sponsor my literacy draft 2

8/8/2019 Sponsor My Literacy Draft 2

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Kylie Niemand

Professor Jan Rieman

English 1103

September 17th, 2010

Self-assignment: After working with the peer editing, I had a better understanding

of what I should do with my paper. I found it very helpful to get the opinions of my

classmates. I did edit my paper and feel that it can be made even shorter but I’m not sure

what to cut out and what to keep. Overall I think my paper does a good job of describing

me and my literacy history.

Sponsor My Literacy

Deborah Brant has described sponsors 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” Brandt 407).

Everyday literature is presented to me in a variety of forms through different medias.

Throughout my life I have had to overcome many difficulties associated with reading and

writing and my ability to understand the literature at hand. My literacy practices have

been positively and negatively influenced by a variety of people all adding their own

personal touches into helping me learn and improve. Without certain sponsors, I would

not be where I am today with my literacy skills.

Living in different countries has allowed me to develop my literacy skills in

accordance to the cultures and languages I have been surrounded by. I was born in South

Africa and remained there until I moved to America at the age of six. Being raised in a



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bilingual household where my family spoke both Afrikaans and English, was a very

enriching experience for me. In my opinion there is nothing quite like Afrikaans culture,

especially their humor. Unlike America where most stories we know come from books

and novels, in South Africa stories are spread more by mouth than literature. Coming

from that culture, my earliest literacy experiences derived more from hearing stories

rather than reading them. When I moved to America however, that all changed.

Transitioning from South Africa to America was one of the most difficult

experiences of my life. I entered my first American school in the first grade, and from

day one, I felt out of place with my literary skills. I had come from a world of multiple

languages and was rapidly thrust into a world solely of English. I quickly found out that I

was behind compared to my classmates; while most of the kids in my class learned to

read and write in kindergarten, I never attended the equivalent in South Africa. I knew

how to spell a few words but discovered that some of my spelling was wrong such as

‘colour’ in America was ‘color’. I began to understand how my spelling was different and

needed improvement, but greatly believed that I could read just as well as the other kids,

unfortunately it turned out to not to be the case.

The first book I can remember attempting to read front to back was a tiny

storybook about two people getting married. As a mother’s day gift, my entire class took

turns reading a book in front of a recorder so that we could present our mother with a tape

of our spectacular reading abilities. I took my book and practiced reading it over and over

the entire week before we recorded. I wanted to make my mother proud and wanted to

prove to myself that I could be as good as the American kids. When time came to record,

I continuously stumbled over words and often had to restart the sentence, however I was



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determined to finish. I can still remember how elated I was when I completed the story,

feeling as if I had just won the biggest marathon in the world. However the feeling did

not last long. My reading skills were weak contrasted against classmates and my ever

lovely South African accent did not help the matter. Upon reading, I would pronounce

words differently and immediately receive ridicule from fellow students who were all too

eager to point out my wrong pronunciation. At that young age, the most traumatic thing

that could happen to me was being made fun of, which became my life. Day in and day

out, I was constantly teased for having an accent and doing things differently from the

American way. To make matters worse, I was forced by the school to work with a

reading teacher twice a week. I would have to leave class in the middle of an assignment

to go to an office and practice my reading and pronunciation. The special attention I was

receiving by the reading teacher gave the kids in class more ammunition to tease me. The

ridicule I received in school led me to adopt an American accent and despise reading in

every form, as I became embarrassed by my inabilities.

I was constantly and unwillingly practicing my reading both inside and outside of

school. My mother was determined to get me to be comfortable with reading and writing

did everything in her power to help me. Almost every night, my mother would pull out

Hooked on Phonics and we would sit at the table and play the game. I remember bawling

my eyes out because I kept getting some of the activities wrong, fortunately my mother

was always there to comfort and encourage. Her commitment to helping me improve my

literacy skills persuaded me to work on my literacies individually as well; I wanted to

make my parents proud. I decided that by forcing myself to write book reports I could

advance my reading and writing skills. I would read a different book each month and



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upon completing the story, I would write a page or two describing the book and the main

events. I started to feel better about my reading abilities in the seclusion of my own room

but in class I still felt weak with my literacy capabilities when compared to my friends.

By the time I entered middle school, reading became an acquaintance of mine;

still not a friend but no longer an enemy as compared to years prior. I went from reading

books with pictures in them in elementary school, to books with no pictures at all by the

end of sixth grade. The transition to harder books was a gradual process which enabled

me to adjust to the more difficult level of reading we were required to do in middle

school. I was given easy access to libraries and computers both in school and at home.

School would have me read articles online which introduced me to the wonderful world

of literature the internet has to offer. However all this was about to change.

By the start of eighth grade, my family had just moved to a new town and yet

again, my world was twisted upside down. I detested the school I went to and had a very

difficult time fitting in and making friends and instead turned to the world of literature.

My lunch period would be spent in the library and during free time you could always

catch me with a book. I started to enjoy reading as it gave me access to a variety of

information and stories. My house was constantly overflowing with books and after

finishing a great novel my parents would often share the book with me. I started pushing

myself to read harder and more complex stories with intricate language. I became

immersed in the stories I read and soon developed a passion for reading and consequently

writing. By the start of high school I felt confident with my literacy abilities due to my

eagerness to read, learn and expand my literacy skills.



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My freshman year of high school greatly affected my literacy talents, as I was

forced to read classic pieces of literature and write more essays than I had before. The

assignments were hard but the way Mr. Bramanti taught the class and made the readings

so easy to understand, excited me as my love for reading grew. By freshman year, I was

reading a new book almost every week. I loved the attention I received from Mr.

Bramanti when he asked me about my new book and how I liked the previous. When it

came time to write an essay, I felt confident enough that I could write a great paper due to

Mr. Bramanti’s class teachings. He gave me all the tools and knowledge I needed to

research, organize, and write my essay. I was determined to live up to not only the

expectations of my parents and teacher but that of my own.

During my sophomore year of high school I moved to Charlotte and once again,

everything changed. In my previous school, I had not taken any honors classes but when I

moved down to North Carolina I found the regular level classes at Mallard Creek High to

be too easy for me. I began taking honors classes and the following year I took Advanced

Placement courses. I enjoyed getting a good grade when I knew I deserve it through the

hard work I had done. In the regular level classes I did not feel that satisfaction. My

junior year AP English class focused on composition of literature more than the literature

itself. For the first time in school, I focused on the writing aspect of literacy more than

the reading. My teacher Ms. Cogburn taught the class in such a way that it was actually

enjoyable to learn because we continuously used visual aspects throughout the lessons.

My entire junior year, we only read one book in class. Taking the focus of reading and

literature greatly helped me to refine my skills and learn how to be analytical and



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thoughtful in my writing. However the attention soon shifted back to reading my senior

year.

Senior year was a rollercoaster for me as I left my family behind in Charlotte and

moved back up to Massachusetts to attend my previous high school. I spent the entire

year living with my best friend and his family because I detested Mallard Creek and was

determined to spend my senior year happy, surrounded by friends. I took AP English yet

again, and to this day, it has been the hardest class I have ever taken. From our summer

assignments to our final book, I never stopped reading in that class. Over the course of

the year I read over twenty books both inside and outside of the classroom. I had to work

harder in that class than in any of my other classes because the literature we were

presented with and asked to analyze and interpret had so much depth to it that a simple

glance through would not cover it. Every book I read, with the exception of one, had

some particular interest to me which captivated me to do well on the assignments. My

teacher Ms. Goldberg taught in such an intense, intimidating, and insightful way that

during class I felt unsure and frazzled by the literature, but by the end of a book, her

fanatical teaching methods would pay off and I would gain an intense knowledge of the

literature. She pushed me to improve my writing with every essay by revisiting

everything I wrote and forcing me to read it over and over while critiquing myself on

what I did wrong, so that I could learn and develop my skills for the next essay. I had an

essay due almost every week; the constant work forced me to continuously improve my

skills and think of new and innovative ways to read and understand while at the same

time write in new methods that better expressed my ideas.



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From the insecure girl who was embarrassed by her reading skills and was

mortified by the thought of reading aloud in class, I now am confident in my literacy

capabilities. I still have difficulty with grammar and spelling but I am more certain with

my literacy abilities than I ever thought would be possible. If not for my mother and

father and their constant encouragement to read, write and practice, I believe I would still

detest reading. They always made literature available for me and took extra steps to help

me become more convinced in my ability to read and write. Out of all the teachers I have

had in and out of school, Mr. Bramanti, Ms. Cogburn and Ms. Goldberg affected me

more than any other teachers had because of the personal touch they added in their

lessons and the enthusiasm they had each and every day in class. I have had literacies

presented to me in a variety of forms from a plethora of people, each teaching me

something different about the world and the way we all communicate within it. Although

I had trouble in the beginning, I am proud of the way I have developed my literacy skills

and the ability I now have to read, write and understand various forms of literature.

Thank you sponsors, without you I would not be where I am today.



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Works Cited

Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” Writing about Writing : A College Reader . Eds.

Wardle and Downs. Boston: Bedford, 2011. 406-26. Print.

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