Allison Hampton

Professor Marcum
English 1103-Section 052
28 January 2016
One discourse community that I am personally familiar with is the
colorguard community. Colorguard is an ever growing community in which
communication and language acts as a huge factor in the success of a
colorguard team and the community as a whole.
Within this community there are many different forms of language
used to both enable communication between guard members as well as to
describe and name the many different skills and techniques needed in order
to create a show. Words such as double, drop spin, forty-five, toaster, ripple,
sail, and much more are used to refer to specific techniques and skills that
make up a colorguard show. All of these words are a form of communication
between members of this community that allow conversations about
colorguard to flow easily and without misunderstanding.
During a performance or competition, most colorguard members dont
speak, unless it is to communicate with other members they are performing
with in order to insure everyone is working as a team. During practices,
members of colorguard teams communicate with each other and their
instructors in order to learn and teach work for their shows. Outside of
performances and practices, members also keep in touch through social
media and text and email. It is also very common for many of the members
of a team to become close friends, so members often keep in touch outside
of colorguard.

Instructors are the ones who speak and write the most within the
colorguard community. They are the heads of their teams and they dictate
how practices are run and what work goes into each show. Instructors are
also in charge of teaching new techniques and skills to the members of their
teams. Team captains also have similar roles as the instructors.
It is extremely easy to join this community. There are two basic ways to
enter the colorguard community; either by joining a guard and performing
and competing, or by having a love for the marching arts and attending
shows and competitions and supporting each group.
Colorguard has a great sense of family and each person who joins this
community inevitably gains another family. Members of this community
become close with their fellow marchers and build relationships with other
people within this community that last a lifetime.
There is not much that I can imagine would keep someone away from
this community as it is such a close knit community. The only thing that I can
imagine would keep a person out is if they feel colorguard is too hard or
confusing so they are too scared to enter the community and try it. I feel that
once a person is in this community, it is hard to get out, because there is not
much that would make a person want to leave.

Brain dump
Kindergarten
I remember learning the alphabet and the different sounds each of the
letters made
1st grade
I dont remember much about learning to read in 1st grade, but I know I didnt
have much trouble because I dont remember having trouble
I learned to read complicated words like words with silent letters
2nd grade
this was the year I began to hate reading and writing
my teachers in 2nd grade focused so much on reading and reading
comprehension which is what made me begin to hate reading and writing
(reading especially)
I became a really slow reader and often got bored reading things that didnt
interest me so reading started to feel like a chore to me and I began to dread
reading
I often put reading off
End of quarter testing began this year and most of the time I was so slow at
taking these tests I did not get to complete them
3rd grade
we started writing a lot in 3rd and 4th grade
I actually enjoyed writing because it allowed me to be creative and gave me
a break from having to read and comprehend what I was reading
4th grade
we began being tested on our writing skills

although I enjoyed writing, I was a very slow writer because I sometimes had
trouble being creative and coming up with things to say
I liked being creative, but I think part f my problem was that I was scared
that my ideas would not be good enough or be what the teacher wanted
There were a few timed writing tests that I did not finish
Reading started becoming easier to me and I began enjoying reading if it was
a book I was interested in
I hated reading if it was an assignment or something that was not interesting
to me
5th grade
I dont remember much about my reading or writing growth and
development during 5th grade
We were still tested on reading comprehension and writing
6th grade
We were given a lot of time in class to free read (read whatever we wanted)
we werent really assigned any specific books we had to read
Our main focus was on writing and grammar
7th grade
We read a lot in 7th grade
I had many reading assignments and book reports I had to do
We had to write papers about books we read
We were assigned books to read as well as given allowed to pick some books
we wanted to read
We had a lot of class discussions about our readings
projects
8th grade
Writing was our main focus in 8th grade
We wrote a lot of essay about articles we read and books we read
We didnt have many reading assignments
Most of our homework was writing based
9th grade
my 9th grade English teacher was one of the teachers that was most
influential to me
he was the one who made me open up to reading and start to like it even if it
had nothing to do with things I was interested in

he was a writer so he also had us focus a lot on creative writing which is

what made me begin to love creative writing
he made the writing process fun and since he was a writer himself, he was
able to help us more than any other teacher could because he had personal
experiences with things like writing processes, writers block, etc
10th grade
in 10th grade I had one of my favorite teachers I have ever had
my 10th grade English teacher has been the most influential to me both as an
English teacher and as a teacher in general
she was so passionate about literature which made me passionate about it
we also focused on creative writing and reading comprehension, but there
was something about the way she taught that was different than any other
teacher I had had thus far
11th grade
in 11th grade we began to write essays where we were to analyze different
articles we read in class
I did not enjoy this very much
I found it extremely hard to analyze articles and find the writers purpose
I also had a teacher that year that did not seem to like to teach
She did not teach very much and mostly had us do individual work which I
found extremely hard to do without any instruction or help
In 11th grade I also took a Shakespeare class
This class introduced me to Shakespeare and his works and lead to my love
for Shakespeare
I really enjoyed this class and I enjoyed reading his plays and sonnets
Rhetoric
We had many assigned readings that I did not end up liking
I found myself not being able to finish the books that were assigned because
I would become to bored with them
12th grade
in 12th grade we focused mainly on reading and analyzing underlying
meanings within the books we were assigned
we wrote a lot of essays about what we were reading and the different ways
authors use rhetoric to convey meanings
we had a lot of assigned readings and I actually found that I enjoyed most of
the books that were assigned
college
during my first semester in college I took a Shakespeare class

I enjoyed this class and the readings that we were assigned

We had to write essays about some of these readings
this writing class
so far we have focused on literacy
we have written many essays and papers, etc