Katelyn Chavez Mr. David Adams English 111 September 1, 2012

I am doing this project to identify and explain my own literacies. A literacy is a subject that someone knows very well. One may have many literacies. A few of my litarcies are as follows:  Cheerleading  Penguins  Harry Potter

 Cheerleading is a highly misunderstood, and overlooked sport. I myself did cheer for five years, and was one of the two team captains my senior year. I have done sideline, cheering at sporting events, as well as competitive. Competitive is very different from sideline. I will explain both in the following slides.

First I will discuss sideline cheerleading. Sideline consists of doing chants, short cheers to get the crowd and players pumped up, and stunting. Stunting is group of movements made by the cheerleaders, in order to put their flyer (the girl going up) in the air. It consists of at least two bases (the ones holding the flyer), a back spot (the one in the back of the stunt), and a flyer. When stunting, the back spot is in charge of “calling” the stunt. The back spot also guides the flyer as she goes up into a stunt and assists the bases by lifting up on the flyer’s ankles. Stunting is another great way to get the crowd involved. I have been put in every position within a stunt group. Versatility when stunting makes you a very valuable asset to a team.

Now I will discuss competitive cheerleading. This type of cheer is all about the cheerleaders. They do not cheer on a team, rather they are the ones being judged. There are three rounds in high school cheerleading. The first round is strictly cheering. The cheer should be intricate and consist of rippled movements, tricky motions, and jumps. The second round is the tumbling and skills round. It contains the 10 point precision drill. This is ten motions that the MHSAA comes up with, and every team must have this as their first ten motions of this round. After that, the rest of the round must consists many tumbling (gymnastics) skills, while the team cheers. The last round is the stunting round, and as the name states, in this round you stunt. The biggest thing about competitive cheerleading that is different from many other sports is that in order to win, every motion, jump, and skill must be in time with every single other team member. This makes the sport very tricky. If one girl messes up, the whole team looks bad. Every member of a competitive cheer team is important and each one must put in the exact same effort to achieve a high enough score to win the competition. This is my favorite type of cheerleading.

ME

 W_0Y W_0Y

 Penguins are my favorite animal. My literacy of penguins has turned into a small obsession. I have a large collection of penguin stuffed animals and figurines. The picture to the right only shows a small number of the penguins I own. I have done many projects and research projects on penguins. They are flightless birds that live in the lower hemisphere. It is a common misconception, that all penguins live in Antarctica, however, this is false. Some penguins actually live in more temperate regions, like the Galapagos penguin. Penguins feed on many forms of sea life including fish, krill, and squid. The largest and most well known of the penguins is the Emperor penguin. The smallest is the fairy penguin.

I know the most about the emperor penguin, so I will go a little more in depth about this specific penguin. They are a very tough animal. Not only do they live in complete darkness for 4 months out of the year, but they also live in the coldest environment in the world. During the 4 months of darkness, hundreds of male penguins will huddle in a clump in order to withstand the brutal wind and frigid temperatures. They are not only shielding themselves, but they also protect their egg that sits on their feet. While the men stay behind the female penguins are the ones who do the hunting for food. After the egg hatches in the spring and begins to grow it will begin to “molt”. This is when an emperor penguin will shed its furry feathers and re-grow new adult feathers, giving an emperor penguin its yellowish color near its head. Like us, penguins enjoy tobogganing. Their version is much different. They use their stomachs to slide down the ice. In my spare time I enjoy watching documentaries about penguins such as March of the Penguins.

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, are my favorite books and movies. It is about a young boy who discovers he is a wizard. As you read or watch you follow his adventures to discover himself, take on many different creatures, and ultimately discover a way to defeat his main enemy of the series Voldemort. He has two best friends that accompany him in his endeavors. They are Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. A few other friends of Harry Potter include Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, and Ginny Weasley. He interacts with many others like him, witches and wizards, and “muggles”. These are the average human, or people that cannot do magic. One who is illiterate of the Harry Potter series would probably not know that Hermione is actually a “mud blood”. This is a witch or wizard born from “muggle” parents. There are seven books/movies. They include: Harry Potter and the Sorcerers’ Stone Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

 My literacies have definitely shaped me to be the person I am today.  After learning about cheerleading as a child I knew I was going to be one when I got older, and I was. I loved every minute of it. I now a volunteer as a coach for my high school’s varsity cheerleading team.  I don’t think I would have such a vast number of penguins in my room if I didn’t know what I do about them. I just think they are such a unique animal and have great personalities.  Finally, my love for the Harry Potter series leaves me saying every line as the movie plays, and allows me to share in the joy of the topic with other fans.  Hope you enjoyed!