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Almost everyone has that favorite teacher in high school that they absolutely adored. In my case I had two of them. The first high school teacher of mine that I considered one of my sponsors was my junior Multicultural Literature teacher Mr. Marty Newman. Before his class, I totally took advantage of my English classes. To me, my English classes were just a blow off to me. I usually didn’t pay attention; I just went through the motions of writing my papers, and not expanding my mind on any of my ideas. He opened my eyes up to a whole new world of literature. He took the simple English class that we were all used to and turned it into something totally different. The whole point of the class was to teach us about the different cultures of literature. These cultures were Asian American Literature, Native American Literature, African American Literature and Hispanic American Literature. I remember the first book we read was The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. At first I couldn’t stand reading this book. I hated everything about it. It was completely pointless to me and it made no sense at all. But when we actually broke the book down, I actually fell in love with it. Who knew all of the random symbols she actually used to describe something could make sense. Mr. Newman made this book seem like a children’s book after we were done with it. The main thing I liked about Mr. Newman’s class was his class discussions. It almost seemed like we were gossiping and talking about people we know, but really they were just the characters in the book. He made the subjects we were talking about interesting, and he made the class fun and enjoyable.
Growing up, my main literacy sponsor was my mother. When I was a little kid I used to hate reading and writing. My mom used to try every trick in the book to get me to read and write. Until one day I told my mom I wanted to be a movie star. I was a huge fan of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. My sister and I had every single one of their videos. I used to know every single song they sang, and every single joke they told. My mom actually took advantage of this. She told me that there was no way that I would be able to become a movie star if I didn’t know how to read. Then she got into this whole discussion about how on their movies, they sometimes didn’t say what just came to their minds, they actually had to write it down, or had someone to write it down for them, and they read it off of these giant pieces of paper. So from then on I made it a personal mission of mine to make literacy important so I could be just like the Olsen twins. Every single day I would read as much as I could so someday that dream of becoming a movie star could come true. I would read the ingredients on the backs of cereal boxes, books that I brought home from school, and I would even turn caption on the television so I could read everything Barney was saying. When I first started reading, it was all a completely different language. I remember asking my mom if it was German or French. She just laughed and said, “No sweetie, it’s English.” It wasn’t the little kid language I was used to speaking; it was real grown up stuff. I was extremely amazed! I wasn’t going to stop because I wanted to fulfill my dream of becoming a big time movie star. I’m still waiting on that dream, but for now I’ll settle for being a social worker.
Personal Interview with Lindy Merriman
literacy is the ladder out of poverty
morgan freeman, american idol, april 21, 2010
Some questions from my interview with Mrs. Linday Merriman
Jasmine: What made you want to become teacher?
Mrs. Merriman: I was not what you would consider the “norm” when it came to why I decided to teach. Most of my colleagues say that they had a calling to teach and that they knew they wanted to be a teacher from the time that they were young. I, however, did not feel this way. When I was in high school I hated school and if you had told me ten years ago that I was going to become a teacher I never would have believed you. Ultimately, I chose to become a teacher to be closer to my daughter. I got pregnant with her while I was still in college and I wanted to choose a profession in which I could be close to her and spend a great deal of time with her.
Jasmine: What is your own personal definition of literacy?
Mrs. Merriman: My personal definition of literacy is not only the ability to read and write but the ability to read and write fluently and at the appropriate grade level.
Jasmine: Do you think literacy is an important skill to have?
Mrs. Merriman: I believe that literacy is one of the most important skills that a person can have because it affects everything else in their life. Even daily routines are affected by the ability to read or write.
Various definitions of literacy
The condition or quality of being literate, especially the ability to read and write.
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/literacy
According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary online (www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary), literacy is “the quality or state of being literate.”
Literate, according to this same source, derives from Middle English and Latin terms meaning “marked with letters” and “letters, literature.” Two definitions are provided:
1) “able to read and write,” and
2) “versed in literature or creative writing…having knowledge or competence <computer-literate><politically-literate>.”
“Sponsors deliver the material and ideological possibilities for literacy learning, often as a by-product of the struggles for economic or political ascendancy in which they are involved.”
Review of Literacy in American Lives by Deborah Brandt. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 254 pp.
I asked a couple of my high school buddies some questions about two of my literacy sponsors, Mr. Newman, and Mrs. Merriman, and about what their parents thought about literacy.
9.In what ways can you compare and contrast the teaching styles of Mr. Newman and Mrs. Merriman?
10.What is your own personal definition of literacy?
11.How did your parents feel about having the ability to read and write well? Did they think is it was important?
Ashley Taylor
– Mrs. Merriman is a teacher who likes to make sure all her students understand what they are learning. She is hands on, she reads the books with the students, making sure they understand.
-Mr. Newman is a teacher who makes the student think. He has activites and work that the student has to actually read the books/short stories to be able to do. He is not easy, but you do end up learning and understanding.
-Literacy is when a group of people learn to be able to read and understand it.
–Yes, they did think it was important. They know it is important when wanting to get a job to be able to read and write. Those two skills usually mean you have the abilitly to learn new things.
Rachel Farmer
-Mr.Newman and Mrs.Merriman are alike in their teaching styles by using popular movies to show how life and literature was like for differenet time periods.
Mr.Newman focuses on short stories and vocabualry while Mrs.Merriman focuses on Shakespeare and history making books and stories.
-Having the ability to read and write effectively.
-yes they think that reading and writing well is very important. Its a way of life that every person should be taught!
Olsen Twin Movies
These were the movies that my sister and I watched all the time. We wanted to be just like them. My mom would always tell us that in order to do that, we had to learn how to read and write well. We would put the caption on the television, just so we could repeat everything they said.
Lucky Charms Cereal Box
I used to read everything I could get my hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes. Lucky Charms were my favorite cereal growing up.
Sesame Street
Sesame Street was one of my favorite television shows growing up. I used to make my mom turn on the caption on the tv, so I could read and repeat everything they were saying.
When I was younger, my mom used to trick me into reading and writing. She would tell me that in order for me to be a movie star like Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, then I would have to learn how to read and write. I made it a personal mission of mine to learn how to read and write extremely well. I would read everything I could get my hands on to. When I was in church, I would read along with our pastor when he was reading the bible verses. I would write my name over, and over and over again until I perfected it. However, sometimes i wonder if my mom used the same tactics on my sister. I got in the whole Olsen Twin craze because of her. I used to beg her to put on the videos just so we could sing and dance to the videos.
After sitting down and talking to my sister, I found out that our mom did use the exact same tactics that she used on me. She explained to me how our mom would bribe her with candy, soda, and a shopping trip just so she would sit down and read and write for at least two hours a day. My sister said she used to read everything! From the newspaper, to the tags on her clothes, she would just get her hands on anything she could so she could get a shopping trip from mom. My sister also explained as she got older, her reading got better, and the shopping trips kept coming, until I came around of course! But she explained to me that when I was a baby, she would come home with a progress report from elementary school, and if mom was satisfied, they would take me to my Grandma’s house and they would go shopping. As I got older, I wanted in on these shopping trips too! I would bring home my progress reports from school and expect the same thing, but all I go was a trip to the ice cream parlor! Now many may think this is totally unfair, but when I was a kid, the word ice cream meant heaven.
In just sitting with my sister and reminiscing about the old days and her childhood, I realized that our mom was her main literacy sponsor also. Without her encouragement and constant rewards, my sister probably wouldn’t have been as excited as she was about learning how to read and write well.
Hall, Whitney. Personal Interview. 9 April 2010
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