Month: November 2018

1. Original:

Alexander defines child prodigies as someone who “excels in reading and writing from an early age and is put on display for others to see his or hers brilliance” (615). From accelerated math courses, to skipping grades, child prodigies are extremely smart and they know it. They can set an example for other students, as usually child prodigies are model students. Furthermore, Alexander claims that “Child prodigy narratives reinforce the notion that literacy leads to success.”(619). I have to disagree with this statement. I believe that while a child prodigy has literacy success during childhood, they either transition into two different literacy narratives. From parents to teachers, to their own influence,child prodigies deal with an extraordinarily amount of pressure to be the best. This pressure and stress can make it or break it in some people. The countless nights studies until the early hours of the morning, the pressure to have the highest grade in the class, personally I pity child prodigies. Growing up, I have seen dozens of child prodigies have complete breakdowns from all the stress. On the contrary, you always hear on the news about a child prodigy who has started college at the age of 12, or has solved a math problem not even the most esteemed math professors could solve. Child prodigies are beneficial to growing a passion for literacy and the english discourse, however, outside and personal influences and shape if a child prodigy turns into a literacy success or a victim.

1. Revised:

Alexander defines child prodigies as someone who “excels in reading and writing from an early age and is put on display for others to see his or hers brilliance” (615).  As Alexander explains it, child prodigies are accelerated in math courses and skip grades, they are extremely smart and they know it. They can set an example for other students, as usually child prodigies are model students. Furthermore, Alexander claims that “Child prodigy narratives reinforce the notion that literacy leads to success.”(619). Through this quote, Alexander states the relationship between child prodigy and literacy success.  I have to disagree with this statement. I believe that while a child prodigy has literacy success during childhood, they either transition into two different literacy narratives. From parents to teachers, to their own influence, child prodigies deal with an extraordinary amount of pressure to be the best. This pressure and stress can make it or break it in some people. The countless nights studies until the early hours of the morning, the pressure to have the highest grade in the class, personally I pity child prodigies. Growing up, I have seen dozens of child prodigies have complete breakdowns from all the stress. On the contrary, you always hear on the news about a child prodigy who has started college at the age of 12 or has solved a math problem not even the most esteemed math professors could solve. Child prodigies are beneficial to growing a passion for literacy and the english discourse, however, outside and personal influences and shape if a child prodigy turns into a literacy success or a victim.

2. Original

The victim narrative is sadly one that is greatly explored in the student academic community. A shocking amount of students can think about a negative literacy experience. “Many students gravitate towards the victim narrative: over 80% of students incorporated it at least once”(Alexander 617). The number of students who have experienced a negative literacy experience is shocking. Alexander claims that “ the popularity of the victim narrative in students indicates students associate school based literacy practices with oppression and even cruelty”(618). Cruelty and oppression? Where does this come from? Kayla Farrell from Raising Carn shares her experience of a poor literacy experience that shaped her life in “Turn Around?”. She talks about how she use to love reading and writing. How Her parents use to read to her, and that she could read book after book. It was not until middle school that Kayla started to lose interest in reading after she was “forced” to read books she had no interest in. While Kayla had to read books with little fascination, she still had a interest for writing. Teachers would always praise her essays and give positive feedback. Until she got to high school, and met Mr. Stritch. A bad teacher can ruin someone’s love for a certain subject and that is exactly what happened to Kayla in Mr. Strich’s english class. No matter how hard Kayla seemed to work, she would always get back a 70% with her paper covered in red marks. Mr. Strich covered he paper with vague “helpful hints”, “bad word choice” and “explain more”, how was Kayla going to learn what to change is he isn’t specific on what he wants her to fix? This problem seeped past Kayla’s english grade. “It just seemed to slowly eat away at any of my confidence in writing that I had leftover”(Farrell 2). This negative experience with a teacher was more than receiving a bad test grade, it completely ruined Kayla’s confidence as a writer. Kayla’s literacy narrative in the beginning was that of a child prodigy. She loved school, and learning, Kayla loved get positive criticism and work harder. Yet, this all changed after a negative experience with one teacher. This is so impactful, and as Kayla said “This was an important moment in my life because this is when my views on reading and writing changed and unfortunately it has never been turned back around. Teachers have bigger impacts on students then they think they do” (2). One teacher causes someone who was on track to be a child prodigy and who loved literacy to become a victim of it. It was one teacher who made someone lose their confidence as a writer. Kayla is truly right when she says that teachers have a bigger impact than they think they do.

2. Revised

The victim narrative is sadly one that is greatly explored in the student academic community. A shocking amount of students can think about a negative literacy experience. “Many students gravitate towards the victim narrative: over 80% of students incorporated it at least once”(Alexander 617). The number of students who have gone through a negative literacy experience is shocking. Alexander claims that “ the popularity of the victim narrative in students indicates students associate school-based literacy practices with oppression and even cruelty”(618). “Cruelty and oppression”, this is a bold statement about the education system.  Kayla Farrell from Raising Carn shares her experience of a poor literacy experience that shaped her life in “Turn Around?”. She talks about how she used to love reading and writing. How her parents use to read to her, and that she could read book after book. It was not until middle school that Kayla started to lose interest in reading after she was “forced” to read books she had no interest in. While Kayla had to read books with little fascination, she still had an interest in writing. Teachers would always praise her essays and give positive feedback. This all changed when  she got to high school and met Mr. Stritch. A bad teacher can ruin someone’s love for a certain subject and that is exactly what happened to Kayla in Mr. Strich’s english class. No matter how hard Kayla seemed to work, she would always get back a 70% with her paper covered in red marks. Mr. Strich covered the paper with vague “helpful hints”, “bad word choice” and “explain more”, how was Kayla going to learn what to change is he isn’t specific on what he wants her to fix? This problem seeped past Kayla’s english grade. “It just seemed to slowly eat away at any of my confidence in writing that I had leftover”(Farrell 2). Kayla had such a negative experience with a teacher was more than receiving a bad test grade, it completely ruined Kayla’s confidence as a writer. Her literacy narrative, in the beginning, was that of a child prodigy. She loved school, and learning, Kayla loved to get positive criticism and work harder. Yet, this all changed after a negative experience with one teacher. This is so impactful, and as Kayla said “This was an important moment in my life because this is when my views on reading and writing changed and unfortunately it has never been turned back around. Teachers have bigger impacts on students then they think they do” (2). One teacher causes someone who was on track to be a child prodigy and who loved literacy to become a victim of it. It was one teacher who made someone lose their confidence as a writer. Kayla is truly right when she says that teachers have a bigger impact than they think they do.

 

I am very happy with the progression of my third paper, but I believe I have still more to go. This paper should be “engaging in the conversation” of literacy acquisition. I should be adding more of Williams and Brant besides just Alexander. I am very confident in Alexander in my essay, I always root back to her when talking about the literacy Discourse, but now it is time to expand my essay to Brant and Williams.  I have good introductions to the subjects and concepts I am talking about. Cultural narratives are clearly explained and given examples of. As mentioned before, I just need to introduce Williams and Brant in my essay and talk about their role in literacy acquisition. To make this essay complete I need to dig deeper into the role of sponsorship and a healthy relationship between sponsor and cultural narrative. What effect does a sponsor have on a victim narrative? Why are sponsors important? These are questions I need to answer in order to make my essay complete. I am on a right track, but there is always room for improvement, and I am happy with how the essay is coming along.

Turn Around by Kayla Farrell is a perfect example of the victim narrative. She had a passion for reading and writing that was ruined by her teacher.

Child prodigies are every parent’s dream, but this parental dream comes from a constant push from parents. “Unless children are exposed to school literacy and learn these values at an early age, they will not be successful”(Alexander 619). Alexander describes the “child prodigy” literacy narrative as children who “excel at reading and writing from an early age and is put on display for others to see his or her brilliance and intellectual acumen”(615). Child prodigies are not your average student who have good grades, they are the ones up till three am making sure their essay is as perfect as it can be. Child prodigies are pushed by their parents every day to be smarter than any other child in their classroom. I believe that this is one of the more important literacy narratives because a child who Is constantly pushed and pressured to be better grows up to one of two literacy narratives. Child prodigies either turn out a literacy winner or a victim. 

In many cases of child prodigies, they become a victim. Alexander describes a victim literacy narrative as “ someone who is a victim of negative literacy experiences in or out of school; casts blame for negative literacy experiences; discusses how someone took the fun out of reading and writing”(615). Unfortunately, Alexander’s depiction of a victim narrative is one many students can relate to, as he states, “many students gravitate towards the victim narrative: over 80% of students incorporated it at least once”(615). Why is it that 80% of our students experience a negative literacy experience? Many blame the relationship between a student and a bad teacher, “ students wrote about negative school-based literacy experiences that include being misread by insensitive teachers, having a ‘masterpiece’ ruined by a teacher’s notorious red ink”(Alexander 617). The reason many students have negative learning experiences is that they had a poor relationship with a teacher who did not “appreciate” their work.

Literacy Winner: I see the literacy winner as an easy narrative to research. The ideas of success and child prodigy all fit into the literacy winner narrative. There are so many stories of literacy success, it would be interesting to compare multiple.

Victim:  Like success, I believe that there is a certain event in our lives that separate a person from falling into the victim or success narrative. Researching victim narratives, I would like to be able to pinpoint each event that shaped a person. This certain event is the reason why they enjoy English literature or dislike it.

Hero: The hero literacy narrative is something that anyone can identify. I learned about “The Hero’s Journey” in high school and I would like to see if I could incorporate that concept into the hero stories I read about.

Rebel: I am interested in writing about the rebel narrative because I always hear about either the general hero or victim story. I would like to read an outsider perspective.

Success: I would be interested in writing about the success narrative because I think that there is a certain event that makes someone a success narrative rather than a victim narrative and I would like to explore that said event.

Prodigy: The prodigy literacy narrative is something that has always interested me. I grew up with a lot of “child prodigies” and I can see them as a victim narrative as well. I would like to explore this literacy narrative. I would like to learn if all child prodigies happy to be one?