The ve things that I focused on, 1. More purpose to my introduction 2. engaging my audience 3. adding a lot more analysis 4.

less generalization on the events and literacy sponsors 5. xing the mechanices throughout the piece changed that to this

Christine Sorensen English 1101 Mr. Borerro 1 October 2012 Revision History Of my Literacy Defense Essay In second grade my best friend Lauren took rigorous art classes. This made me very jealous. My mother finally gave into my begging and allowed me to join Lauren in taking the very pricey are classes. Nonetheless, the classes definitely taught me an enormous amount of art

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techniques and how to interpret art. For example, I was able to see how a particular color
I used an example to explain some ways I interpreted art at a young age.

scheme, or way you shadow a piece can convey a feeling and tell a story. That is why for my literacy project I chose to do a painting. Visual art is the form of expression I feel most comfortable with. There are so many different ways a piece can symbolize metaphors, theme, and create an interesting story with in those principles. This is how I am able to only use one genre because a painting can describe so much without words. For example my literacy history in a paper would be all over the place because I have had so many ups and downs. In my

I tried to make that more of a thesis.

painting, I was able to interpret my narrative in a clear way by describing that there were high points and there were low points and through that it shaped my view literacy. However, to my

Creates more focus and I am trying to make a more effective intro

audience who arent as familiar with interpreting art, this defense essay helps guide the focus of my narrative and explain how through art literacy can be interpreted. It is vital to the project that

This helps make it so I am not rambling so much later in my essay that what I am saying actually contributes to the paper. Transition

I explain the way I connect the two genres, then describe my history from my point of view. Essentially, an understanding of how my experiences lead to the selection of my genre is necessary. Some experiences that I have had with my genre as I previously said dates back to when I was seven years old going on eight. I was in second grade and I thought I really understood the world. Then I saw my best friend bring home the coolest projects from this place

she used to go once a week. My face would practically turn green with envy every time she would show our class at school or our moms. Finally I was able to convince my mom that I really needed to take these classes and if I didnt something terrible was going to happen. My first class was a real confidence boost they said I had a natural talent for being able to percept depth in a scene and color structure. Demonstrating how I was able to develop an understanding
analysis of why art connects to literacy.

of a story in art and connect meaning with a piece. On the contrary though, some days I would get really upset because my instructors would be really hard on me because I couldnt understand what was wrong with my project. A part of my lack of understanding what I was doing wrong

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was part of me not understanding the mood of a piece a later realized. Art is a genre that helped me realize experiences in life that illustrate the world isnt a straight path there are many hills and turns you have to take. Art is something that I have always seen as a text being able to illustrate that so easily to me. As our class was debating whether something was a text or not, I was very defensive that

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a piece of art work was a text. Just because something doesnt have words doesnt mean it doesnt send a message or has meaning. Almost every graphic I see I can see some kind of message in it. There are so many different principles of art that can create metaphors, emphasis, passion and control, rhythm, and most importantly communication. The ways artists draw lines whether they are organic or linear is something that can be interpreted in a message. Emphasis is a principle of writing and of art. In writing someone would want to emphasize a particular part of a piece to give the story theme, as well would an artist for the same reason to give the piece

different wording comma better wording

theme. Regarding that, art is so visual and because of this I was able to fully recognize and understand these principles and connect them to writing more thoroughly.

Furthermore, Art is something that gave me strength in my ability to analyze by creating

Transition explaination of how to connect art to analyzing

a bridge from critical thinking to symbols with art. I have always been a problem solver but mostly with math and science not with reading and writing. Art helped me find meaning in a text. Behind the words that are right there, there is a reason why they are there. That is something that I wasnt able to grasp in reading and writing till I understood art. Usually, there is a reason why

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the lighting is positioned a certain way in a piece of art. Just as there is close to always a reason why a story is written in first person or third. It gives a text a tone that helps interpret a message and reasons. Art, specifically visual art, is a genre that has strongly effected my literacy on the reading and writing spectrum. The way I value writing is based on my experiences with visual art and that is how I consider writing to be good writing. I have come to realize that I only value writing if it sends a message or has a theme. I dont always appreciate writing with no depth. For example, those poems that just sound pretty do not have meaning they are just there to be there. In my opinion every art piece no matter what even if it is an impressionism piece of a couple of hills it has some kind of meaning. Van Gogh demonstrates this very well because all of his pieces have meaning

An artist that also bridges emotion and literacy into art

including is time where he went through a depression and portrayed that in his art series called the blue period. To me that is what makes good writing something that has depth. Ascribed to the fact that my genre was a painting it is critical that I have to point out themes to emphasize. My first theme is the roller coaster which demonstrates the ups and downs of my literacy career. It starts in a slight incline then takes a small dip. This is when I was in

before there was an incorrect word comma More signifcance of elementary schools.

elementary school and I was doing really well at spelling in the first few grades, then it came to real English. Mechanics is something that I seemed to be comfortable with at the time because

my teachers really focused on it, in a way they were mini literacy sponsors. In fourth to sixth grade I just did not understand English because I never read. For example, there was this one
Another signicant event, less generalizing

incident where I was supposed to take a reading test on a short excerpt of a story about the Titanic, something at the time I was really interested in. I was really excited to read about it because it was something that interested me and that lead me to think I was going to get a good grade on the test that followed the reading. When I got my grade back I remember getting about fifty percent average on the test. That event made me want to avoid situations that involved reading and answering comprehension questions. Which led me to constantly flunking diagnostic tests. Even though this was all going on because, I was still so young, I didnt think it

added an appositive Little more explanation

was that big of a deal. This was the start of the deep hole I got myself in when it came to literacy. During my seventh grade year I really struggled in English. I moved during my winter break to North Carolina from California and it was a difficult move for me. The curriculum was very different and my teacher was not as patient with me to help me understand how things worked in

before incorrect wording

that school system. I ended up with a D at report card time and I cried my eyes out. Luckily I was able to pull of a B at the end of the class because I worked very hard and really tried to

better wording more intelligent wording

understand reading and writing. Although I still had a long way to go. The twist/loopty-loop in my roller coaster shows the transition from middle school to high school. My high school teachers were all mediocre till my senior year. Even though they were all mediocre English was

bad spacing took that out better wording took out things

very different for me because the classes became a lot more rigorous in the books we read. English class got better my sophomore year when we read a Mid Summer Nights Dream and that is when I really discovered my ability to use critical analysis. Also my junior year I became very good at analyzing when I was in AP US history and I had to analyze primary sources. My final

incline on the roller coaster is when I had Ms. Ledford. She really gave me a lot of confidence and gave me different ways to interpret texts. The dark cloud in the end represents the difficulty for me to see what is going to happen to my literacy. Another part of my painting that I wanted to point out was my was the kiosks at the theme park. They represent my sponsors. The left side of my painting where the sun is shining is the Lanie Fun house and the Ledford Lost and Found. My Lanie Fun House represents that she helped make reading fun for me and introduced me to good books. The event I most recall is
Signicance of Lanie as a Sponsor

when Lanie gave me a book by the author Sarah Dessen. I read her whole collection of books and started looking for books that are a lot like hers. Prior to this, I only read when it was required to. Ledford Lost and Found represents that I was kind of lost with my literacy when it

took out kind of to make it sound more inteligent Example of how she helped

came to reading and writing and in her class I found my niche in her class. An instance in Ms. Ledfords class that lead me to develop my niche was when we read a story about some white British men and the Indian people. During the story I really paid attention to what the author was conveying and I think the reason why I was able to understand it so well was because of the art work in the story. In the end though I was the one in the class that was able to really understand what the author meant even if the moral of the story was something that is not socially acceptable today. Ms. Ledfords praise for my understanding the story so well gave me more confidence to speak up in class and explore that critical thinking I didnt realize I had. On the darker side where it looks like a rain storm is coming in is a greasy burger place. It is named Father because if I were to eat a burger before getting on the roller coaster I would probably throw up. My father was really hard on me when it came to reading and writing because it comes so naturally to him and I dont think he understands why it doesnt come easily to me. One time

Signicance of my father as a sponsor

my father was helping me edit a paper. There was an argument over the paper because of the negative reaction he was having towards my paper. Leading me to never want to approach about writing and therefore hindering my growth as a writer. The other is the dunk booth which represents the confidence lost in my literacy. The dunk booths that I have seen are usually filled with clowns that are mean and make fun of you. These dunk booths represent the teachers that
Signicance of the dunk booths

never really helped me. They are the teachers that just marked my paper red and gave me bad grades but never really helped me understand literacy. My painting uses almost all symbols and metaphors and that is something that I have felt really explains themes. However, confidence and lack of is not everything in literacy. Literacy also requires

Better transition

thinks like conventions. The conventions that are used to help tell my story are the metaphors, symbols and emphasis. The emphasis of the roller coaster being in the center of my painting and being red. Including all the metaphors and symbols that surround that. Even though mechanics

This is how I value literacy

now is something I am not completely comfortable with when I interpret it though art they are of something of value to me because they help develop a piece of writing in a much more interesting way. These values come from way back in the day when I started art class and learning the basic principles of art. Then I saw that they were also used in writing and because I was so comfortable with them in art, these were things I was able to really understand in literacy. Some benefits to my genre would be that I think sometimes when I write papers I can lose my flow and things become confusing but in a painting I can lay everything out and explain them easily. There are definitely limitations though. One of them is that without this essay someone that found interpreting paintings a difficult task wouldnt understand my painting at all. Through this project I was able to gain a lot of insight on myself as not just someone as a student

Explained how I engaged with this project and how it helped me realize my identity as a writer

learning English but as a student of all subjects in general. This project taught me that understanding literacy is not just something that I was able to develop on my own or something that just came to me. It was a contribution of many people and experiences that makes me the writer, reader, and even speaker that I am today. A project designed like this one forces the student to look inside and to face the problems they have with literacy instead of ignoring them like many do. It also gives them a chance to take a look at the positive things a student has done to see how much they learned over the course of their life. Overall my genre being visual art was something specific to me because art is a big part of my literacy history and it is probably the only way I would be able to fully explain my history in the way I have viewed it.