Sehaye 1

Luwam Sehaye

Professor Jan Rieman

English 1103

September 14, 2010

Self-assessment: I feel like my paper is alright but I could go into some topics further. I also feel

likes its missing something but not sure what. My papers strength is probably that it is simple

and not hard to keep reading. My weakness is probably that it is not thorough or very organized.

I would have spent more time tying up the end of my paper so it has a stronger finish.

My Many Sponsors of Literacy

The definition for Sponsors of Literacy is “any agents, local or distant, concrete or

abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold

literacy-and gain advantage by it in some way” (Brandt 407). Until this assignment I had never

thought about how many people and places have shaped my ability and love for literacy.

Growing up as a child, I was blessed with many things including access to literacy. I loved

reading as a child, everything from Amelia Bedelia to Harry Potter. I was able to read baby

books by the time I was four, and was placed in the advanced reading groups after the first grade.

I had terrible penmanship, was awful at math, but could read at a level of a child two years older.

Reading was my strong point and I loved that.

My parents, even though they had just immigrated and did not have much, found a way to

enroll me into a small private school for the first grade. They would always tell me education is

the most voluble thing you can have, and would go out of their way to make sure I got the best I

could have. During grade school, we participated in the Book IT reading challenges where for

every book you read you would receive some type of prize. I remember kids with their noses

stuck in books during break times, recess, and everywhere in-between. I had access to the school
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library as well as my neighborhood library which were both just a five minute walk from home. I

also had access to computers at school and at home for as long as I can remember.

My favorite resources though were my family. All my cousins, uncles, aunts,

grandparents, lived in the same town no more than ten minutes apart. Most of the time after

school we would meet up at one of our houses and the kids would do homework and the adults

would have the traditional coffee ceremony. Being the youngest I received the most help. I felt

like that there was no question in the world I could ask my older cousins or uncles that they

couldn’t answer.

I think of my sponsors of literacy as all these things, my school, the local library, my

whole family, the Book It program, and my teachers. My school and teachers taught me

academic literacy, how to read, who Dr. Martin Luther King was, the history of the United

States, and so on. The library and Book It program gave me a different perspective since I was

reading children’s novels, how to use my imagination, be more visual, and paint a picture with

the words on a page. Lastly, my family had a huge impact on my abilities to learn. To me they

were like walking books. They helped me with almost every homework assignment until high

school, and would take all the time it took to explain whatever I didn’t understand. I also see my

parents literally as sponsors of literacy because they have been paying for my education since I

was five even though it is a huge struggle.

I feel like I received all the tools I need to succeed and that it’s up to me whether I take

full advantage of them. I consider the access provided by my sponsors as more than adequate and

am thankful for that. From my viewpoint I have had access, and still do, to all literacies and feel

like there is not one I couldn’t get to or wish I had. To me it is more of do I want to have access

to a specific literacy and will I do the work to get it.

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Luwam,

Nicely done. You give a sense of how surrounded you felt by a number of different

sponsors of your literacy. As you note in your self-assessment, there is more that you could

include here. As you revise, think of how to elaborate on some of the great points you make here:

think about your technological literacy through computer use; Consider the wonderfully

available and supportive family structure you had growing up and how asking questions was

encouraged and welcomed; See if you can can recall what your early library experiences were

about. As you can see, I’m encouraging you to expand and elaborate throughout. See what you

think.
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Works Cited

Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Eds. Wardle

and Downs. Boston: Bedford, 2011. 406-26. Print.