Comedy Stages, Poets Projects, Sports Columns, and Kinesiology 341: Illuminating the Importance of Basic Writers� Self-Sponsored Literacies

Abstract

Dominant perspectives of basic writers' self-sponsored literacies tend to overlook the important roles such activities can play in literate development. Drawn from texts, inter- views, and participant-observations collected during a five-year study, this article continues the examination of the relationship between one writer's curricular and extracurricular engage- ments begun in Journalism, Poetry, Stand-Up Comedy, and Academic Literacy: Mapping the Interplay of Curricular and Extracurricular Literate Activities, which appeared in JBW 27.1. This article examines the writing-related knowledge the writer gained from extracurricular engagements with stand-up comedy, poetry, and sports journalism and argues that he draws upon this knowledge to enhance his performance in a writing-intensive upper-division kine- siology class. Based on my analysis of these laminated literacies, I argue for a perspective of basic writers' self-sponsored literate activities that acknowledges the positive contributions they can make to learners' academic engagements and to their literate lives more broadly.