Entry #4

The more I read Tompkins (2012) the more my eyes are opened.  I am enjoying reading this textbook, which is something I never thought I would say.  I can not believe how many new ideas are presented in the text each week. The idea that sparks my most interest is the large number of genres that are described.  I have never thought of half of these genres.  For me personally this makes writing a much more enjoyable task to think about the creativity that can be used.  Prior to this class I would say I had a very close minded view of writing.  I saw it as the traditional pen and paper writing top to bottom.  If I worked on it long enough I would publish it using Word on a computer.  Never had I thought of using pictures and videos to help tell my story, unless I was ambitious enough to create a children's book.  These ideas not only excite me for my personal use, but even more so to use in my future classroom.  I feel that with these ideas I will be much more enthusiastic about teaching writing to my students.
The wide range of genres that is presented, especially in the list on page 287 makes it more obvious to me that writing is not just a pen and paper activity.  These ideas are also very exciting to someday be able to use in all subjects, with creativity.  As I look at the list some unique ideas stand out such as advertisements, cartoons, greeting cards, and post cards. Ideas like these are were never writing activities in my mind before, but I am excited to see how they can be use as such.  These are smaller projects that can be used in countless ways.  When projects such as these are presented it is less obvious to students they are working on writing, unless pointed out by the teacher.  Social studies writing assessment no longer needs to be an essay, but could be a letter or timeline.  Students are incorporating all of the important strategies of writing but are focusing on the content of social studies.
To address the wide range of technology used, I am impressed.  The genre that sticks out the most is the digital story telling.  I had never heard of this before, so I went to youtube and checked one out.  It was impressive, but by no means something a child couldn't do.  It was such a unique way of telling a story and had more emotion and impact than simply writing on paper and drawing the pictures.
The whole idea of a Multigenre project that we have been presented in class is something I can see myself using in my future classroom.  I would love to introduce my students to as many of these genres as I see fit for the grade level.  I think it would be interesting to keep a portfolio for students for each unit and have them create a multigenre portfolio with the information they have learned as the unit progressed.  At the end of the unit the students would get their portfolio back and see all the work they did and how it fit together.
I plan to show my students that writing is not a boring activity that involves just sitting at a desk and writing on paper.  I am much more excited to teach my students about the new genres I have discovered, and hopefully they will become as excited and interested in writing as I now am.