Entry #11

When class first began I had a felt overwhelmed thinking about all the genres and how little I knew.  Literacy was always something that made me uneasy, especially learning about different genres.  I was always intimidated to walk into a library to find a book.  I could hardly pinpoint a genre if I tried.  As this class began I wondered how I was going to remember all of the genres and be able to tell them apart let alone know characteristics of each.  I quickly began to be amazed at how much I was retaining and how easy it all was to figure out.  Although there are many different genre names, I learned that many of them can overlap.  This put my mind at ease, knowing there is not always a single right answer.   As I was learning about each genre, I also realized that they are not always in a specific format as I had previously thought.  There is a large amount of flexibility within each genre.  For example, an expository text is not always an essay. It can also be in the form of a textbook, or even a poem.  If an expository text is a poem, then it includes two genres which is the overlapping I was introduced to.  

At the start of this class I felt as though I had an understanding of each genre, but not necessarily a deep understanding.  I knew what a poem looked like, or could pick out an expository text, but I wasn’t sure that I could create one of my own and feel confident. Once I was introduced to the endless formats and uses of poems, I felt as though creating one would be more manageable.  I think this was my largest growth throughout the semester.  That being said, I can't necessarily pinpoint a single genre I grew in.  Overall my eyes were opened to the variety that I had not previously been exposed to.  I now feel more confident in each genre, that I can mold it to what I need and express myself without feeling restrained.  I hope to teach my students to feel this way as well.

Just like my growth, there isn’t a particular genre that still intimidates me.  Descriptive writing is my weakest point still, but this is incorporated in all genres.  As a writer I do not easily convey my message with descriptors.  I often leave too much to the reader to infer, as I leave out the details in my writing.   This is a part of my writing that I have always struggled with, no matter what genre I am writing.  I tend to get to the point and not elaborate as much as I could.  This is my goal as I continue to grow as a writer, to incorporate descriptive writing more prevalently within any genre I write.  

Entry #10

When reading through peer’s blogs I came across and entry that Jaimie M wrote.  In this entry she asked three questions and gave her response.  The questions caught my attention as they are things I feel every teacher should think about.  The first question was “Is there a type of genre writing a teacher should focus on?”

I agree with Jaimie when answering this question.  I too feel that each of the genre presentations have been helpful in learning the specifics of each genre.  As we have watched and participated in the various presentations each genre seems as though it is of utmost importance to teach to children.  I agree that each genre should be taught explicitly, but as Jaimie asked, to what extent should they each be taught and used in the classroom?  I also agree with Jaimie that thinking back to my own schooling, narrative and expository texts were the most commonly used.  I rarely was asked to write a poem or a letter when in school, even in the later years.   I feel that this lack of creativity and variety needs to be changed in a classroom.  I think students should learn about each genre of writing and be expected to be able to write in each genre.  As students are creating writing I feel there should be a wide variety of genres, rather than an overwhelming emphasis on expository, or essay, writing.  Students’ creativity should be expanded, rather than facts being regurgitated in their own words.  With this being said I would like to also answer Jaimie’s second question. 

The second question Jaimie raises is “Is it necessary to master the genres?”

I feel that students, once they are ready to graduate, should feel confident that they could write in any genre they were asked to.  This does not mean the students need to feel comfortable writing in every genre.  With anything in life there are things everyone has to do and can complete, but is not necessarily comfortable doing.  An interview is an example, I cannot think of someone that enjoys interviewing and is overly confident, but everyone is able to complete an interview and get through it.  I feel as teachers it is our duty to teach our students the life skills they may need.  With this I am thinking of the lack of letter writing in school, and how it is an everyday skill for some people, but definitely a skill that almost anyone in society needs to have.  Poetry is a different idea, as it is more of a creative and expressive genre for most people.  Teaching this to students introduces a new avenue for students to get their ideas out.  As teachers I feel we need to introduce as many genres and topics as we can in an organized manor for students to be able to find what interest them.  This does not mean students need to become a master in everything we teach, including genres.  This leads to Jaimie’s third question.

The third and final question is “Should teachers be able pick and choose what they teach?”

I feel that teachers should have guidelines for what needs to be taught in each grade level, to be sure students are being introduced to each genre.  I do also feel that there should be an outline of what students need to know about each genre, but the way teachers choose to introduce the genre and key points should be up to the teacher.  If a teacher wants to use trade books of their choosing I feel they should be allowed to.  I feel that with the education and professional development each teacher has had to have, they should be trusted with at least picking out trade books.  Teachers have very little say in how they teach topics trade books is one area that teachers should be able to choose books that fit the genre and relate to their students level and interests. If administration is concerned there can be a policy in place for books to be approved before used in the classroom.  Overall I feel that teachers should be able to decide, within a general outline, how and what they teach in their classrooms as far as reading and writing in the many  genres.  

Entry #9

As I have been learning about the different genres in class I have begun to reflect on my schooling as a child. I do not recall explicitly learning about a number of the genres that have been introduced in class.  Even as I student taught and been subbing in classrooms, I have not seen genres taught in the way we have in class.  In general I have seen students learning fiction vs. non-fiction as well as poetry.  Beyond this, genres are not really introduced from what I have experienced.  With this experience, and the influence of class I plan to change this.

In my classroom I want to teach each genre explicitly.  I would like for my students to know the characteristics for each genre and how they differ from each other.  I would like my students to be able to feel comfortable in writing each genre.  Not only should students know the characteristics that are specific to each genre, but they should also understand how the genre is flexible.  An example is poetry.  As we talked this week, many students see poetry to take a very structured form, which is not the case with the genre as a whole.  There is room for creativity within poetry as well as any genre.  We have also talked about persuasive writing in a previous class.  This genre can also take a wide variety of forms, ranging from a video to an essay.  This week we discovered the narrative and biography genres.   I was asked to present on the narrative genre, but paired it with biography.  It was a learning experience for me, as I was very unsure of how to mesh the two genres, let alone know enough about each.  Prior to creating the presentation I had always seen the biography genre as a research project.  This idea is far from the truth.  I learned that biographies, like the other genres, can also take many different forms.  The ideas I have learned from the presentations thus far will be extremely helpful in the classroom one day. 

Not only have I learned the characteristics that set each genre apart from the others, but I was also forced to find how the narrative and biography genres overlap.  This was an interesting finding for me, as I had not seen these two genres as similar before.  The major overlap is the personal narrative, which is a story about an even that happened to you.  After this presentation I began to think about the overlap that other genres have.  An example is biographies can take the form of poems, as well as resemble an expository text format.  I want my students to see these overlaps within the genres and not to see them as completely separate.  I feel that this will help them to become stronger writers.

As teachers we are expected to teach cross curriculum and have our students understand that writing and reading do not only take place during ELA time, and math is not only needed in math class.  With this in mind I feel that students need to be able to mesh different genres together.  Students will be required to choose the genre(s) and format they choose to write in that is the best way to get their message across.  Writing is not only the words that are written on the page, but also how they are formatted and used with each other.  Once my students have an understanding of the characteristics of each genre the use of the genres together will be a main focus in my classroom to make my students stronger writers.  I was never introduced to this idea as a student, but I feel it would be helpful to my students to have this knowledge. 

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. 

Entry #2

Thinking back to Hicks (2009) and the three elements of framework for a digital writing workshop, I notice that a digital writing workshop could easily be implemented in the classroom I student taught in.  All the necessary components were there, they were just not being used for a digital writing workshop.  As Hicks says "Just because we have access to the tools does not mean that students are engaged in digital writing" (p. 127).
The school I was in was a rural district with about eighty students per grade level.  Many of the students had not been outside of their local area before, therefore they had minimal exposure to other ways of living.  Technology was present in almost every room, as there were at least 4 laptops per room and a couple classroom sets of ipods for teachers to share.  Many, if not all of the rooms also had Smartboards that the students were familiar with.  Although the technology was present in the classrooms, the students did not have much time to interact with the technology.  In my experience the students had "computer time" for a half hour twice a week.  This was not time to write or create using the technology, it was simply a time for the students to practice their typing skills.  To me, this seemed almost pointless, because they were only retyping the sentences that appeared on the screen to complete the next level of the game.  There was never a time that the students were able to type what they wanted, or something that pertained to them.  This "computer time" was generally a negative in many students eyes.  The "game" meant nothing to them, and was only a time waster as many of the students expressed to me.  They wanted to be able to put the skills they had learned to use and type something with meaning to them.  In my experience, the students were never given a time to be digital authors, which is disappointing that the computer time was not a productive time.  From my readings over the years, I have learned that students learn best through realistic exposure and don't need explicit teaching for everything.  I believe that students should be taught the basics of typing and technology explicitly and explore the rest through general use in context.
As far as writing topics for a digital writing workshop, as mentioned above, this was not present in my student teaching placement.  This is something that should be implemented.  Students should be exposed to various types of digital writing, such as Microsoft word, wikis, blogs and possibly even social media.  Students should be taught the differences between each of the types of digital writing.  One does not write a Word document the same as on a social media site,  or even a blog.  Students should also become readers of digital texts says Hicks (2009).  When teaching students to read and write using digital technology they also need to be aware of copyright.  This is a topic that should be explicitly taught and periodically reviewed.  In my opinion it is much easier for students to "copy and paste" when using digital writing.  Students should be informed of the reasons behind copyright (the author wants to claim what they have written as their own ideas) and the consequences for not respecting the copyright.
The space in which the students could have written for a digital workshop was laid out nicely.  The computers were in groups on round tables with about five students to a table.  This would have worked very nicely, as students could collaborate with each other.  There was also enough space in the room that the students could move around and actually go sit with another classmate by their computer if need be.  The only thing I would have added to the classroom was a board for the teacher to show students examples, or how to navigate around a new website.  I feel it is much easier to show students as you are verbally explaining directions when it comes to technology, rather than to simply explain out loud. 
Overall there is a lot I would change in the classroom that I student taught in to create a digital writing workshop.  I think the students would have enjoyed the time in the computer lab much more than they were.  I also feel the time would have been more productive, as the students would be producing work rather than copying what showed up on the screen, a mindless task for many of the students.