Bullet Point 2

Brandt in his article says that, “Literacy, like land, is a valued commodity in this economy, a key resource in gaining profit and edge”. I think Brandt is correct in that literacy is a major key to being successful. People won’t hire you or care about what you’re saying in you don’t know what you’re talking about. I do however understand that most people have a complicated relationship with literacy with reading and writing, which are two main concepts in literacy. Yes these bad relationships aren’t apparent, but I think one can overcome them to become a master of literacy. Past experiences don’t determine your future relationship with a concept. I believe that people’s perception of literacy can change and be molded. I myself haven’t had the best relationship with reading and writing, but I do think I can become capable of using literacy as a key resource.

 

Bullet Point 4

In Table 1 in Alexander’s article, he lists the eight distinct cultural narratives of literacy. He lists two ‘little’ narratives that I find particularly interesting, outsider and rebel. Outsider consists of a narrative where the author is an outcast from society. They don’t fit into a certain group or system and they discuss their experience observing the system they don’t belong to. This is a very interesting concept in my opinion because it’s rare, but relatable. Rebel is used when the narrative is about how the author is breaking the norms of a system. The author doesn’t follow a system and similarly to outsider, they are an outcast. This seems like a fun angle to write about in a literacy narrative. The reason I find them so interesting is how rarely they are used. I think it would be an interesting literacy narrative. Instead of a feel-good, happy, all is fun literacy narrative, rebel and outsider have an edge to them. This edge is fascinating to me and I hope at one point I may try to write a narrative with one of these perspectives.

 

Bullet Point 6

All literacy narratives have both the author and literacy sponsors. These sponsors differ in each type of literacy narrative. Two main ones I think are hero and victim. In hero, the identities of characters are very clear. The author is the hero as they are someone who overcame something and is perceived as great. In all hero stories, there is a villain. This may be another student, a  parent, a sibling, another student etc.. There is a clear conflict between the hero and villain, and the hero usually prevails. Lastly there is a victim, maybe the author or another character in the story. The hero saves this person from the villain. Another example of these sponsors in in a victim narrative. Similarly, these two narratives have two similar characters, villain and victim. But in this case, the author is usually the victim and they don’t prevail the villain. The villain is a clear bad guy in the victim’s eyes. In both literacy narratives, these sponsors are necessary to fully tell the story, with other sponsors included but not necessary.

 

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