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Mr. Borrero ENGL 1101 24 August 2012 Literacy Experience Starting In early childhood people are taught by their mothers and caretakers how to speak. When they begin school they use that knowledge to communicate with their teachers who show them how to read and write. After all this is accomplished one can only improve on their ability to be literate. It is important to become literate so that people can function in society efficiently. Most of my basic knowledge in literacy came from educational videos when I was a child. Starting with Barney I learned my ABCs, between that and my mom speaking to me using motions to apply words to their meaning I began speaking myself by using sentences. When I entered the first grade I began to read, the teacher would have different stations set up one being the reading corner. There we would read cute little stories about happy animals that had about four words on each page, if we ever struggled on a word the teacher helped us to sound out the word. These basic building blocks aided in improvement, by second grade I was reading short stories. From there I just read more and then had to write papers about what I had read. Freshman year was all about writing and mythology which are two of my worst and most despised subjects. An exception to that year was that we had to have a substitute teacher for a while who read To Kill A Mockingbird with us, she was not a nice teacher by far but she did a great job at explaining the book. Everyone seemed to hate it but I enjoyed it and ever since then it sparked my interest so I started to read more often. Speak was another favorite but as I read more I picked up on new vocabulary and different sentence structures I also saw different styles of writing. When I decided to take AP English junior year, I gained valuable information that helped

and is still helping to complete assignments in school. She taught us MLA format which I needed to complete various projects in that class along with the most important senior project. By being introduced to the romantics and fireside poets we were exposed to different philosophies and ideas to be able to approach problems less bias. My last teacher had us to complete poetry packet which consisted of reading and analyzing selected poems. We also researched a chosen author which helped us to draw conclusions as to what influenced their writings whether it be their background or interest. Senior project taught me valuable preparation and time management skills. It prepared me for college and I enjoyed it because I had a topic that interested me. After completition of my 7 page paper that was part of the project I learned that I write the best very late at night which was not a good thing when I woke up the next day. My overall experience has been obstructed by my lack of interest in writing. I enjoy reading and communicating but if it were not for school I would not have continued to. As a student in college I wish I would have been able to become a better writer so that I would not struggle with simple tasks such as personal experiences with literature. Past experiences has belittled my self-confidence in writing and sharing my work with others but as I become more knowledgeable I will continue to attempt at improvement. I believe that reading, writing, and composition are all vital parts in becoming successful but as to how well you are in those categories may determine many things in your life. Without creativity though it becomes so boring, I enjoyed projects where you made a model and incorporated writing by explaining your piece. My greatest triumph was finishing my senior project while multi-tasking with everything else in my life. That may have well been another reason I was not able to improve, I have always been busy with sports and other more interesting subjects such as math I did not really care about English it

was just a required class I had to take and now I reap the consequences. But as I get older I guess I enjoy reading for leisure and realize writing is not all that bad.

Kristen Williams ENG 1101 8/29/12 Project #1: Multi-Modal Literacy Narrative Part 2: Cultural Domain Analysis
Home Family: Mom Dad 3 Siblings Middle Class Family: Dad is a Superintendent for Construction, Mom is stay-at-home mom We are all from New York Mom and dad never graduated from college Although it was never pushed I always excelled in school Mom bought me books all the time when I was a child- I always was read Dr. Seuss I watched educational videos all of the time such as barney Dad encouraged me to always do better I was expected to always make good grades My mom would check to see that I did my homework every night and that I had read something Family used very casual vocabulary When I got older my family could not really help me write my papers or anything because thats what they struggled with also My aunts and uncles who live in NY say I talk funny when I go up but when I come back down people can tell Im from NY because of certain words I pronounce differently but like the girl in the article my papers cant lead Work Job: Cashier at Zaxbys, Waiter at local restaurant Used different terms to communicate with cooks Used proper English and presented myself well while waitressing Worked with a lot of uneducated people at Zaxbys- they were from poor families who talked using slang Ive did a numerous amount of little handy jobs for my grandparents and with my father in construction so I know a little about that so I can talk freely about it

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School School in NY encouraged reading in kindergarten so when I moved I was ahead Read Dr. Suess Interacted with other children who helped me Learned basics from barney As I got into middle school I was in GE classes so we wrote a lot same for high school We got a dictionary and had a vocabulary test every week to expand our knowledge but I never used it so it all was forgotten Read many books with different genres and styles We did creative writing, journal entries, as well as essays on topics Computers auto correct my errors The web gave me valuable information when researching Learned MLA format in middle school Learned how to analyze stories to get the full meaning Read different genres and styles of poems in 6th grade- we had to do a major project with a certain topic including 6 poems by an author and an analysis as well as write 6 different kinds of poems Most of my work was average as long as it followed guidelines I got a decent grade but it was never great- I always thought that was just opinion I wrote a 7 page paper senior year, it made me feel accomplished. I never knew I could write that much and do pretty good. We read a book freshman year with a substitute who liked to explain the meaning of the book and I enjoyed it.her name was Ms. Powell

Neighborhood / Community / Peers Childhood: Ithaca, NY Surrounded by many cousins- we were around the same age so we all talked to each other and felt comfortablethere wasnt any new words to learn because it was all the same vocabulary My boyfriends father spoke different than what I was used too so I tried to learn more Played sports softball mainly which influenced my life as a whole I played for 8 years so I picked up the slang Facebook-messaging friends- autocorrected myself which helped make me not look so foolish but also wasnt good because I never learned Church speeches- I would annunciate words correctly and learned to talk in a certain tone I babysat during church so I used baby talk when parents would come pick up their children I would have to act mature Peers were also in AG,GE classes- this encouraged me to stick with what I was doing and work with my friends on school work- the people I was around made it a good atmosphere I lived in the country so I picked up on a lot of slang- aint yall yonder cause yella I am attending college now- maturity Talk to text or siri couldnt understand me so I had to change my voice made me question if I really sound funny

5 When I was in elementary school wed get silly awards so I tried to do my best to win them. (it encouraged me to be better) We had computer lab all through K-12they would have learning games for us thatd we play when we would finish with our work Reading Shakespeare senior year was different because I wasnt used to it so it opened up my eyes In 4th grade we learned how to plan out a story to make it easier to put together We did bubble charts to compare topics so we wouldnt be biased we would first see the other side Currently taking a writing intensive course
Instructions (Part 2 Domain Analysis Narrative):

1. Home: As I was a child my mother would read to me and encourage me to speak. When I was a little older I started to watch Barney which taught me my ABCs. My mother stayed at home while dad worked so she had more time to help with my education. My parents enrolled me in Pre-school so that I could interact with other children and learn better. Since I am from New York my parents taught me to speak my mind. My parents grew up very poor so the vocabulary usually associated with that group is not very sophisticated and my parents never studied hard in English so there was not so much emphasis put on correct speech or more proper words to use. 2. Work: Work was the least influential in my development mainly because I only had 2 jobs in my life in the span of 2 years. Having a job at a fast food restaurant you work with a lot of uneducated people who never went to college, dropped out, or in high school. This affected my ability because I picked up on some slang. When orders needed to be changed I had to communicate with the cooks so I learned how to speak differently to people. This was also true for when I was a waitress, if you want to be successful and get tips you have to know what youre talking about and present yourself well through your speech. 3. School: School has had the biggest impact on my literacy and composition. As a child I was read to every day, we would do group activities to learn to interact with others learn how to follow the rules, and other basic techniques. Ever since I was in the third grade I was in higher level classes that pushed me to enhance my writing skills and encouraged to read every night. In middle school we had to complete reading logs which gave us consistency. When I got to high school it went from writing papers all the time to projects over the summer, lengthy page essays, and senior project. My senior year we had to write poetry packets which combined researching, writing, and reading. I am now in college and am still learning new things to further my education.

4. Neighborhood / Community / Peers: I grew up in New York where there were Amish people all around. I was surrounded by only family until I went to school. We all learned the same thing and occasionally read to each other. When I began to play sports we came up with all types of new words and talk about books we would read. This encouraged me to keep reading and do well in school so you can keep that social status of good student/nice girl/ good friend. Also Moving to a little southern rural area opened up opportunities to pick up on some southern slang and in softball you hear a lot of it. When MySpace and Facebook were created I would constantly be on it messaging my friends and when I would misspell a word it would show a red line under it to help me correct myself which is great. Also during church we would read from the bible and sing songs.

Your Name: Kristen Williams Course #:English 1101 Date:9/12/12

Project #1: Multi-Modal Literacy Narrative Part 3: Literacy Sponsor Analysis

Instructions (Part 1 The Charts): Fill out the chart to describe a sponsor who has shaped your views of literacy. While you need to describe at least four sponsors, keep in mind that each sponsor should have their own chart. Also keep in mind that your responses should be detailed, and should be formulated as full sentences. Sponsor #1

1.) Identify the Sponsor: In the space below, identify a sponsor that you feel has impacted your current views and/or practices of reading, writing, and communication. If the sponsor is a person, give their name; if it is a text, object, or institution, describe what the sponsor is, and if necessary, where it is located. Your Response to Questions 1: English Teachers; specifically Mrs. Hamilton (9-10 grade) 2.) Making a Connection: In the space below, describe your relationship with or connection to the sponsor. If they are a person, how you know the person, and if the sponsor is a text, object, or institution, provide context about when or how you interacted with this sponsor. Your Response to Questions 2: Mrs. Hamilton was one of my high school English teachers. 3.) Tracing Experiences: In the space below, briefly describe experiences or memories that you have had with this sponsor related to literacy. While these experiences can be positive or negative, try to identify was many experiences as you can that you feel impacted your current view or literacy.

7 Your Response to Questions 3: Most of my experiences have been positive; she made English so much more enjoyable. Mrs. Hamilton had a good sense of humor so anything that we did didnt seem too bad. I also enjoyed the books we read such as To Kill A Mockingbird and mythology. She taught us to have an open mind. This also where I had to learn about punctuation.

4.) Tracing Emotions: In the space below, briefly describe your emotional response to each of the experiences and/or memories you accounted for in question three. Were your experiences happy, sad, discouraging, encouraging, inspiring, terrifying, etc. Describe the emotional response you had or have, and explain why. Your Response to Questions 4: All my experiences were encouraging and inspiring because there was always a positive environment. I felt that way because she showed us she really did care and made it fun. 5.) Ideologies of Literacy: In the space below, consider how this sponsor influenced the way you think about literacy, and briefly describe the ideas, views, and/or beliefs of literacy that you gained from this sponsor. Your Response to Questions 5: After having class with her I looked at things with a more open mind. I think she would view good writing as something that is creative and that the student feels that they have done well with (besides bad transitions, punctuation errors, etc).

Sponsor #2

6.) Identify the Sponsor: In the space below, identify a sponsor that you feel has impacted your current views and/or practices of reading, writing, and communication. If the sponsor is a person, give their name; if it is a text, object, or institution, describe what the sponsor is, and if necessary, where it is located. Your Response to Questions 1: Interesting books 7.) Making a Connection: In the space below, describe your relationship with or connection to the sponsor. If they are a person, how you know the person, and if the sponsor is a text, object, or institution, provide context about when or how you interacted with this sponsor. Your Response to Questions 2: Even though I am not what so ever obsessed with vampires I did enjoy the

8 twilight series and some others I cant remember which werent about vampires. I read them over the summer before my freshman year in high school at the lake. 8.) Tracing Experiences: In the space below, briefly describe experiences or memories that you have had with this sponsor related to literacy. While these experiences can be positive or negative, try to identify was many experiences as you can that you feel impacted your current view or literacy. Your Response to Questions 3: I read these books during the day and all day because I enjoyed them so much. Id sit out at the dock or on the porch with something to drink and lay there reading. 9.) Tracing Emotions: In the space below, briefly describe your emotional response to each of the experiences and/or memories you accounted for in question three. Were your experiences happy, sad, discouraging, encouraging, inspiring, terrifying, etc. Describe the emotional response you had or have, and explain why. Your Response to Questions 4: The Twilight series had a bunch of sudden serious events that got me into reading it, so I felt like I was bipolar because I felt all of the emotions stated above. 10.) Ideologies of Literacy: In the space below, consider how this sponsor influenced the way you think about literacy, and briefly describe the ideas, views, and/or beliefs of literacy that you gained from this sponsor. Your Response to Questions 5: It gave me hope towards literacy to keep reading and showed me what I was interested in. Authors arent interested in formulaic 5 paragraph essays but rather something that will engage the reader.

Sponsor #3

11.) Identify the Sponsor: In the space below, identify a sponsor that you feel has impacted your current views and/or practices of reading, writing, and

9 communication. If the sponsor is a person, give their name; if it is a text, object, or institution, describe what the sponsor is, and if necessary, where it is located. Your Response to Questions 1: Myself

12.) Making a Connection: In the space below, describe your relationship with or connection to the sponsor. If they are a person, how you know the person, and if the sponsor is a text, object, or institution, provide context about when or how you interacted with this sponsor. Your Response to Questions 2: I am myself. During times when I need encouragement I always get myself to do something. 13.) Tracing Experiences: In the space below, briefly describe experiences or memories that you have had with this sponsor related to literacy. While these experiences can be positive or negative, try to identify was many experiences as you can that you feel impacted your current view or literacy. Your Response to Questions 3: Anything dealing with literacy is a struggle for me. By trying to find interesting pieces of literature I get myself to enjoy it and become better so it will be easier to write. 14.) Tracing Emotions: In the space below, briefly describe your emotional response to each of the experiences and/or memories you accounted for in question three. Were your experiences happy, sad, discouraging, encouraging, inspiring, terrifying, etc. Describe the emotional response you had or have, and explain why. Your Response to Questions 4: With writing you pretty much experience all of the emotions especially when you try to encourage yourself. I easily get distracted so I go through a lot of emotions to get myself back to assignments or reading. 15.) Ideologies of Literacy: In the space below, consider how this sponsor influenced the way you think about literacy, and briefly describe the ideas, views, and/or beliefs of literacy that you gained from this sponsor. Your Response to Questions 5: Ive learned what is good for me and what methods of approaching homework work for me. I believe good literacy is something that keeps a person interested or that suits the required subject.
Sponsor #4

16.)

Identify the Sponsor: In the space below, identify a sponsor that you

10 feel has impacted your current views and/or practices of reading, writing, and communication. If the sponsor is a person, give their name; if it is a text, object, or institution, describe what the sponsor is, and if necessary, where it is located. Your Response to Questions 1: My parents

17.) Making a Connection: In the space below, describe your relationship with or connection to the sponsor. If they are a person, how you know the person, and if the sponsor is a text, object, or institution, provide context about when or how you interacted with this sponsor. Your Response to Questions 2: They are my mother and father 18.) Tracing Experiences: In the space below, briefly describe experiences or memories that you have had with this sponsor related to literacy. While these experiences can be positive or negative, try to identify was many experiences as you can that you feel impacted your current view or literacy. Your Response to Questions 3: Growing up my mother read me all sorts of childrens books and would the person I went to for encouragement. I won the spelling bee in elementary school because my mom would help me practice. My dad would be the person that would find suitable words to go into my papers to make it sound better. He would check over my work (until high school) and help me revise it. 19.) Tracing Emotions: In the space below, briefly describe your emotional response to each of the experiences and/or memories you accounted for in question three. Were your experiences happy, sad, discouraging, encouraging, inspiring, terrifying, etc. Describe the emotional response you had or have, and explain why. Your Response to Questions 4: For the most part I enjoyed having my parents help but sometimes we would disagree so I would get frustrated. Or my dad would tell me I could always improve which was negative for me because I felt like nothing I wrote would be good enough I had to get a degree in college to be certified. 20.) Ideologies of Literacy: In the space below, consider how this sponsor influenced the way you think about literacy, and briefly describe the ideas, views, and/or beliefs of literacy that you gained from this sponsor. Your Response to Questions 5: My dad views good writing as something that will get you a good grade. If is meant to be informative or for someone to communicate with it should be formal and get the message across. Short, sweet, and to the point. This is because his job requires him to do so. Im not sure of my mothers view though she wasnt that great at writing or into literature herself.

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Your Name: Kristen Williams Course #: ENGLISH 1101 Date: 9/12/12 Project #1: Multi-Modal Literacy Narrative Part 3: Literacy Sponsor Analysis Instructions (Part 2 Reflection): Now that you have documented details about each sponsor, I want you to reflect on what you have learned. In the space below, compose a reflection in which you consider some of the following questions and compose a short reflective essay: Did you learn anything about how you learned to read and write that you did not know before? What ideas and beliefs about literacy stood out the most during this activity? Have your feelings about your sponsors remained the same over time, or have they changed?
If you were to compare one literacy sponsor to another, do you find that

the views and beliefs they have are in agreement with one another, or is there tension between beliefs and values? What was the most significant discovery that you made while completing this activity.
I have not learned anything new about how I learned to read and write but rather have remembered past experiences again. The most important idea/belief I have been introduced to is the correct way. What a story is supposed to contain: a hook, a bridge, a thesis, transitions, grammar. This all came from my English teachers. My emotions about literature were a reflection on how the teacher I had for English approached teaching us. If she wanted us to write lengthy pages and do pointless projects at home and took little effort in teaching during class then I wanted to quit the class but if the teacher read with us, had fun conversations, and limited homework to positive constructive pieces then I had a blast and didnt procrastinate. There would definitely be tension between the beliefs of my parents and the beliefs of this one substitute called Ms. Powell, her life is devoted to English. I discovered that your sponsors can be more than just people and for me its a whole lot more than that.

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Kristen Williams

First Draft of Generalized Narrative Reconstruction

The points I want to emphasize the most about my history are going to be a few teachers who have been the best and the worst. I want to try to relate this to sports somehow. Ive been active since I could speak so I think I could really make something great through that. Ive experienced many different emotions throughout my experiences and would like to convey some of those feelings through my genre. Im set on making a sculpture the piece will symbolize major influences in my life. There will be a general object in the middle of it all probably a person. I guess I could relate literacy and sports through my beliefs. One thing Ive always believed in was to never give up and to try my best. I want this genre to show everyone that I enjoy literature through school and although I have had struggles it like sports has kept me in shape. I am struggling with understanding genres, is it supposed to be symbolic? I just really dont understand. It would be able to easily explain why I chose to create a sculpture and the pieces in it. If this genre does not fit well I would also like to try to do photography and convey my experiences throughout my life using pictures from most memorable places.

For my genre narrative I created a Tumblr account so you can access it through the link. http://kwill22294.tumblr.com/

Kristen Williams Mr. Borrero English 1201

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Genre Defense Essay The genre I chose was a blog/webpage called Tumblr because I thought this would convey my literacy experience in the best way. My genre is organized by subjects in pictures and quotes. I decided to do this instead of uploading days worth of pictures because I wanted to keep it simple with showing key points that have influenced my literacy experience. I added a link to a video also. There is no sequence to my order of pictures and links displayed. I chose to do this because I think way too much and have a lot of ideas. This affects my writing because I will start out writing one way and decide to take a different route making the whole paper confusing. What I am trying to convey through this genre is the major impact the web, photography, and social networking has had on my life. The web is full of useful resources. I read articles, look up recipes, look up words to find meaning, Facebook etc. This has caused me to be more aware of what is going on today and has definitely allowed me to gain more knowledge. When a friend tells you to check out a website that was really cool you are going to be curious and want to check it out. Whether it is about fashion or race cars you are learning something from it with such ease. That is how society works now days, we want it the easy way and if we obtain that we are more productive in our learning. Another thing I wanted to convey through my project was the fact that I am a visual person. I was hoping to show this through using pictures because they are very helpful to me. When I was little and read Dr. Seuss I would look at the pictures and connect what the story was about to that picture so I could remember it. I guess that is why it is a struggle for me to write because I interpret things better through actions and pictures rather than text. Social networking is quite common among our generation and has impacted us a great deal. Ever since I was in middle school I had a Yahoo account where I would chat with friends, send them silly pictures, and message people that had

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moved away. From that came MySpace then Facebook. All of these sites were influential to my experience because looking back on it I wrote all the time. When messaging different people I would write different things, pick up on slang, use LOLs but beside the bad things there was the good old spell check which helped me out a great deal. I just wish they had grammar checks that included where to put the comma because that is a problem I have when writing and is why I posted a statement with a lot of commas. The books I posted on my blog page are the few I actually remember and enjoyed reading. Speak was by no means relevant to my life but it was such a great book and encouraged me to read more by that author, when I read it I felt like there were books out there that I would be interested in. Before that I did not really care to read unless I had to. The picture of the best friends walking down the road represents me and my best friend Ashley Gwyn. We have been friends since 1st grade and have helped each other out in so many ways relating to literacy. When we were younger we would read to each other and help each other spell out words if the other knew it. We had classes together and would work on projects together, she was always the smarter one and could write better so she taught me new vocabulary and helped me with sentence structure. When she was senior class president I helped her write her speech which took hours but it was perfect and related to everyone. Friends are there to be nice to you but also to guide you in the right direction and without a good friend to do so it would be hard to keep motivated. Music is an immense part of my life, not only the lyrics but the rhythm can change the mood of a person and without it life would be dull. Lil Wayne may be crazy but he is so smart and is good with using metaphors. While writing papers or reading a book I have to have music to keep

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me from getting bored or sidetracked. Music also helps with memory, through Disney videos and Barney sing-a-longs I became more literate. I was born in NY and lived in a trailer in the country until I was 4. We were poor at the time but my mother always valued my education and loved to brag about me since I was her first child. I think being from a lower class family has impacted my experience as a whole. Yes, the general population goes to public schools because it is free but other activities related academically I was not able to do because of it. Even though we were tight on money I was not left behind my parents bought me flash cards, educational toys, and Pre-K workbooks as a supplement for Daycare and part of Pre-K. As much as she encouraged me to get better at reading and writing she also taught me other values such as her religion. In NY we went to a Catholic church. Mass was always the same, it was a routine that played into my life in more ways than one. Catholics do not show very much emotion which makes it hard to express ones self and has contributed to my weak writing skills. My workplace was not necessarily a major influence on my experience but rather gave me the opportunity to be open-minded and non-judgmental. By having that mind set a person can be more open to try new things and step out of there comfort zone (like poets writing a novel). Seagrove is a little town where I grew up until I moved to Charlotte for college. The area itself has shaped who I am. It was a quiet town full of nice people and the only violence was the sibling rivalries. The town was into sports; I started playing softball when I was 8 and tried out other sports and have loved them since. When talking about these subjects I am more comfortable and can say more because I have so much knowledge in that topic. Another thing I remember from my childhood was kindergarten with Mrs. Baden. She was the nicest teacher and always had us to

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get into a circle to count to 100 with the group. I enjoy competition so I would go home and practice. She encouraged us to interact with one another to create conversation. Another teacher I had was the most influential because she was not only our teacher but our friend. She went to a lot of my softball games, would talk to us during recess, and joke with us about cute boys and other things. Her relationship to her students made them want to learn because we always had fun with it. Unlike other teachers who do not care whether you pass or fail as long as they go over the rubric for EOCs they did their job and that is that. I remember in that grade I would try my best and read as much as I could so that she would be proud. That year we read mostly Jeanie B. Jones and Boxcars or something; I enjoyed it and sometimes wish I could go back to the basics. By choosing this genre it has allowed me to convey my experiences in all ways possible, with one limitation. I have experienced many different emotions throughout my experiences and wanted to convey that in my genre but all I could do was post words rather than my main goal which was symbolizing my experiences through imagery. The website Tumblr itself has not impacted my life by any means but websites in general have created the opportunity to further my knowledge.