Archive for year: 2015

My first memories of reading and writing was when I was about five years old. I was in kindergarten and my mother would sit with my sister and I in the living room, she would help me with my ABC’s. She did not know any English at the time. She would sit with us and repeat the alphabet letters. I remember we would go over them every night before bed. My father would be watching the Television and my sister, mom and I would be in the table going over the alphabet letters.

My parents both came from Mexico at a very young age but neither of them attended school here in the United States. My father only finished High School in Mexico and my mother only finished the fifth grade. My mother always mentions to us that she practically learned English along with my sister and I. “I became increasingly frustrated, at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr. Elijah Muhammad” (Malcolm X, pg 1). I feel that this was a type of frustration my mom felt but not speaking English. She would practice reading and writing with us. Growing up in a Spanish speaking home was a bit of a challenge. It was a challenge because when I went to kindergarten that was my first time learning English. It was a bit tough at first because I didn’t really have anyone to help me out in my homework I have one sister but she was only one year older than me, this is not much of a difference. I knew that through my school career my parents would always support me but there was not much they could do to help me when I needed help in school. They supported me by signing my up for afterschool tutoring but other than that there wasn’t much they could do.

When I really started to learn the importance of literacy would be my freshman year of high school.  My High school was my sponsor in literacy. When I got to high school that is when I started to realize how important literature was. I remember picking up book, or reading the books that where assigned to us such as authors by Gary Soto (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Soto) and actually enjoying the book. Enjoying a book to read was a feeling that I had forgotten since maybe kindergarten. I was a feeling that I had forgotten. Many of the books that where by Soto where about teens and I felt it was something I enjoyed the most, also the fact that he is Mexican- American like myself. Many of the details in his book where thing that I saw around me, such as gangs and students dropping out of school. I felt that it was something I could relate to for the fact that it was happening around me. This was when I realized that I did not want to be like many students that I saw around me. I didn’t want to be one more teen drop out. This is when I realized how important Literacy was and even started to enjoy it more.  I enjoyed it so much that after that I would go to the library and pick up some books to read. I loved that feeling of picking up a book and not being able to stop reading it. I remember that sometime I would go to sleep till 2 am in the morning and I would anxious to read what would happen next. Many of my teachers always emphasize the importance or reading and writing. Even if it was not an English Class that I was taking. For example in Chemistry my teacher would make us write out our labs, of course none of us liked it, but she said it was very important to practice our literacy. Then the school made this policy to improve our literacy. Every day in our last class we had to read for the first 25 min of class, regardless of what class we where in.  I feel that this really helped me out and motivated me even more to improve my literacy. “This analysis of sponsorship forces us to consider not merely how one social group’s literacy practices may differ from another’s, but how everybody’s literacy practices are operating in differential economies, which supply different access routes, different degrees of sponsoring power, and different scales of monetary worth to the practices in use”( pg.172, Brandt). My school was on the schools that received the least amount of money. Mainly it was due to the low scores that we tested as well as school performance. So I came from a High School with very few privileges.

I feel that my school opened many doors for me, not only in the literacy aspect but everything in general. I learned to work with others and the importance of achieving a higher education. There was a time in which I felt that my school was failing me as my sponsor. According to Brandt in the article Sponsors of Literacy” They 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” (pg 167, Brandt). I feel that my school expected me to go to college. To be another statistic of a higher amount of students going attending college.  When the test scores where low our principle became really strict. He was treating us as if we were in prison. My junior year he had a strict policy and enforced securities around campus, after there had been rumors that students from other High Schools where coming in to start fights.

He started a champagne in which he didn’t want boys to wear baggy jeans so he starts making posters and posting them all over the school. Those who did wear baggy pants would be punished whether going back home to change, or being thrown in OCS for the day. Then he made a policy where we had to have our ID card on display, from the waist up. It could be pined in our shirt or in a lanyard. The ID card had to have your picture showing and it had to be from that year. As we enter campus in the morning they would check to see if we had our Id card on display. I remember once forgetting my id and I had an important final that day. It was my first time forgetting my id card but they did not care they send me to OCS and I missed my test. I felt bad because I had never forget my id card and I missed an impotent Econ test. I feel that my education was no longer priority in my school. That we just had to follow directions. Some of my teachers agreed with the Principle they would tell us is we miss class because we don’t have our ID card it was our fault and we would not be able to make up any work or exams that where given that day. There were other teaches such as my chemistry teacher Mrs. Devine who was upset with the rules. She told us our education was more important than a stupid ID card. She said if we ever end up in OCS because of that to call her cell phone and she would personally leave class to go get us. I remember she once went to pick up a student and the security guard was very upset. They had a huge argument because the policy said that the student was to remain in OCS for forgetting his ID card, and a day later she had to meet up with the principle because she had broken a rule. One thing that I recall that really upset me was when we were finishing up our last period, chemistry teacher was trying to go over the weekend homework when we were interrupted by one of the principles announcement in the speakers. In his announcement he talked about the enforced polices and how we needed to obey them or we could end up suspended if we had certain number of warnings previously. When he was done my techer said, ‘Did you noticed he said nothing about our education, about trying hard on the finals that are coming up or anything to motivate  us, and he interrupted important class time for that.” This really upset me and that is when I realized education was not a priority.  My education was no longer important to them, what mattered where sports and to look good as a school. This is when I started to feel that my school was in a way failing me. My education was not there priority. Even though I felt that my education was not a priority to them I still felt the need to pay my school back by attending college.  I attended Santa Maria High School. A school that was known for having very low literature Reading and writing scores in the Chasse Exams.  We were the school with the highest dropout rates in the area as well as with the most teen pregnancy. I knew that I didn’t want to be like that, I wanted to make a difference. I felt that even though at the time I felt my education was not a priority, they had given me all the told to succeed if I really wanted to. I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky. I read books late into the night, until I could barely keep my eyes open” ( pg.13, Sherman). I can feel Sherman’s frustration of wanting to succeed. I feel that coming from a school like that I attended, many of else felt this way.

So I challenged myself and took AP English classes. This is when I felt that my reading and writing started to change. I learned different styles of writing, and this is when started to enjoy writing. In this quote Murray explains the different types of writing. “We are autobiographical in the way we write; my autobiography exists in the examples of writing I use in this piece and in the text I weave around them. I have my own peculiar way of looking at the world and my own way of using language to communicate what I see” (pg 67. Murray”). I started to learn more and be engaged more in school. Being in AP class was different, besides the challenges of reading and writing at a higher level the atmosphere is different. You know that when you take an AP class all the students are there for the same reason. They all want to someday attend a college. This is when I saw student’s desperation to attend the best colleges. I remember my senior year in my AP English class all the students wanted the teacher to peer review there college essay for schools like Berkley and Harvard. My Senior I doubted myself, I was not sure if I wanted to attend a four year university or stay at a community college. I ended up coming to CSU Channel Islands because I felt the need to give back to my school by attending college.

In the summer they have booths for current students to ask questions to Alumni students in college. I have been part of this ever since I started college. I feel that this way I am giving back to my school, and helping other students who might not think college is for them.

 

 

 

Alexie, Sherman. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me.” The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading. Eds. Michael Dorris and Emilie Buchwald. Minneapolis: Milkweed, 1997.  Web. 29 May 2015. http://www.pasadena.edu/files/syllabi/stvillanueva_39386.pdf

 

Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” College Composition and Communication. 49.2 (1998): 165-185. Jstor. Web. 29 May 2015. (Available for download through Broome library database)

 

Murray, Donald M. “All Writing Is Autobiography.” College Composition and Communication. 42.1 (1991): 66-74. Jstor. Web. 29 May 2015. (Available for download through Broome library database)

 

Malcolm X. “Learning to Read.” The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Random House, 1964. Web. 29 May 2015. http://www.redwoods.edu/instruct/pblakemore/MalcolmX.pdf

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Soto)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Claudine Seriani

English 107

Dr. Clifton Justice

19 September 2015

Challenges Faced by Literacy

Alarm clock rings and it is currently 6 am on a Saturday morning and my sister and I wake up from a long night of staying up late from playing Mario Kart on the super Nintendo. We walk into my Grandmother’s room where we change the channel and turn on our favorite show, “Mamas Family”. This was the show I have waited all week for. The time when I would look out my window and see the sun barely shining through my blinds directly onto my bed. That is when I knew to wake my sister up to watch that show. Being in our silk matching set pajamas, Saturdays were days where my family and I had movie marathon days where all we did was sit in front of the television, and watch at least five movies rented from Blockbuster down the street.

Watching movies in English were very interesting to me because I didn’t speak the language. I would sit by the fireplace adjacent to the black Mitsubishi TV, in my all white painted living room and watch my favorite movie, “The Fifth Element”. I would gaze my eyes onto the screen with my Mom sleeping on the leather recliner, and my sister next to me chewing popcorn as loud as she could. Being very young, I never knew what the movie was about or what was said back and forth between each actor. I was somehow infatuated by a movie I could not understand. From beginning to end, I would laugh at the events that took place in the film, where I would look around the living room and see my Dad with his glasses off slouched on the couch in his plaid shirt and sweat pants laughing along with me. It was this very movie that interested me into films but in order to understand them, I had to learn how to read and write. Thus began the journey to literacy.

I grew up in a household where reading and writing was a high priority. My Father would always read the Sundays local newspapers and I remember holding it and looking at it without any knowledge of what was written. My Mom was heavily interested in cookbooks where she had one open all the time in the kitchen with flour dusted on the page when she was cooking lemon sponge cake. She would baking, and he was reading immensely while I sat there in my Grandma’s lap observing. In my bedroom, my Father assembled a vintage book shelf that had a rustic look to it where it had shelves full of different kinds of books. With the books arranged, there was also a variety of movies placed underneath them. I would go upstairs in my room and randomly pick up a book and look at the pictures and try to make a story from what I was seeing. On one of my random rummages, I came across a book that sparked my interest in literacy, “The Fifth Element”. I immediately noticed Bruce Willis on the cover of the paperback book, and I opened it but was upset that I couldn’t read it.

This was a start of a struggle because my parents would work from early in the morning all the way into 11 o clock at night. My Grandmother was the one who took care of my sister and I, and the only times I saw my parents were during the weekend. How was I supposed to learn literacy if the people who were teaching me were gone all the time? Not being able to read in English also made it that much harder for me to learn literacy. My parents would spend time with me on the weekends to teach me as much English as they could but it clearly wasn’t good enough for me to be speaking fluently. That is when they took different colored Post-its and placed it around the house with English words written on them. This meant that if I wanted to learn how to read and write, I had to stick to what I knew which was watching television. I had a very specific schedule that consisted of watching the “Teletubbies” and “Good Morning America” before school, and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” after school.

With the shows that I were watching, I was very interested by them but during the commercials I took the remote and tried changing the channel. This led to me accidentally hitting the captions options where letters appeared on the screen and I started to look at them. I then noticed that this looked similar to what was in the books and from that moment forward, I stared at nothing but the letters that were directly in front of me. My once red flower drawings that resembled my backyard were now covered by what I was writing on the television screen. Every time I saw my parents they taught me what each word meant and what letters made up words in English. They would first write it in Babylonian, then I would copy it in English with the help of my Father. This was finally helping me understand a little bit of what was happening in my television programs. By the end of each day, I had pages worth of words written down on my art pad where I then started to pronounce it out loud. Each time I would learned new words, I would go back to watching the Fifth Element and see if I understood it any better. With the help of constantly watching movies in my household, more films were making sense to me to the point where I could finally make up some words inside the books on the shelves. Of course this was months of progress being made, but I finally understood why my parents kept pushing reading and writing on me. It was because I needed it not only for school, but to communicate to those around me.

With the progress being made, it was approaching Christmas time. I finally was starting to understand English and with my writing slowly developing, it was time to make a list for Santa. I was sitting there in my fuzzy green reindeer pajamas while sitting in my Mom’s lap where we were right next to the Douglas fir tree that gave off that fresh pine scent. The illuminating white lights hugged the tree with a white angel sitting on the top of it. We were sitting in the living room where I was surrounded by the unwrapped gifts for other family members around me. She then asked me, “What do you want from Santa?” I hesitated but then I looked at the television and I then started writing down what I wanted. It was the first time I could understand what I was writing and what it meant. Looking back at it now, it is the simple task of being able to write, that make a huge influence on children’s life. Flash forwarding 20 years later, I cannot imagine where I would be without my parents pushing me to learn how to read and write. Of course their absence created a difficult road to literacy, but it was them who I considered what is called a “sponsor”.

Deborah Brandt, a social researcher of mass literacy and learning literacy defines sponsorship as” Figures who appear in people’s memories of literacy who can be older relatives, teachers, or anyone who serves as a powerful leader that initiates the process of reading and writing (167). This can be interpreted in many different ways whether it be in a positive or negative connotation. When first reading through the article “Sponsors of Literacy”, I was convinced that a sponsor was someone I looked up to that taught me how to read. I concluded that a sponsor was similar to a mentor that teaches one how to be literate. However when analyzing the stories told within the article, I determined that even though a sponsor is present, that doesn’t necessarily mean it leads to the path of literacy. A sponsor serves as both the angel and devil sitting on one’s shoulder. A sponsor dictates whether one has the motivation to learn how to read and write, but also paves the path which is the struggle for one to become literate. I believe that literacy is mostly self-taught, but it is the one’s we look up to and the resources given that begin the process of literacy.

Without reading and writing, life is very limited. According to Katherine Hansen from quintcareers.com, says” More than 58 percent of jobs include hours of reading and writing” (Hansen, 1). In today’s society it is critical to have the ability to read and write, because if you want a job to make money, literacy is a requirement. Reading and writing go hand in hand but it all starts with determining who and what your sponsor is. Going back to when I was child, reading and writing was a constant struggle because I did not know how to do either. It shaped who I am today and determined what kind of work ethic I have as a person.

Even though my sponsors are my parents who constantly told me that without reading or writing I would never be successful, no one took the time out of their day to teach me what I needed to know. I had the support and resources to learn how to read and write, but no mentor to sit down with me and really teach me. It was them who created such a delay in with my learning of reading and writing. Due to my personal experience with reading specifically, I disagree with Brandt because I was privileged as a child, who was middle-class and went to a private school but it took me many years to master reading and writing. In fact, I was significantly behind than those whose were economically poor, to a point where I almost got held back. I was a child with no one taking the time to teach me what I needed to know which put me in a situation where teachers had to speak with me separately because I could not grasp any content, especially when it came to the topic of reading.

According to Dictionary.com, “Reading is the action or skill of reading written or printed matter silently or aloud” (Dictionary.com, N/A). When thinking about one’s daily routine, reading is involved in about every single task one completes throughout the day. For example, reading signs, logos, watching television ads, looking for songs on an IPod, restaurants, reading labels, and buying certain products for one’s personal use all involves reading. Imagine living a life where one couldn’t read and being unable to buy what brand they want because he or she cannot read. Imagine not being able to use a key board, because you don’t know what letters mean what and you don’t know what letters make up what words.

With the many movies I have watched constantly, there was one in particular from my childhood that really related back to the importance of literacy. This movie was called “Holes”. There was a character named “Zero”, was in the juvenile detention camp where he didn’t have the ability to read. Due to him being illiterate, he ended up getting arrested because without reading one is limited to what they can do with their lives. However “Caveman” played by Shia Labeouf, taught Zero how to read where long story short, they both ended up leaving the juvenile detention and turned their life around. In this case, “Caveman” was Zero’s sponsor because he was the one who influenced him how to read and began the interest in Zero wanting to learn how to read and write. This is a prime example of a sponsor because Caveman influenced Zero to read, but also created internal conflict within himself because Caveman made it difficult for Zero to learn.  As Brandt states, “Social economic status effects how one becomes literate” (169-170). If Zero had been literate, he could have made better choices and not have ended up in juvenile detention where all he was used for was digging holes. With him being literate, he was able to get himself and Caveman out of juvenile detention where he continued his journey of literacy.

Unlike Zero however, my journey was a bit different as I was getting older. Aside from reading, writing was an immense struggle for me. I would avoid writing in school because I wrote very poorly where nothing was coherent, it was just random words that I had no idea their meaning on paper. This was a struggle that carried all throughout my high school career. Even writing a five paragraph essay was very difficult, until I started writing for fun. When I was in high school I started writing about the events that I experienced throughout each day. I would step by step write about how I was feeling about a certain situation, followed by a prediction of what the next day might be like. The first journal entry was not grammatically correct and never made any sense. Donald Murray, a prize winning journalist and author of several books about the art of writing wrote an article, ” All Writing is Autobiography” where he demonstrates, “I would write constantly about my personal experiences to further advance my reading and writing skills” (Murray, 73). Like him, I began documenting as much as could from my personal life.

As time went on, I bought a book that was called “English for Dummies”. The more research I conducted about writing, the better I was becoming. Being that English was never my favorite class, I never bothered to learn about it. This took me back to what my parents said about literacy, and I wanted to change the way I was reading and writing. I dreaded reading but started to find a passion for it when my writing started to change. Heading into college, I made it an assignment to go back and edit all my journal entries I wrote in high school. At this point I was an efficient writer because of all the papers I needed to write were constant practice. I was now in love with writing and couldn’t go a day without either reading or writing. My knowledge of vocabulary grew and I was writing ten page papers easily without any difficulties.

Referring back to what said about reading and writing going hand in hand, the more I was reading, the better my writing was becoming. In the article, “The Joy of Reading and Writing” written by Alexie Sherman who is a poet and filmmaker said,” Superman comics is what had me interested in reading and it was a way I learned how to read” (11). He explained his journey of literacy which was similar to mine. Since television served as a teacher for me, I had to build upon that which wasn’t much to work with. That is why I started reading books about writing and started writing about my personal experiences. My entire life was being recorded where certain events became my main topic of writing. I was acquiring knowledge of my personal life and conducting it into my writing.

A sponsor I believe is a double-ended sword, where it can progress one’s ability to read and write, but also slows them down. The American Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X, was not the same person he was when he was assassinated. In fact, he was brought up on charges of burglary which landed him 10 years in prison. Malcolm was illiterate when starting his sentence, but was a changed man when he was out of prison. His method of learning how to read and write was discussed in his autobiography “Learning to Read” where he deliberated, “I sat down and would copy every word in the dictionary until I learned what they all meant” (Malcolm X, 2). One could argue that prison was his sponsor, however it still is jail where criminals are convicted of crimes. Nobody wants their freedom to be taken away, yet that is what happened to Malcolm to become literate. It took being locked up with nothing better to do to learn how to read and write. There are many different methods of learning how to read and write and in this case, it was prison which is the worst place someone can be in to educate him on reading and writing.

I understood why my parents told me what they did. If they didn’t discuss how important literacy is, I wouldn’t have the motivation to learn. Even though they said many statements about literacy, I still don’t understand why neither took the time to teach me when they taught my sister. They made me struggle throughout elementary school and always was behind because they never taught me. Sparking an interest and teaching are two complete opposite tasks. However, because I had resources to self-teach, it still was very difficult to learn literacy. It was because of them that I loved movies which led me to reading but it was them who also made me struggle because I taught myself.

My literacy skills were built upon television as Alexie’s was built on Superman comics. I believe that it is the little things in life that spark a personal interest, which drives one to become better in a certain area. That area for me was reading and writing. Something that I hated and was never proficient at, became something I couldn’t live without. Literacy is not something we are born with, yet in today’s society we use reading and writing in our everyday life, that we forget who and what taught us to become literate in the first place. Having a sponsor is the first step when becoming literate because as a child, but soon realize it is those exact people who make it that much harder to learn how to read and write.

Coming to an end, I realize that as I get older, I now understand the challenges I faced when learning reading and writing. I believe that literacy is not just about those two aspects, but about the experiences it took to get there. I had a sponsor but it was because of them I struggled with reading and writing. I cannot say that I am unhappy with how things turned out because I taught myself how to read and write, and if I didn’t struggle, I would still be the same little girl who was illiterate and behind in class. Literacy should be important to everyone but not all can learn right away because of their sponsors. Till this very day, I still watch “The Fifth Element” as much as I can because it reminds me of what led me to literacy. It was because of this movie that created my passion for wanting to learn the ability of reading and writing. Literacy can be problematic, which is why we must continue to educate ourselves and others so that they do not have the same challenges in order to be successful.

References

Alexie, Sherman. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me.” The Most Wonderful

Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading. Eds. Michael Dorris and Emilie Buchwald. Minneapolis: Milkweed, 1997.  Web. 13 Sept. 2015.

 

Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” College Composition and Communication. 49.2

(1998): 165-185. Jstor. Web. 13 Sept. 2015.

 

Hansen, Katherine. “Writing Skills: More Important Than Ever on the Job. “Writing Skills: More       

Important Than Ever on the Job. Live Career, 20 June 2015. Web. 10 Sept. 2015.

 

Malcolm X. “Learning to Read.” The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Random House,

1964. Web. 12 Sept. 2015.

 

Murray, Donald M. “All Writing Is Autobiography.” College Composition and Communication.

42.1 (1991): 66-74. Jstor. Web. 14 Sept. 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1966, it was almost 350 years after the introduction of slavery in our country and 100 years after the end of the Civil War.  Rights were a touchy subject for both black and white Americans. People were scared for their families and for themselves, it was a dangerous time to be alive then. Riots, protests, murder, and discrimination was taking place especially in places in the South like Mississippi and Alamba. Organizations like the Ku Klux Klan made several attempts to stop the movement through violence, fear, and murder. Black African Americans started to be segregated to the northern ghettos and uprising started to occur. People didn’t take one breath for granted and fought with everything they had for their freedom.

Through reading the letters written to Congressman Bizz Johnson, I realized that the public was truly split upon the idea of the Civil Rights Movement. Most of my letters were written by women, but there was also a few written by men. Interestingly enough the responses to these letters by Bizz Johnson were dull and generic.

One of the letters was written by Tony Thornberry, who was a teacher in Jackson, Mississippi. He explained respectfully to Congressman Johnson that he did not think it was right that the Civil Rights movement was making students suffer from violence. Thornberry then went on to say that a young man named “Samuel Young was recently murdered and that Federal Marshalls should be there to defend the people”. Being a student I can see where Thornberry is coming from because one of the most important things is feeling safe at school.

Another letter that I read was from a young woman named Virginia Burris. The letters were pretty equally split upon the views of civil rights, Burris was not in support of it. She told the Congressman that the civil rights movement caused the realization of the race barrier and there is now prejudice because of it; when in fact the fight for civil rights began long before the government took action. Thr most powerful and offensive thing she said was, “I cherish my freedom to choose; if you will, the freedom to discriminate”.

The Civil Rights Movement was an era that brought people together to fight for what they believe in, it had powerful leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X. Many opposed them and tried everything they could to tear them down but they rose above to create a better life for future generations. These letters written to Bizz Johnson were an influential piece of the history at this time, they reflect the public’s views on one of the most important times in history.

*all references are made from the Bizz Johnson collection at CSU Channel Islands