sponsors as, “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,” (Wardle 46). Essentially, Brandt is saying that every literate person has had the support of a person or idea that inspires their desire to read and write. The concept of sponsorship can be applied to fields outside of reading and writing too. There are sponsors of science, sponsors of art, and sponsors of medicine. Similarly, these sponsor help students learn to understand the principles of their individual fields. This paper focuses on the sponsorship of first-year and second-year University of Minnesota Medical School students from the Nu Sigma Nu fraternity. Data was collected through interviews with four students from this fraternity. The guiding question for this research paper was, “Can Brandt’s definition of literacy sponsor be applied to other fields of learning, such as the medical field.” If it is found that the definition for sponsorship can be applied to the medical field, then sponsorship can be applied to other

He did not provide them with anything and put them through hard labor. Frederick Douglass’s goal was to help free as many slaves as he could. He learned from the master's wife how to read and after taught the slaves with him how to read and passed it on. Frederick Douglass stated, “ Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”

Frederick Douglass is known for being a free black man in America during the strictest rules against freedom for black men. Douglass explains in his narrative how he came across the idea of freedom, and how he worked to achieve it. He starts out with how he was able to learn how to read, but before he could even come close to mastering his education, the opportunity had been snatched from him. However, Douglass was not going to give up without a fight, and throughout his slavery career he found several different ways to master reading. Throughout his life, Douglass began speaking out against the cruelty of slavery and joined the political abolitionists to help put a stop to the torture. Frederick used his skill with writing to help spread the

Literacy plays a huge role in many people’s lives everyday, whether it is learning how to read and write for the first time or writing a five-page essay for the hundredth time. We experience literacy differently and have our very own unique stories on how it has impacted our lives and had made us who we are today. It is an essential aspect that I use in my everyday life, such as in relationships, daily interactions with others, and learning. It has become such a powerful aspect and human right in which it allows one to speak his/her mind and in some cases express their opinion to the world. My personal literacy history has shaped me into who I am today because without my experiences I would not have been able to gain the confidence and

The idea of Sponsors of Literacy was originally proposed by Deborah Brandt in her 1998 article, “Sponsors of Literacy.” In her article, she argued that Sponsors of Literacy include people, institutions, and circumstances; they vary based on the person’s experiences and surroundings. Sponsors of literacy are essential in everyone’s life due to the powerful role they demonstrate on the long run. In my own reading and writing experience, my sponsors of literacy were my childhood memories, my school, and the various resources I’ve used to accomplish an outstanding Multi-Genre Research Paper.

Literacy plays a huge role in my daily life. Every single day I read and write. Whether it’s writing an email or reading a text message, class assignment, discussion board, etc. My literacy journey is unique because I have had different experiences. As a result, this is how my literacy journey has let me to be the reader that I am.

hope…at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read." (p.946) Frederick stayed with

Frederick didn’t know his father and he saw his mom 5 times in his life. As a slave he worked all day and slepton dirt floor in potato sacks to keep warm. Frederick was sent to Maryland when he was 8 years old . He was self-educated he learned how to read on his own and taught other slaves to read also. Frederick worked and got 6 dollars a week and had to give 3 dollars to his master. this did not make him happy.When Frederick Was 18 when he planned his escape From Baltimore to New York

Nevertheless, Frederick would always take a book with him, whenever he had to run errands, Thus, giving him a chance to learn. In fact, he always found time to get a lesson in before his return from his errands. In addition, Frederick, was a clever young man, whereas he would bring extra bread with him " and give some to these hungry little urchins"( Pg 40) and trade it for lessons. On the other hand, when Frederick was twelve years old, though the thought of thinking to himself of being a slave for life; in fact, it began to weigh

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey (also known as the famous Frederick Douglass) was an intelligent African American slave in the 1800’s. Even though slavery was quite common during this time, Frederick stood out like a diamond in a pile of rocks. Unlike other slaves, he taught himself how to read and write on his free time, despite the fact that he could be severely punished. Most slaves thought this harsh labor was inhumane and cruel, yet did nothing about it. However Douglass took it as a life lesson and used it to fight for his freedom. After being held as a slave, Frederick’s world turned upside down. Slavery led him to become an passionate abolitionist, successful writer and an independent human being. Frederick

It wasn’t until Frederick was sent to Mr. Covey, that Frederick both lost his spirit and regained it stronger than ever. Frederick a man who could still feel the pain of his first whipping, fought back against his master and not only held his own, but drew blood from his opponent. He was never whipped again and escaped slavery on September 3rd 1838. After which, Frederick used his found knowledge to start a very successful pro-abolitionist newspaper, The North Star. Frederick made a significant difference using literacy to write the gruesome details of slavery emphasizing the fact that he wrote it himself, forever proclaiming his

Literacy is defined as being literate, that is, being able to read and write in a language. My personal experience with literacy began at an early age, at the age of 4 when I began to sit and read words and letters in the back of my mother’s car. Soon enough, she would bring me a magazine called “Majed” which, in the 90’s, was a popular magazine. With this, I began even more interested in reading and writing and reviewed every word in the magazine associated with each of the short pictured stories. It was the first memory I deeply recall of literacy and it was what laid the foundation for my personal love of reading and writing. The methodology used for this is an interview. There are three interviews which are analyzed and brought together in the form of a narrative. This narrative serves to better explain the emotions and thoughts that the interviewees had about the idea of literacy.