Douglass Questions - ooinpijpinin PDF

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Questions on Frederick Douglass Learning to Read 1. Douglass’ story might be classified as a “literacy narrative” – an account of how someone gains the skills of reading and writing. What are the key features of this narrative? What obstacles did Douglass face? How did he overcome them? Key features in this story are how Douglass told the vivid story of how he learned to read, despite all the challenges and work it took. Douglass did not have an actual teacher, his Mistress was the only one who could teach him anything. The whole time he was scared to become a slave. He read books, learned about the horrors of the world. He overcame these mental blocks by learning how to write and fend for himself, chasing the thought of freedom as he wrote. 2. Many literacy narratives include an enabling figure, someone who helps the young learner along his or her way. Is there such a figure in this narrative? Why or why not? These figures would be the mistress, who started teaching Douglas how to read, and the boy at the shipyard who helped him learn how to write. Both people helped Douglas reach the goal of his story, learning how to read and write. Without them, he would not have been able to write this story. 3. At the end of this narrative, Douglass mentions that he wrote “in the spaces left in Master Thomas’s copy-book, copying what he had written.” To what extent is imitation (copying) part of learning? To what extend does this narrative show originality? Imitation is fine when you are learning how to do something, you must do this to fully understand. Practicing reading and writing is vital to fully learning how to do it. Douglass was copying what was written for practice, not with the intent of stealing someone else’s ideas. When you understand how to do something and can create your own ideas, then imitation is frowned upon. You must use your own ideas, not someone else’s. 4. Brainstorm your own literacy narrative – an account of how you learned to read and write, or a story about the role literacy has played in your own life. Literacy has really played a big part in my life, and it is one of my favorite hobbies. In elementary school, I read all sorts of books including the Harry Potter and Hunger Games. It was a huge part of my life until I got a phone. In middle school reading books was for “nerds” and I did not read unless I was forced to. Luckily I stopped caring what people thought of reading and picked it back up again. I have read some amazing books throughout high school, a lot of them opening my eyes on things I have never thought about before....