Alexis' ePortfolio

Turn Around?  The top annotation is relating the narrative to Alexander’s prodigy category. The following annotation is relating the narrative to Alexander’s victim category. Passion for Writing The top annotation is relating the narrative to Alexander’s definition of an outsider. Bottom annotation is relating Ms. Foster to Brandt’s idea of a sponsor. Expect the Unexpected Top annotation relates narrative to sponsorship. The second annotation categorizes section as literacy-as-success. Blake Beverage The first annotation relates narratives to Alexander’s literacy-as-success category. The…

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Brandt: The top annotation is a connection to our previous study of Discourses. Discourses, like literacy skills, are typically influenced by economic status. The second annotation is an extension. Not only do the writings of ordinary citizens help us understand how they would “cope with life as they find it”, but they also teach us a lot about historical time periods. This is a predictive annotation. Sponsors are looking to get something in return for their time and efforts, so…

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Delpit, Lisa. “The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse.” Literacy, a Critical Sourcebook, edited by Ellen Cushman, Eugene Kintgen, Barry Kroll, Mike Rose, Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2001, pp. 545-554.   Gee, James. “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction.” Journal of Education, vol. 171, no.1, 1989, pp. 5-17.   Jordan, June. “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan.” Harvard Educational Review, vol. 58, no. 3, 1988, pp. 363-375.

Coordination 1) “In the passage, “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan” Delpit describes the pressure put on her students to convey an important message about justice and how hard it was for the class to decide how they wanted to present themselves through writing.”  I had already written this on my draft. This is a compound sentence because it’s linking the two equally important purposes of her writing. 2) “The writers were…

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After: Discourses are people’s way of presenting themselves in different environments. Linguistic researcher James Paul Gee introduces and defines the idea of Discourse in his research article, “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction”. He says Discourses are “saying-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations”, or “ways of being in the world,” (6). In other words, Discourse is the way people present themselves in a given situation. Primary Discourses (initial Discourses) are oftentimes different than Secondary Discourses (learned Discourses). He believes that having multiple Discourses will inevitably…

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                  In his research article, James Gee maintains that the only way to learn any Discourse is to be completely immersed in it and complete an “apprenticeship” of sorts (8). What Gee means is that it’s impossible to learn a Discourse without first being immersed in it. Gee’s theory of the way Discourses can be developed is extremely useful because it sheds light on the difficult problem of making sure everyone has…

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I really struggled with writing my introduction because I wrote my body paragraphs without really having a clear claim. I had to make up a claim that I forced to fit my body paragraphs which was difficult. I didn’t even know where to start for my conclusion, so I haven’t written it yet. GianCarlo said my argument was “supported very strongly.”        5. My peer told me I should state my claim in the first paragraph before I…

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1) Delpit finds some of Gee’s ideas “problematic”. One idea, that, “people who have not been born into dominant discourses will find it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to acquire such a discourse,” (Delpit) really bothered her. In other words, Delpit believes anyone can learn a new dominant discourse, regardless of what their primary discourse is. She proves this when she describes Marge, a girl that got into a doctoral education program she was previously rejected from after being taught how…

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Gee’s first theorem is that literacy is black and white; you’re either literate or you’re not. Being literate enough to make do, so to speak, isn’t literate enough. This is controversial because there are people, especially when learning a third or fourth language, that may never be perfectly literate, but they can still make do. The same goes for Discourses- it’s easy to pretend to be someone you’re not to fit in. Gee’s second theorem is that Primary Discourses can only…

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Engaging others’ views is crucial in academic writing. This is because writing may seem pointless without a direct reference to a source text to elaborate or argue with. Readers may not even know why the writing was written if it’s not at least indirectly stated (Graff and Birkenstein 4). Another reason why the They Say/I Say format is used is to stir up an argument or challenge a long-held belief (Graff and Birkenstein 9).  Since academic writing is typically argumentative, it’s not…

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