• In Brandt’s work he defines sponsors extensively, this explanation can be seen throughout my own personal narrative. For example, in my own story I use my brother and his experiences with reading as the backbone of my own narrative, he was so crucial do to me wanting to be just like him. Therefore he acts as a model that enabled my own desire to read, I even stated “Ever since I was little I looked up to my big brother, I wanted to be just like him.” In fourth grade he got in trouble for reading too much, since he would rush through his work to due so. Which caused my parents to be involved, so in the story they acted as suppression and regulation when it came to my brother reading Harry Potter. The conversations brought up at the dinner table sparked my interest, I wanted to see what all of the fuss was over. Therefore it can be seen that this definition prevails throughout my own work. My sponsors would be my mom and dad, although not through me directly (technically they were just in a positive way and not in this story) and my brother inspiring me. 
  • It is true that literacy is vastly valued throughout the world due to knowledge being powerful yet people still struggle with reading and writing. These two statements have no correlation in my opinion. Just because it is strongly valued doesn’t mean it is easy. In-fact I believe it is valued because it takes time and dedication to become more educated and reading and writing are always incorporated to some level. That is why it is valued and celebrated when individuals graduate and continue on their educational journey past high school. Salaries are geared towards making individuals become more educated due to individuals being paid more if they have more degrees. Financial stability is the driving key along with everyone else being proud of you, meaning family as well as an individual sense of accomplishment. As far as why people struggle with reading and writing has to go to how it has been presented to them as well as individual knowledge and attitudes towards the subject not with it being valued.
  • Alexander describes a master narrative as “overarching story people tell themselves about their experiences in relations to the culture, literature, or history of society.” Essentially it is a very long generalized story. Whereas a little narrative is a much more specific section of a story. This is important when viewing students because it classifies their writing style and you are able to look deeper into why they chose that style and how it helps or hurts their stories. For example often master stories come off as naive and expressed the writer as a partial understanding. Meanwhile little narratives show creativity and originality. They often show culture and individuality. For example Laurens story shows her personal experience with not knowing what to write about so she turned to poetry. This a personal experience and doesn’t generalize literacy as a whole much like Anna did in her story.