Original Paragraphs: Sponsors who facilitate are often referred to in student narratives as a positive figure if not a hero that saved their love for reading and writing. They give students the necessary materials needed to understand. In Alexander’s text she explains that students who wrote themselves to be child prodigies had sponsors who “were read to by parents, visited libraries… [had] access to text at home, and could not remember a time they did not know how to read or write… narratives highlighted joyful moments when reading and writing were fun, personal, and social” (619). Students who had access to the knowledge, tools, and skills needed would often succeed. They also end up having a positive overall attitude towards literacy. This is true not only in child prodigy narratives but almost all narratives with a sponsor as a facilitator. In Madison Derosa’s literacy narrative “Road to Failure” she talks about her Title One teacher Mrs. Ouimette who “was super nice. [She] honestly didn’t mind getting out of class for some time to read some books. In between books she’d let [them] make crafts or read [them] a book of [their] choice out loud. She tried her best to make learning fun” (1). She was teaching them what they needed to learn but still made the learning fun. She created a positive expirience around learning which made it engaging for students. Because the sponsor is willing to help teach and enforce information in a fun creative way it makes the experience more enjoyable.
Most the time sponsors as witholders don’t create a very positive moment for the sponsored since they are usually using some type of negative reinforcement to teach the student. In Alexander’s texts she talks about students who write essays viewing themselves as victims in literacy. This would be “Students [who] wrote about negative school based literacy experiences…[as] having a “masterpiece” ruined by a teacher’s notorious red ink,” Alexander goes on to to write about a boy Aaron who “said something inappropriate to another kid and [his] mom made him write as punishment… [he] would say that that incecident probably spurned [his] distaste for writing” (617). Witholders create a negative experience often embarrassing or discouraging a student from enjoying literacy. Similarly in Drew Wunderli’s narrative “Something from Nothing” he talks about how his teacher “Angel (… the Anti-Christ of [Drew’s] high school)” was ruining reading and writing for him (1). Wunderli says she left him “to figure out how to write at [his] grade level” (1). She wasn’t giving him the tools he needed and because he didn’t understand what she was teaching him he never had the chance to learn and felt lost. Because she wasn’t trying to engage Wunderli in learning he had no interest and since she wasn’t going to help him his feelings towards her and the subject became negative. He viewed her as an Anti-Christ blaming her for his lack of love for writing.
Revised:
Sponsors who facilitate are often referred to in student narratives as a positive figure if not a hero that saved their love for reading and writing. They give students the necessary materials needed to understand the current topic. In Alexander’s text she explains that students who wrote themselves to be child prodigies “were read to by parents, visited libraries… [had] access to text at home, and could not remember a time they did not know how to read or write… narratives highlighted joyful moments when reading and writing were fun, personal, and social” (619). Students who had access to the knowledge, tools, and skills needed would often succeed. Literacy was accessible to them allowing them to grow as much as they wanted. Because this is all introduced in a positive environment they also end up having a positive overall attitude towards literacy. If students don’t feel threatened by the environment, work, or teacher it makes learning fun and easy. This is true not only in child prodigy narratives but almost all narratives with a sponsor as a facilitator. In Madison Derosa’s literacy narrative “Road to Failure” she talks about her Title One teacher Mrs. Ouimette who “was super nice. [She] honestly didn’t mind getting out of class for some time to read some books. In between books she’d let [them] make crafts or read [them] a book of [their] choice out loud. She tried her best to make learning fun” (1). She was teaching them what they needed to learn but still made the learning fun. She created a positive experience around learning which made it engaging for students. Because the sponsor is willing to help teach and enforce information in a fun creative way it makes the experience more enjoyable.
Most the time sponsors as withholders don’t create a very positive experience for the sponsored since they are usually using some type of negative reinforcement to teach the student. In Alexander’s texts she talks about students who write essays viewing themselves as victims in literacy. Often times “Students [who] wrote about negative school based literacy experiences…[as] having a “masterpiece” ruined by a teacher’s notorious red ink,” and another student Aaron who “said something inappropriate to another kid and [his] mom made him write as punishment… [he] would say that that incident probably spurned [his] distaste for writing” (617). Witholders create a negative experience often embarrassing or discouraging a student from enjoying literacy. Similarly in Drew Wunderli’s narrative “Something from Nothing” he talks about how his teacher “Angel (… the Anti-Christ of [Drew’s] high school)” was ruining reading and writing for him (1). Wunderli says she left him “to figure out how to write at [his] grade level” (1). She wasn’t giving him the tools he needed and because he didn’t understand what she was teaching him he never had the chance to learn and felt lost. Because she wasn’t trying to engage Wunderli in learning he had no interest and since she wasn’t going to help him his feelings towards her and the subject became negative. He viewed her as an Anti-Christ blaming her for his lack of love for writing. Angel was a withholder because she wasn’t giving Wunderli the help he needed. The feedback he received was bad grades but he didn’t understand why and Angel wasn’t going to help him. In cases where the teachers motive isn’t giving the student the tools they need to succeed the students often learn to hate literacy.
ENG110i
