Literacy sponsors are agents that influence a person's literacy acquisition and development in various ways. They can enable, support, teach or model literacy, but also recruit, regulate, suppress or withhold it. Examples of literacy sponsors include parents, schools, friends, mentors, organizations, books, and industries - all of which can promote or deter a person's literacy growth and have some stake in the level of their literacy.

1. Your Literacy Sponsors
• What are a few major
literacy sponsors in your
life?
• Did they promote or deter
your literacy acquisition?
• List them and explain them
to your group.
Deborah Brandt tells us that literacy
sponsors “are any agents, local or
distant, concrete or abstract, who
enable, support, teach, or model, as
well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or
withhold literacy—and gain advantage
by it in some way” (2). Examples might
include parents, schools, friends,
mentors, organizations, books, and
even industries.