English Project

By Zack Dunham

Literacy Experience Account

I have never been good at writing, I failed the writing test in seventh grade and in tenth grade but I love expressing myself. Everyone has their strong suits and writing just has never been mine. Reading on the other hand though I use to love to do, I was that kid that would get excited about going to the library to get a book. Then high school came and I started participating in sports and found my one true love; Call of Duty. Composition is the arrangement of the details which plays a lot into writing so Im not that great at composition either but there is always room for improvement. Personally I hate writing but where would we be without it? Why write something that could take an hour when you could say it in 5 minutes. Just my view on that, some people however love to write and you have to respect that because without writing books such as twilight would never have been written and that would just be a shame. Another reason I hate writing is because it is so time consuming, I have to much going on to sit down and focus all of my concentration on a paper, just not my thing. Moreover I hate writing and reading because my attention span is way to short to concentrate on something enough to put all my thoughts onto paper, speaking on the other hand I could do all the time and have been told a lot that I do it to much.

Reading on the other hand, if it can get me hooked and I have the time to read it I will. Reading takes you to a world of your own; it helps you escape all the stress in your life, it is somewhat like music except I like music a lot more. The few books that I have read though that has been turned into movies were actually better than the movies themselves. One thing I was proud of however about writing is in fourth grade our whole class had to write a story about anything and the teacher would pick the story she liked the best and the winner would get a homework pass. Well it ended up that my story was picked by my teacher and then shown to all the other fourth grade teachers, so I guess if I have some motivation and a topic that interests me I do not mind writing. I have the same view on reading as I do on writing, if the book can get my attention I dont mind reading it but if Im forced to read something for class or by someone Im not going to want to. I have to do it on my own free will but I think thats how everyone looks at. Composition is probably the worst out of the three, organizing all that I need to say is such a hassle. It could be the difference between getting a job or not though. If someone else comes in and has all of their past work history organized into one neat resume and you show up with a business card from your last employer saying call them for a reference chances are that you might be applying for food stamps. Overall whether I like reading or writing at all it is a big part of everyones lives. Memories live on from people to people but eventually no one will be alive that knew you thats when books will be important. Books are what will carry on for thousands of years after we cease to exist, they will help people understand more

about us. If you do not think that your writing could last for a long time just think of William Shakespeare, granted he was a famous play writer his work has still lived on for almost four hundred years.

Cultural Domain Analysis

Project #1: Multi-Modal Literacy Narrative Part 2: Cultural Domain Analysis Instructions (Part 1 Domain Analysis Chart): When introducing the Multi-Modal Literacy Narrative project, we established that your mind is influenced by different cultural/social systems that work both separately and together to shape your ideas, beliefs, and practices as a reader and writer. To analyze these systems, your first task is to complete the domain analysis chart in which you must reflect on each of the four domains listed below and identify as many practices, ideas/values/beliefs, objects, or significant details from each cultural/social system that you think has influenced your literacy and composition skills.

Home My mom was a teacher so she always wanted us to use proper grammar (No slang words) My mom would put soap in my sisters and my mouth if we said a bad word so we never really used bad words. My family is very southern so we used a very southern dialect Said yall and other southern words Mom believed highly in education and going to college to become smarter. My mom made my sister and I do summer reading every summer when we were little to try to get us ahead. My mom gave my sister and I books for losing a tooth when we were younger instead of money like all the other normal parents did for their children. My mom would make my sister and I do workbooks each summer that took us an hour a day and it helped us get ahead with reading, vocabulary, and grammar, ECT School

Work Worked as a lifeguard at Great Wolf Lodge so I was very interactive with customers. Engaged with customers that were from different dialects, languages, and ethnicity from me. Worked with my dad selling carpet so I had to be quick with words and very persuasive. Since I worked with my dad in sales I had to sway the truth sometimes and make the customer feel appreciated. When I worked with my dad at his flooring company there were a lot of people who were stuck in a low paying job because they did not go to college and better there self. A lot of the people at my dads shop couldnt write well at all, it made me realize that even though I hate reading and writing it would help me get ahead in the world. Neighborhood / Community / Peers

 I went to Pre School where we were read books each day to enhance our vocabulary. For elementary school I went to a private school so it was ahead public schools and far more advanced. Learned at a faster pace in my elementary school. Middle school I was put in the advanced placement classes. High school I was always in honors classes so my teachers always expected good grammar. My teachers had us write a lot so it got repetitive but we did it so much me and everyone else started not giving as much effort because we were not interested in writing as much as we used to be. School was always a place to challenge me as a writer but when I had to do something I did not like to do it made me start not wanting to have anything to do with writing.

Childhood: Monroe NC My dad was from the north so his family influenced me with all their words and accents. My mom was from the south so she influenced me to all the southern words. My friends and I would always talk slang and text butchered words because it didnt take as much time as typing the whole word. Grew up in a poor neighborhood so there were a lot of gangs and I learned a type of way to talk from my friends in the neighborhood.

Instructions (Part 2 Domain Analysis Narrative): Now that you have completed the chart and generated some ideas about the cultural/social systems you engage with, it is time to flesh out those ideas, and analyze/explain how you think each domain has influenced your literacy and composition. For each of the systems listed below, write between 75 and 100 words to explain the major details of each cultural/social system and how the qualities of each system have influenced your literacy and composition (this means you will compose four short analyses total). You may complete your essays below. Simply type your essay next to each of the headers.

1. Home: My mom was a teacher so she always wanted my sister and I to use proper grammar when we were talking to her and other people. She would always make us say yes mame and Yes sir so we were brought up to be very polite because she wanted us to have southern hospitality. My mom would make me and my sister do summer reading and writing each summer because she wanted us to get ahead of all the other kids and have a edge on everyone when we went back to school the next year. Since my mom was a teacher she gave my sister and I books when we lost teeth instead of money like all the other

parents, so whenever we lost teeth we would take them over to our dads because he would give us money. I guess I started a hate towards to reading when I was at a small age because of how my mom forced them on me.

2. Work: My first job was at a hotel with a huge water park inside it so we had guests from all over America and even from other countries so I had to communicate with people that had different dialects and customs than me and sometimes even different languages. My second job was with my dad selling carpet, since it was a retail job I had to be quick with word and make the customer feel appreciated. It was a good experience for me however because I learned to come up with well put together stuff in my head right on the spot. A lot of people that worked with for my dad never went to college and now their working close to 60 hours a week and they can barley make ends meet. Most of them can barely write or read and it made me realize how important being literate is in todays society.

3. School: Since my mom was a teacher she put my sister and I in a pre school where instead of playing with blocks we were being read to aloud each day trying to enhance our vocabulary. When I went into elementary school my mom made sure that we were put in a very nice private school to make sure that we could get ahead in the world, while in the private school we learned to read and write at a much faster rate than everyone else that was in a public school. When I went into high school I took mainly Honors classes to help me get a higher GPA so my teachers expected me to use a higher vocabulary than all the other students. Since I was always pushed to do better because I was in honors class in high school it made me hate it even more. If I had enjoyed what we were doing I might have started caring about it but I had no motivation besides trying to make a good grade in that class.

4. Neighborhood / Community / Peers: My mom was from the south and my dad was from the north so I was introduced to a wide variety of words and different dialects. My mom and dad got a divorce when I was very little and my mom was a teacher so she could not afford much so we lived in a poor neighborhood where there were a lot of gangs and I learned a lot of words and slang from them. Whenever my friends and I would text each other we would always use abbreviations and butcher words cause we did not feel like typing a whole word cause I wasted like 2 seconds more of our time.

Literacy Sponsor Analysis

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: Robin Hefner has impacted my view on reading and writing.

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: Robin Hefner is my mom.

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. Your Response to Questions 3: My mom would always force me to read and write and I never wanted to do it so it made me build up a hate towards it. She would make me do workbooks over the summer and write journals whenever we went on vacations somewhere.

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: My main emotion to all the stuff she made me do was hate, looking back it did help me but it made me hate reading and writing a lot.

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: My mom made me view literacy as something that you had to do whether you wanted to or not. She made me look at literacy as a form of punishment because I would have to write stuff whenever I was little and got in trouble.

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: Mr. Ackerman changed my view on writing.

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: Mr. Ackerman was my seventh grade English teacher.

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: Everyday when we came in to class we would have to write, the only time we would read something is when we were proofing each others work. Every other time we were writing for the entire class period.

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 emotion he made me project towards writing was pure hate, it also did not help since I was not that great at writing so it only made me hate it worse.

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: Because of Mr. Ackerman every time I think of writing it takes me back to how much I hated his class and how much I sucked at writing.

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 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: William Shakespeare has also affected my view on literacy.

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: Senior year of high school my class had to read a bunch of Shakespeares places and stuff.

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: When we had to read Shakespeare plays we would decide what we thought he was trying to say and then we would talk about it as a class and I found out that everyone interprets what a writer says differently.

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: The emotions that interpreting the plays made me feel was excitement honestly, it was interesting listening to what everyone thought that Shakespeare was trying to say and then hearing what experts say what they think Shakespeare actually meant.

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: This made me realize that when writing something that people probably will not have the same picture of what Im trying to say most of the times that they read it.

Sponsor #4

16.) 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: The bible affected my view on literacy.

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: Every Sunday when I was younger I would go to church and read the bible in Sunday school.

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: I had positive memories with the bible because there is a lot you can learn from it and a lot of interesting stories.

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: The emotion that the bible made me feel was peace, whenever I left Sunday school I felt like I was at one with the world and that my life was perfect at the moment.

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: The bible showed me that if you write something it could last for a couple thousands of years just like the bible. People have fought wars over it and died over it,

it is more than just a book it some peoples lives.

Your Name: Course #: Date: 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.

Yes I realized that I started hating reading and writing when my mom made my sister and I do reading and writing books over the summer to try to help us get ahead. I had

the idea that writing was a punishment, because when I was little that is what my mom would make us do if we got in trouble. My feelings about my sponsors have changed overtime because I use to just hate reading and writing all around, but now I realize that even though I do not like it I still need it to compete in the world today. All my sponsors show me a different point of view because they all do not have the same view on literacy. I learned that I have always hated literacy but lately I have learned that it is very important in this ever changing world.

Generalized Narrative Reconstruction

I composed a Power point on crack as you referred to it on Prezi and I put the hyper link down so you have to go to the website to see it.

Genre Narrative
http://prezi.com/wdkih3yetwyl/edit/#6_20888919

Genre Defense essay Zack Dunham Mr. Borrero 9/25/2012 Defense Essay

I wanted to show that there were a lot of sponsors that have affected my view on literacy and not just people. I never would have thought of social media affecting my view on literacy till Mr., Borrero talked to us about that. Teachers are a main factor when you consider who affected your view on literacy because they were the ones telling you how to read, write, talk, ECT They have been shaping our minds from the day we stepped in to kindergarten. They influence what you have to write about and half the time it is a topic that you have no interest in writing about which most of the time forces you to fill the paper with a bunch of crap so you can take up space. But after you think about it they most likely did not have the greatest affect on your view on literacy, at least they did not have the biggest influence on me.

My family affected my view the most because I was around them all the time since I have been born. The way that your parents talk will affect the way that you speak and think because they instill their beliefs on you. Such as my mom was born and raised in the south however my dad was born in the north but moved down here when he was a senior in high school, so I was exposed to two completely different dialects and ways of talking when I was growing up and to this day I still say northern words and not only teachers but other people will say that I am saying words wrong or that the word I said does not exist. My mom was also a teacher so she made sure that from a very young age I would be ahead of the other kids in my grade. She would also make us take a hour a day during the summer and do a work book that helped us with everything from history, math, science, reading, and writing. Moreover whenever we went on vacations my sister and I would have to write a page journal at the end of the day so we could remember what we did each day on that vacation when we got older. I agree it was a neat idea so we can look back and read from our point of view how the vacation was but back then I hated it and a picture takes 3 seconds and can say a thousand words versus a thousand word journal that would take a very long time for slow writer like me when I was little. Also instead of putting money under my sister and my pillow my mom would put books while all the other kids were getting money. Honestly it made me want to stop losing teeth cause once we got the books my mom would make us read them, however as we got older we learned and started taking our teeth that we lost to our dads house and he would give us money. My

mom showed me at a very young age that yes writing and reading is very important in todays society but she did not realize how much I would hate literacy because of her forcing it on me at such a young age. Your friends have a profound impact on you nonetheless, they are the people that you learn a lot of slang from and talk to the majority of your time. To this day because of texting if I am typing a paper I will still type, wanna or gotta instead of typing the whole word because I am so use to typing like that. Your friends also impact your vocabulary; if your friends talk very sophisticated like that should be going to Harvard then your vocabulary will probably be very good., However if your friends talk with slang and a weak vocabulary then you will probably talk like them most of the time. The genre I chose to use is more a power point than anything else but mainly I wanted to show that digital stuff affected how I view literacy. Power points are how every teacher has taught you almost anything while you have been in school because it keeps the reader interested in what is up on the screen from all the pictures and videos you can put in it. Moreover over it has been proven that over half of students are visual learners and focus more when there is a visual representation of what they are learning in front of them instead of sitting through a lecture of what they are supposed to be learning. The big picture though is that my generation no one learned without of some type of digital learning being incorporated. We would read and take reading tests all online and could go to spark notes to get a quick over view of what we were supposed to read if we forgot or were just to lazy to read what we were supposed to.

My generation grew up learning about anything and everything mainly from power points, back when my mom and dad were in school they learned from projectors that would go on to the wall and what the teacher wrote down would get projected on the wall, but now its more advanced so we learned through power points. I remember close to the first time I saw a power point I was astonished because for once I actually wanted to listen to what the teacher says because she was keeping my attetion for once. Right when I was leaving high school they took it a step farther and got something called SmartBoards and it was basically a touch screen computer that was probably five or so feet long and you could do anything on there from show movies and power points to play games and draw even if you wanted too. Digital learning is not for everyone however though, my friend in high school did not have a computer because his family did not have the money to buy a computer when they were having trouble making ends meet each month so he failed some classes because he would not be able to get the paper typed in time because he would have to go to the library whenever he had to use the internet. However schools now are trying to fix that problem it seems like because my little sister who is ten years old and just started middle school has a laptop that the school gave to her so that she can do home work and that every kid will now have access to the internet. Learning from digital stuff can be a good and bad thing, for example if I had to write a paper and I could not type it I would misspell so many words with out spell check on my computer. Also I would probably fail every writing assignment because my

handwriting looks so bad and this way you can go back and change whatever you want to without messing up how your paper looks versus going back and erasing words and then having to rewrite your paper because you need to take a line out of put it in a different part of your paper. Disadvantages of writing online is for one all of the distractions, you have so much at your finger tips from music and YouTube too ESPN and every online game you could think of. Moreover that is just not for everyone, some people like to write because they are a slow at typing or are not as technologically advanced everyone else.