Victoria Nemeth: Blog #2

I have been told many times that my expressions and feelings can be read plainly on my face.  I am sorry to say, but the first day of class when we were told that this writing class was service learning my expression was probably visible.  I was surprised and confused, but after getting somewhat acclimated to campus and having numerous classes, I can say that I am truly excited to see how this service learning component of the class goes.  I have done a lot of community service in the past, and I knew I wanted to continue with that in my college experience. To be honest I didn’t even know that service learning classes existed until the moment in class when we were told we were in one.  In high school I did many different kinds of community service jobs. I also did community service during the semester in Greece. I haven’t ever been an English/writing tutor before, so I am a little nervous about how that will go for me, but I am excited for the challenge. 

All of the discussions we’ve had about sponsors of literacy have been making me think about how the service learning component of this class will go.  I think Sherman Alexie’s “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” was very insightful because he talks about his own sponsors and journey of learning to read.  Not only were the Superman comics and his dad’s love for writing important in his journey of learning to read, but I genuinely think he was his own sponsor of literacy. He wanted the knowledge and wanted the satisfaction that came with being able to prove everyone else around him, who had their own expectations for him, wrong.  He took his journey of reading and writing as something that he wanted to be in control of. “I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky. I read books late into the night, until I could barely keep my eyes open. I read books at recess, then during lunch, and in the few minutes after I had finished my classroom assignments.  I read books in the car when my family traveled to powwows or basketball games. In shopping malls, I ran to the bookstores and read bits and pieces of as many books as I could. I read the books I borrowed from the library. I read the backs of cereal boxes.” Sherman Alexie took charge of his own learning and literacy from the stepping stones he was given from his father’s love of reading and his Superman comics.  Later on in the article he goes on to talk about how he teaches other kids on reservations to read and write. I think it’s very admirable that he is being the sponsor of literacy in school that he never had. I am hopeful that I can be a kind of sponsor for someone through this service learning component of the class.