Writing Assignments
Writing Assignment 1: The Pursuit of Literacy
September 15, 2009
My Bike Ride Towards Literacy
Riding a bike is an innate human capability; once a person learns how to stay balanced, this skill never seems to be forgotten. Well, it took forever for me to learn how to ride a bike, but another innate ability came easily to me at a very young age: literacy. I disregarded this ability, though, unable to see the importance of learning how to read and write well. This is when my journey of the pursuit of literacy began. Once I turned away from literacy, it pursued me in the form of sponsors, two of which are my mother and my AP English teacher, Ms. Bridges. With their help, I learned how important it is to appreciate literacy in the world we live in today.
Upon reading Deborah Brandt’s essay, titled “Sponsors of Literacy,” I was introduced to the term “sponsor” and came to understand who in my life has sponsored my literacy. In Brandt’s terms, sponsors are people who can either promote or suppress a person’s literacy, who are main figures in a person’s memory, and who “set the terms for access to literacy” (15). These sponsors can be real or abstract, and pave that yellow brick road ending in “profit and competitive advantage” (13).
My mother is the key sponsor of my literacy in that she taught me everything I know about reading and most of what I know about writing. Although my mother is the person who taught me to read, she did not do so directly, as strange as that may seem. When I was about four years old, I learned how to read indirectly by listening to her as she taught my older sister, who was then in kindergarten. When I was a toddler, I was very quiet and liked to seclude myself. I didn’t start talking until I was two, and even then my mom had no idea what my first word was because I just started talking to her in full sentences. So as I listened to her teaching Tori how to read, I learned, too. Even though my mom did not realize it, she was simultaneously sponsoring Tori’s literacy and mine. Once she saw that I was up to speed with Tori, she had her bring home an extra copy of her homework, so that I could learn with her. This active sponsorship continued through my kindergarten years – with Tori bringing me first grade papers – and was the reason I tested out of first grade.
The greatest sponsorship of literacy I received from my mother was through the comic books and short stories of which she gave me access. One day, I walked up to her and told her, “Mommy, I don’t like to read.” Having seen my reading skills advance, mom was at an utter loss for words. She worked hard, trying to figure out what exactly I didn’t like about reading, seeing as I had no comprehension problems, and why I would abandon book after book. It finally dawned on her that it was not only because reading bored me, but that I found no immediate gratification from books. Reading chapter after chapter never made me feel confident because I wouldn’t see the point in them; I just wanted the punch line. Mom provided that punch line through comic books such as Foxtrot, Calvin and Hobbes, and Archie. By finding a fun way to make me appreciate reading, my mother brought a love for literacy back to me. In a way, I find that my mom was a tool that the abstract concept of literacy used to make me value it again.
Not only did my mother teach me to read and give me access to a love for literacy, she homeschooled me from second to eighth grade, teaching me how to be an even better reader and writer. She was ever-present in my literary career because she filled each mentoring position, as both mother and teacher. By the time I reached high school, I had already accomplished multiple short essays, book reports, and a few research papers. This training helped my high school career to be very successful, with many “A” averages and many well-written essays. According to Brandt, positive sponsors are ones who “enable, support, teach, and model” (14), I feel that my mother fulfills all of these attributes.
Throughout high school, I had an array of fairly good teachers who advocated literacy, but none of them compared to Ms. Nancy Bridges, my AP English teacher from senior year. Whereas my mom taught me to read and write, Ms. Bridges taught me to analyze and write in context of a passage. In the beginning of the year, she seemed impressed with my pre-instruction writing skills, telling me, “Great job! Thank your [other English] teachers for me!” (These “teachers” were, in fact, my mother.) However, supporting remarks quickly turned into challenges, asking me to further explain, shift viewpoints, or look deeper into a poetic analysis. These tests are what brought my knowledge and understanding of literacy full circle.
A great example of what I learned from Ms. Bridges concerning writing is found in the poetry analyses she had us write once a week in the first semester of school, then the timed writings that took their place during the second semester. She would hand out a poem, famous or not, and expect a full-blown analysis on her desk the next week. By trial and error, with grade after grade entering the books, I improved my writing each week, scrutinizing every poem that crossed my path until I fully understood what it meant to analyze. I learned to look beyond the shell of words into the deeper meaning poets wanted to express, while still being able to determine why they put this slant rhyme here or that metaphor there. Ms. Bridges introduced a whole new world of literacy of which I had remained ignorant until I took her class. By the next semester, I was ready and willing to endure the timed writings once a week. They taught me the other side of analysis, where being quick to think is a treasure to behold, assuming one could be grammatically correct at the same time. In the forty-five minutes Ms. Bridges set aside every Thursday, she ensured that my writing skills were being tested to improve.
Ms. Bridges did not stop at improving my writing through poetry analyses and timed writings, but she further enhanced my appreciation of literature through Shakespearean plays and classic novels. She held Socratic Seminars at the end of each major reading; some of them were held as though they were interviews with the characters, some of them turned into outright debates over certain concepts. For example, once we finished reading Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly, half of the class was pro-Victor, analyzing how he rightfully avoided contact with the monster, and half of the class was anti-Victor, challenging an “abandonment” of a creation. Among the hustle and bustle of many hot-headed debates sat Ms. Bridges – who was decked out as the creation in rags and a face of green paint – smiling at the room, proud of the chaos she induced.
After experiencing Ms. Bridges’s class, I can pick up an educational book and actually enjoy what I’m reading because I now understand concepts that I may not have before entering her classroom. Her sponsorship of literacy is important to me because she granted me access to a new world of education she created, where literacy is not only in pursuit of me, but I am in pursuit of literacy.
In this mindset, sponsorship is everything to the sponsored. Without sponsorship, literacy would fail to exist; people would never teach what they had been taught and further generations would hardly be able to conceive ways to communicate. Deborah Brandt explains this concept by connecting “literacy as an individual development to literacy as an economic development” (14). Deborah Brandt’s definition of sponsorship is one to be recognized, for it accurately defines what it means to be literate and what a person’s literacy is dependent on.
October 1, 2009
Arielle McMahon
English 102
Dr. Shannon Carter
Fall 2009
Literacy is an Art
Upon hearing the word literacy, many people automatically think of the ability to read and write. For example, Lauren B. Resnick describes literacy as being “any situation in which people engage with written texts” (119). I’m not sure I completely agree with her conclusion, however, at least not without elaboration of other situations. Yes, literacy is the skill of writing an essay, reading a newspaper, and understanding texts, but literacy incorporates more than written text; it is practiced in any situation of which there is knowledge about a specific subject or field. People might acquire computer literacy, or even the literacy of their own bodies while exercising. This essay will explore the functions of literacy in visual art, specifically in the Art Building on the Texas A&M Commerce campus.
Literacy in art is similar to literacy in text; it is the understanding of a piece, the message artists want to convey, how they create their pieces, what materials they use, why they make art it in the first place, what their big idea is. In the field of art, literacy presents itself through the physical makings of a piece and in the interactions between artists and viewers. This takes into account the knowledge an artist utilizes to create a piece, and the viewer’s knowledge of concepts to understand the artist’s point of view. When artists create their pieces, they are applying their knowledge of how to use their varying mediums – like acrylics, watercolor, charcoal, clay, graphite, and more – in order to convey their message. Once a piece is presented, viewers’ perceptions of the piece reveal their own comprehension of visual art. Whether they feel they are “creative” or not, any person viewing a piece of art can appreciate, understand, or relate to it in some way, showing their literacy of visual concepts.
The community that resides in the Art Building on the Commerce campus embraces this form of visual literacy. Entering the building is like walking into a haven of imagination and creativity, where people are free to think out-of-the-box without being judged. There are posters everywhere describing workshops, gallery openings, and other campus events. These demonstrate the mixed literacies, of text and art, found in this building. A collection of colorful paintings line the walls of the halls, filling the building with life, describing this society’s environment sans text – other than painted words on the works, such as The Home Depot, as shown in this image. On the opposite wall are displays of student works, including sketches, posters, and 3D projects. How do these artworks influence the community’s visual literacy? What would the affect be if they were taken down? The arrangements of the halls greatly contribute to the warmth of the building and to the exciting, yet serene, atmosphere. The art on display inspires students by representing the literacy these students are yearning to strengthen. Without them, some of the grandeur of visual literacy within the building would be lost, and the community would accordingly be less vibrant.
There is a unique culture among the artistic community, with customs and ways of communication that are distinctly different from other buildings on campus. People of differing fields have differing languages. An example of a custom is the behavior found in visitors of the gallery, with the unspoken rule of don’t-you-dare-touch-that-painting and the silence that seems to engulf the world; this knowledge is somehow instinctive. Another custom is copywriting; just as authors prevent plagiarism, artists protect their ideas and concepts – their signature – shown in their art. Whereas taking a picture of text, whether it’s on a flyer, book, etc., is insignificant, taking a picture of a piece of art without permission is seen as improper and as a form of “stealing.” This indecency is the reason I was reluctant to take photographs for my essay, and so the items I chose to use purposely do not fully concentrate on any one piece, unless it is my own, and do not include any images from the gallery. A community’s customs are a huge part of their background literacy; for visual literacy, these rules are centered on a respect for artists and an equal respect for their pieces.
The gallery represents one of the major ways of communicating visual literacy: through the interactions between a viewer and a piece. It is a place of silent wonder and admiration and it fully encompasses all types of art. Sculptures fill the center of the room as paintings, mixed-media works, and photographs line the walls of the square room. Each of these represents the different artists’ perspectives and how they communicate their views through materials. An important matter between visual and textual literacy is the difference in communication. The language involved in reading a book is nothing like the language of art. Reading involves translating symbols on a page into a language one can understand and learn from or imagine, but in many instances their message is harder, or takes longer, to analyze. A piece of art is read another way; it is filled with emotion and represents a concept that is left for the viewer to decide. Whereas a book speaks to us, a piece of art experiences with us. Occasionally there is a video documentary, which explores yet another way of communicating visually. Visual literacy is changing throughout the years, from cave drawings, to different painting styles, to computer animations. As technology advances, visual literacy changes as well as literacies in reading and writing, as Kathleen B. Yancey describes in her “Writing in the 21st Century” article.
Students looking to the Art Building to strengthen their visual literacies occupy the classrooms on the second floor. Some of these are lecture classrooms, with uniform desks in which students sit for an hour and scratch away on their paper, writing down the facts handed out by their professors. These courses embrace textual literacy; the students learn about art through its history of past artists and styles by reading and writing. Across the hall are the studio classrooms where students learn the skill of drawing. Drawing horses, the chairs, scatter the floor chaotically, with sporadic tall lamps, easels, stuffed animals, statues, and bike parts. Students are free to move around the table in the center of the room, on top of which stands an arrangement for a still life.
In order to effectively learn how to create proportional sketches and drawings, students cannot only be lectured and read up on it, they need to physically practice. They must learn by apprenticeship, which, according to Resnick, is the physical learning of a trade from a mentor. In the Art Building, the mentors are the professors, but mentors in the art field are not limited to people anymore, as shown by how-to books. So far, my drawing class this year has consisted of us slowly advancing our drawing skills, step by step, from using only lines like a coloring book to shading with the whole black to white grayscale.
At the end of each assignment, we hold a critiquing session, consisting of each student pinning up his or her sketch then everyone stepping back and talking about the processes used to draw them, the positives and negatives of them, and how they came out looking. The image shown on the right is my first of two drawing assignments, where we were asked to make a contour drawing – which consist of drawing only the outlines of shapes like coloring books – and shading it. Doing this activity twice helped the class fully understand what was asked of them and how to improve their shading. It was amazing seeing the improvements from the first to the second for most of my classmates. These critiques are an important factor of learning how to talk about artwork using the right vocabulary, because once students enter their careers in art, it’s important for them to be able to talk the artist’s jargon. My professor also puts extreme emphasis in improving writing skills for artist statements and letters for future employers. These documents will be sent to gallery owners or to art directors to be reviewed and scrutinized, much like a resume. We have already written an essay on a piece of our choice in the gallery after the first opening, and we will continue writing short essays each opening. Even though, as artists, we must have advanced visual literacy, we also must have writing and speech skills to be hired or shown at a gallery.
The field of art requires a visual literacy that may be innate or may have to be learned – which is completely possible for those seemingly “non-creative” people. However, it is also coupled with textual literacy in order for a professional career to form out of a hobby. The community in the Art Building communicates via art pieces and critiques, through visual literacy, as well as lectures and flyers, through textual literacy. Walking through the building is a new experience each time because of the variety of learning experiences and the changing surroundings.
Writing Assignment 3: Research Proposal
October 30, 2009
My research project will involve exploring visual literacy within the community of the gallery in the Art Building at Texas A&M-Commerce University. I plan on observing the relationships between viewers and art pieces and how their visual literacy is influenced by the gallery. The community within the gallery is my focal point, but in order to fully encompass the use of the gallery, I am also going to observe the community that does not go to the gallery. I am hoping once my research is complete and I talk at the Research Symposium that people will see the importance of the gallery on campus and that I will have either assisted in raising the funds for it or supported the proposition of building a gallery for the community of Commerce.
This research is important to me because it is directly related to my field and major in art, meaning I already have an enthusiasm for the exhibitions and artworks themselves, and I would like to dig deeper into finding out how exactly art has changed and is changing my literacy. There is a whole different literacy incorporated into these pieces of art, and I want to find and examine it. I have always been a very visual person; I learn best through seeing things such as sketches or charts and I really enjoy expressing myself through my artwork. Visual literacy has been very significant in my educational career as well as my personal history. After meeting with my professor, I also see how my research could help the whole community of Commerce interact with this visual literacy, which motivates me to do well even more. I will frame my research question to include each factor I have explained without ending up too broad of a study.
The principles of the art world are such that it would be unethical for me to include any pictures of the pieces within the gallery or to disrupt activity in the gallery whatsoever out of respect for the artists, the pieces, and viewers’ levels of concentration. With all of these aspects factored in, I have concluded that any interviews I conduct will be held either directly outside of the gallery in the main hall of the Art Building, or in a different location entirely by meeting up with an interviewee at a later time. Fieldnotes I take within the gallery will strictly focus on the appearance of the gallery itself without fully describing specific pieces. The people in the gallery and their reactions to the pieces are the main elements of my research anyways.
In order to even begin my in-depth analysis and even my interviews I must first obtain permission. Joseph Daun, the Head of Art, is the most important authority to get permission from because he is the leader of the Art Building and the gallery in it. Asking to personally meet with him in his office to discuss my research, I think, is the best way to go about approaching him. Other figures of authority I feel I need permission from are the secretaries since they are the people who open and close the gallery. Plus, they are right across the hall from the gallery, and I do not want them to be confused by my continuous presence. The secretaries are in office each weekday until five, so I am going to approach both of them during their hours and ask if it would be a good time for them to talk with me about my research. A permission slip I wrote that I think would be good to use is attached.
I plan on writing a large amount of fieldnotes on the goings-on inside the gallery, outside the gallery, and around the community of Commerce as a whole to better understand the community that does not visit the gallery. I monitor the gallery for an hour every week in order to get extra credit points in my art classes, and I plan on using this time and more on fieldnotes. When I have a lot of free time, I want to hang out in the Art Building halls and interview passersby on their views on the gallery and on visual literacy, presenting each interviewee with a permission slip indicating that I may use what they say in my research. I think it would be easier to record each interview, making sure in the permission slip that it will be okay, and then type it up and analyze it after to be able to fully concentrate on the discussion instead of getting everything down on paper. Other than interviews and fieldnotes, I am going to dig through the archives of both the university’s Gee Library and the Commerce Public Library to find old newspapers, flyers, and/or pamphlets concerning the gallery. These will show me the way the gallery is advertised to the Commerce community on and off campus and it will give me a better outlook on why people may or may not visit. Another component of research I wish to incorporate is artifacts from the gallery. I may do some digging in the archives for these, too, but I am fairly certain all I will end up with are postcards and event papers from inside the gallery itself. I do not really know how I will incorporate these into the study, but I would rather have them and not need them than vice versa.
My research will focus on visual literacy, and will hopefully contribute to other studies that have emphasis on literacies other than textual literacy, such as David Barton and Mary Hamilton’s article “A Social Theory of Literacy Practices and Events.” The literacy in my research project lies within the interactions in the gallery, between the viewers and the pieces, and the viewers amongst themselves. The research I collect will hopefully make it known that there are other literacies than textual literacy, and they have just as much of an impact on people.
My study on visual literacy within the community of the gallery in the Art Building will contribute to Commerce Week on Writing because, being the only gallery available to the Commerce community, it is closely related to Commerce, the community, and the development of visual literacy within this community. The gallery is a great way to enhance and comprehend one’s visual literacy. I never really even thought about how my literacy has grown due to the gallery until I started this study. By going to the gallery, whether I am by myself or with my class, monitoring or just browsing, I have been inspired to do better in my art classes and to produce the best portfolio I possibly can. It gives me access to the community of artists around Commerce, and even farther away, so I am able to see what is being created by others as well as those close to me. During an opening, I actually got the privilege of speaking to the artist of my favorite piece! I want the whole community of Commerce to be able to contribute to and visit the gallery.
Permission Slip for Interviews:
I, ________________________________, give my permission to Arielle McMahon to use my written and spoken words, in her ethnography project written for her English 102 honors course at Texas A&M University-Commerce. I understand that I may read and approve the final draft of the material she uses about me in her project.
Can a voice recorder be used? YES NO
Can a video camera be used? YES NO
Signature ____________________________________________
Date __________________________
I wish to be called _____________________
