Entry 11

Upon reflecting on all of the genres we have discussed this semester, I have learned that each genre has its own set of subsets and specific features. For example, the narrative genre can include mysteries and science fiction texts, poetry can come in various forms such as haiku and diamante, and biographies can be autobiographies, biographies, and personal narratives. In addition, there are specific features that are unique to each genre. The narrative genre must have a plot, characters, and a conflict. In spite of this, genres may sometimes contain similar features. For example, a poem and a biography may both contain characters and a conflict, which are two features of the narrative genre. Also, a descriptive piece may contain elements of persuasion. Even a narrative piece may attempt to persuade the reader. In this way, all of the genres overlap and connect with each other.

At the start of this course, I thought I had a good understanding of the narrative, journal, biographical, and descriptive genres. Through completing my Genre Expert Presentation, I realized that I only had a surface-level understanding of the components of the narrative genre. The narrative genre as a whole is much more complex and has a much wider scope than I had previously realized. Prior to Dr. Jones’ presentation on journal writing, I had thought I knew a great deal about this genre. However, I had not learned all of the various types of journal writing and how to effectively utilize these types in my future classroom. Similarly, I thought I had an in-depth understanding of biographical writing prior to Liz’s presentation, as I have read many biographies and autobiographies in the past. However, once I read Tompkins’ (2008) chapter 7, I realized that the concept of personal narratives was relatively new to me.

Upon reading the chapters in Tompkins (2008), I recognized that, while I had been exposed to large amounts of poetry throughout my education, there were a few types that I was relatively unfamiliar with. Also, in spite of my past experience with poetry, I still began this course feeling as though I did not have a deep understanding of this genre. Through Melissa G.’s presentation, I learned a great deal more about poetry, as well as how to overcome the unease that I may feel about teaching this genre.

At the beginning of this course, I knew that I was not very familiar with persuasive writing. While I have read many persuasive pieces and have created persuasive commercials when I was in elementary and middle school, I have not had much experience actually writing a persuasive paper, such as a speech. While Dr. Jones’ presentation and Tompkins’ (2008) chapter 12 have provided me with a better understanding of this genre, I still feel rather intimidated at the concept of teaching it. This is especially worrisome to me, as my unit for my LTED 625 SCATP project has to do with persuasive writing. I feel as though, if I had more personal experience writing in this genre, as well as a bit more exposure to written persuasive pieces, I would gain the added confidence needed to feel comfortable teaching this genre to my future students.

Entry 10

Liz’s discussion of Hicks’ (2009) chapter 5 really changed the way I think about digital portfolios, class anthologies, and audio anthologies. Prior to reading this chapter and answering Liz’s discussion questions, I had only really thought about digital portfolios as a possible way to organize and compile student work. In addition, I had not considered the logistics of utilizing this technology. For example, I had not considered which website to use to create these digital portfolios. It is helpful that Hicks (2009) includes suggestions of potential websites within the chapter, so that readers can explore these sites on their own in order to determine which is best to use with their students.

Our discussion of Hicks’ (2009) chapter 5 also made me more familiar with the types of technology that can be used to create class anthologies and audio anthologies. I think that too often, secondary educators disregard these types of projects, as they are used more often in elementary classrooms. However, I think that class anthologies can be very motivating and empowering tools to use with our older students. For example, in my high school Spanish class, during senior year, our teacher had the class create a yearbook. We each worked on our own personal page, and then each of us contributed an extra portion, such as a superlatives page, a poetry page, a music page, and other pieces. The whole class collaborated to create a design for the front cover. After all of these parts were completed, we had books made for the whole class (it was not a large class; only about 12-15 students total). This experience was so unique and caused all of us to get to know each other better. I still have the yearbook (somewhere) at home. Through this class anthology, we all were able to grow in our knowledge of Spanish, as well as in our understanding and respect for each other as classmates. I believe that creating a similar compilation online through a class wiki would also allow for these same benefits in a secondary classroom.

I was really happy that Liz chose to have us make our own webpages for a class anthology or digital portfolio. Typically, I am very hesitant about using new technology, so it was good for me to step out of my comfort zone and attempt to create my own webpage. While I still have much to learn, this experience provided me with a good basis in how to go about creating webpages using Google Sites. In addition, creating a potential place to upload my Genre Pieces Project allowed me to have a better perspective on the feasibility of using Google Sites for this purpose. I am the type of person that actually needs to see and use technology in order to more fully understand its features and usage. It would greatly benefit me to try using some of the other websites and programs mentioned in this chapter for use in creating class anthologies and audio anthologies. In this way, I will better comprehend how to use this technology with my students for these purposes.

In addition, although we didn’t have much time to thoroughly discuss copyright issues, I did appreciate that Liz mentioned this in her presentation. Copyright and plagiarism issues are strictly enforced in most schools, and I think that teachers are highly aware of these issues when reading students’ writing. However, when working with digital media, I believe that these concerns are not always at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Since digital media is so new, and since some of this media is often considered to be separate from classroom life, it can be challenging for teachers to remain vigilant about copyright issues and to determine when potential copyright infringements may occur. For example, my LTED 625 vocabulary blog requires me to include images relating to the particular vocabulary word, when possible. Prior to our conversation last class, I had added images to my blog from Google Images, with no citation and without considering the source. Until we discussed copyright issues in class, I had not given much thought to the fact that using these images in this way may be a copyright infringement or may constitute plagiarism. This was very shocking to me, as I always attempt to properly cite others’ ideas in my written papers, so why wouldn’t I do the same with images? It seemed so obvious to me after we discussed it, but I truly did not consider online images when I considered copyright and plagiarism. I suppose this is due to the fact that plagiarism of images was not touched upon when we discussed this topic in my high school English courses. My teachers were always most concerned with the writing aspect, such as including quotation marks around each direct quote and citing at the end of each sentence in which another person’s idea has been used. I think it would be extremely beneficial for all educators to further explore these issues so that we are prepared to identify and address plagiarism and copyright issues when our students utilize digital media in our classes.

Hicks, T. (2009). The digital writing workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

Entry 9

I am so glad that Liz discussed the differences between personal narratives and other forms of the biography genre.  While reading Tompkins (2008), I thought I understood the differences between these forms and what makes personal narratives so unique.  However, once Liz began discussing the characteristics of the various forms of the biography genre, I realized that I was not as familiar with personal narratives as I thought.  It was a relief when Melissa G. asked for further clarification, as I needed more information about the distinctive features of personal narratives as well.

Based on our class discussion and the biography chapter in Tompkins (2008), personal narratives seem to be about only one experience, have a beginning, middle, and end (similar to a narrative story) and (sometimes) answer the "why" or explain what the person learned.  In spite of having more clarification about what constitutes a personal narrative, I am not sure if I could determine that a particular published piece is considered to be part of this subset of biographical writing.  However, I do understand what a personal narrative would look like if written by my students.  I think, after more exposure to this genre and more practice with identifying examples of each type of biography, I will be better able to distinguish between personal narratives and autobiographies.

While all of the activities Tompkins (2008) advocates having students complete after reading a biography (such as Bio Boxes and Biography posters) seemed interesting when I initially read the chapter, actually having the opportunity to create one of these products myself was helpful.  By making my own Bio Cube during Liz's presentation, I was able to understand the logistics of assigning this type of project to my students.  While I created my Bio Cube, I discovered that coming up with a memorable quote from the person, as well as the obstacles the person has faced, may be difficult for my students, depending upon the person whose biography they are reading.  Knowing the potential issues with this activity can help me to determine what modifications I would make if I were to use the Bio Cube activity with my future students.

While we did not discuss this activity in class, the Bio Box that Tompkins (2008) mentions also seems to be a great activity for students to complete after reading a biography.  Students' creativity is fostered by the task of identifying what types of items represent the person and then deciding which of these items to include in the box (Tompkins, 2008).  In addition, students must explain the significance of each item that they chose to include in the box.  This activity encourages students to reflect on the individual and to make connections between the aspects of the person's life that they read about and the types of items that they can use to represent these aspects.  I would even consider using this activity with older students, as it could be a much more interactive and in-depth activity than a written response to the biography.

Being an English major, I find that biographies can be an extremely interesting genre.  I particularly enjoy autobiographies, as it is fascinating to me to read about a person's life in his or her own words.  However, I do not feel that this genre gets enough attention in schools.  The only biographies I distinctly remember reading in high school were part of my research for a paper I was writing.  Very rarely did we read a biography in my high school English classes.  If at all possible, I would love to teach more biographies when I have my own classroom, as I think it allows students to connect more deeply to a particular person (and potentially a particular time period as well).  Instead of reading a fictional story, a biography or autobiography allows students to think about a real individual's life and experiences.  I think that students can connect to the subject of the biography in way s they may not be able to do through reading about that particular person in a history textbook or a narrative story.  The fact that the events detailed in a biography actually happened to a person could allow for a richer classroom discussion of the book's contents.  Overall, Liz's presentation and Tompkins' (2008) chapter have sparked my interest in teaching this genre to my future students.

Entry 8

While reading Tompkins' (2008) chapter on poetry, I was surprised to find that there are so many forms of poetry.  There were even a few forms that I was not familiar with, such as clerihews (Tompkins, 2008).  I think that having a chapter on poetry is helpful for educators, and I wish that all teachers who are planning to teach poetry would read this chapter in Tompkins (2008), as it greatly improved my perception of this genre.  I recall when we first discussed poetry in class, we mentioned that it is a genre that many educators do not enjoy teaching.  Whether they are intimidated by poetry or simply unfamiliar with it, the consensus seems to be that many teachers lack confidence when teaching poetry and, possibly as a result of this, many students do not enjoy this unit either.

I was one of those students who did not enjoy the poetry unit.  I rarely ever read poetry, and I was not a huge fan of it, generally speaking.  Whenever my class would study poetry in high school, we would work to interpret poems.  This was often challenging for me, especially with poems written by "classic" poets.  I seemed to never interpret these poems the "correct" way.  This frustrated me, and so I never engaged very much with the poems that we studied.  Also, our poetry units in school were very short and seemed to only serve to expose us briefly to poetry, so that we would be familiar with this genre when we encountered it on the NYS Regents Exam.

I wish that, as a student, I had more exposure to poetry and had the freedom and the opportunity to create my own poems.  Being able to create poems using all of the forms mentioned in Tompkins (2008) would have allowed me to have the freedom to be creative.  This ability would also have given me added confidence in my ability to write poetry.  As a result, this added confidence would have likely transferred to my understanding of poetry, and I might have had more interest in this genre.

Now that I am older, I do write my own personal poetry.  However, I have never really associated these writings with the poetry that I studied in school.  Also, I am more receptive to reading poetry on my own at this point in my life.  While I still don't read poetry very often, my attitude toward this genre has improved.  Although my attitude about poetry has evolved, prior to reading Tompkins' (2008) chapter 11, I still had doubts about how to effectively teach poetry to my future students, as it is not my most favorite genre.  After reading this chapter, I found myself more excited about all of the ideas and possibilities when teaching poetry to students, as well as all of the types of poetry I could teach.  Tompkins (2008) has definitely caused me to start thinking differently about teaching poetry, and I hope that she has positively influenced others who may not have had the most positive view of this genre as well.

Also, Melissa G.’s presentation helped me to further develop my understanding of this genre.  Actually writing the types of poetry that I may ask my students to create in the future allowed me to better understand the aspects of poetry writing that could be challenging to them.  While my confidence in my own ability to write (and share) poetry did not increase substantially, I do feel more comfortable writing in this genre than I did prior to the presentation.  In addition, I had not realized how many great resources and examples of exemplary poetry are available to share with our students.  Melissa’s presentation made me feel more prepared and more excited about potentially teaching poetry in the future. 

Entry 7

So far, I am really loving our Writing Workshop time in class.  Not only do I find myself getting a lot of writing done, but I also feel that I have a better understanding of what a Writing Workshop would look like in my future classroom.  Generally, I am the type of person who can read an article that contains an idea to implement in the classroom, can love the idea and want to use it in my own classroom, but I need to have it demonstrated in some way in order for me to have a complete understanding of the concept.  For example, when reading Tompkins' (2008) explanation of Writing Workshop, as well as Hicks' (2009) explanation of the Digital Writing Workshop, I had a general idea of how a Writing Workshop would look and of what it would entail.  However, having experience actually implementing a workshop, or seeing one being implemented by another teacher, gives me a better understanding and helps me to have added confidence in employing the workshop myself.  Also, I am better able to appreciate the benefits of implementing the workshop when I see an example.

Having time actually designated to write greatly helps me, because I find that I generally do not set aside much specific time to write when I'm at home.  Being in the computer lab also helps me, as it forces me to focus on the task at hand.  When I'm at home, I find myself easily distracted from writing.  For example, I will take what I like to refer to as "Facebook breaks" while doing homework.  I may write a few paragraphs for a paper or another assignment, and then "reward" myself by logging onto Facebook.  Not only is this a huge time-waster, but it interrupts the flow of ideas, and I end up feeling like my writing is choppy or fragmented.  I am sure many students do not set aside specific time for writing at home either, so having a Writing Workshop with specific time for writing would greatly benefit them.

Having to state what I'm going to be working on prior to the start of the Writing Workshop aids me in remaining focused on my writing as well.  I am able to figure out ahead of time where I am in the writing process and what I still need to work on with a given piece of writing.  It also is very interesting to think that students have time to write individually and complete assignments at their own pace when working in Writing Workshop.  From what little I can remember about my own education, I do not think we had a time like this to write in class.  I can remember having class time during which to write a piece, and then additional class time to revise and edit the piece after the teacher reviewed our drafts.  Although we worked independently, this class time seemed incredibly structured.  We were all expected to finish our writing by a certain time, and we were all working on the same type of piece at one time.

Also, I do not remember conferencing much with my peers.  In fact, I distinctly remember asking a friend to help me with a grammar issue that my teacher had circled on my draft as being incorrect.  Rather than helping me, my classmate told me to "look it up," since she was too busy revising and editing her own draft.  At the time, I recall feeling incredibly frustrated, since the teacher was busy conferencing with another student, and I simply wanted help with this one error so that I could move on to write my final copy.  What I particularly love about our LTED 618 Writing Workshop is that I feel supported by my classmates and know that they will give me honest feedback and helpful writing advice.  I do not feel as though I am working through the writing process alone, even though I complete the actual writing pieces independently.  It is this type of writing environment that I wish to promote in my own classroom and Writing Workshop. 

Hicks, T. (2009). The digital writing workshop. Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann. 

Entry 6

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Nancy Sommers’ (1982) article, as it addresses a concern that I’ve had ever since my student-teaching experience two years ago.  Once I was handed a stack of student essays to grade, I realized that I had no idea how to grade essays.  No one had taught me what comments to make and how much I should respond in the margins.  Do I only respond to an interesting idea or when a student makes a sizeable error?  I wanted to refrain from marking up every other sentence of an essay with red pen, since I know from experience that this can be extremely off-putting to students; generally the more red marks they see, the worse they believe their essays are.  What can we do for students who need much assistance with revising and editing their work?  Do we only comment on more serious errors without mentioning the inconsequential ones? 

When I was in high school, I distinctly remember being the type of student who responded only to what the teacher wrote on my paper.  If we had the opportunity to revise a piece, I would go through the paper and find all of the comments that the teacher made.  The only changes I made to my papers were those that the teacher recommended.  I remember always making the “cosmetic” changes first, such as spelling and grammatical errors.  I usually saved any more complex revisions, including any paragraphs that needed more supporting details, until the end.  When I did make changes that involved adding sentences and expanding on ideas, these changes were usually the “bare minimum” and very superficial.  I would not typically look back at my essay as a whole piece and make additional changes that were not suggested by the teacher.  As Sommers (1982) suggests, I was guilty of concentrating more on what my teacher “commanded [me] to do than on what [I was] trying to say” (p. 151). 

While this may be an unfair judgment, I attribute much of my writing abilities (both good and bad) to my experiences in middle and high school.  As Sommers (1982) suggests, I feel that my teachers did not explicitly teach writing strategies very often.  However, my teachers’ comments did serve to imply that “writing is just a matter of following the rules” in some cases (Sommers, 1982, p. 153).  While this is not the most positive example of teaching writing, those comments did help me greatly in determining the proper way to cite information and how to correctly spell certain words.  Through these types of comments on my papers, I better understood how to write research papers.  Unfortunately, the content of my writing and my own personal voice and writing style did not flourish through these responses.  This is an issue that can be corrected through writing workshops, especially through the use of peer conferencing.  In my experience, I have found that peers are more likely to respond to the content of another student’s paper, rather than individual grammatical or citation errors. 

Sommers’ (1982) discussion of the lack of teacher training in responding to students’ writing stood out to me as especially meaningful.  Teachers reported that “responding to student writing was rarely stressed in their teacher-training or in writing workshops” (Sommers, 1982, p. 154).  When I read that sentence, I was prompted to think of my own undergraduate education courses, and I realized that there is only one instance in which I can distinctly remember assessing students’ essays based on a 6+1 Traits rubric.  In terms of how to specifically respond to students’ essays, I had not received any instruction in this prior to student-teaching.  Grading papers remains one of the most daunting tasks in my mind when I think about having my own classroom.  I agree with Sommers (1982) when she asserts that, “instead of reading and responding to the meaning of a text, we correct our students’ writing” (p. 154).  I believe that not only is it easier for many teachers to focus on spelling and grammar errors, but that we feel more comfortable pointing out these types of errors than making comments about students’ specific ideas and arguments.  The more practice that we, as teachers, have with commenting on the ideas and meanings found in students’ writing, the more confident we will feel addressing these aspects of writing.

Sommers, N. (1982). Responding to student writing. College Composition and Communication, 33(2), 148-156. 

Entry 5

Dear Dr. Jones,

Overall, the class is going well.  I already find myself thinking differently about writing.  Through our writing workshop sessions, I am becoming more comfortable with writing assignments.  Previously, whenever I began to think about an assigned writing piece, I would not be very motivated and would consider the whole writing process to be a daunting task.  Typically, I would come up with an idea, create a brief outline, write a draft, and then edit the draft once for grammatical errors.  Once my work has been written, I have always had a hard time wanting to go back and read through what I have written, as I am extremely critical of my own writing.  Our writing workshops have helped me to take the necessary time to plan, pre-write, and draft my work.  As a result, I now feel more confident when I sit down to write.  I also enjoy our class discussions; even though there are only three of us, I think we are able to have richer, more authentic conversations than some groups that are twice as large.  This course has also broadened my knowledge of technology and how to utilize this technology in classroom learning.  Prior to this class, I was vaguely familiar with blogs and wikis, but I had never actually created and used one of my own.  After reading Hicks (2009), I have been introduced to numerous websites and other technological resources to use with my future students.  Our class blogs and wiki have aided me in better understanding how these two technological resources work and how I could utilize them in my future classroom.

Prior to this course, I had learned about Kucer’s (2009) ideas regarding the connections between reading and writing and how the two are similar processes.  While this was very enlightening to me, the implications of this way of thinking about reading and writing did not resonate with me.  Now that I am actually utilizing the writing process in our class and keeping this connection in mind, this relationship is clearer to me.  Lately, I have been engaging in a fully transactional writing process at least twice a week.  I think deeply when I write m blog entries for this course and when I write during writing workshop.  As a result, I find myself transferring this state-of-mind to other writing situations, either for other courses or for my own personal writing.  I chose to engage in this kind of thinking because I find that I am better able to understand and retain the information that I am writing about.  Also, thinking deeply about what I am writing allows me to examine the issue in-depth and form multiple perspectives.  I feel better able to discuss a topic after writing about it thoroughly.  For example, as a result of the work I have done thus far for my genre pieces project, I feel as though I am gaining a better understanding of chinchillas and am moving from being a “competent” learner to a “proficient” learner of this subject-matter (Alexander & Jetton, 2000, p. 300).  One of the habits I may have to change in order to fully engage while writing is to stop feeling so self-conscious about my writing and about the fact that others will read it. 

The main instructional strategy that will benefit me as a teacher of literacy is the writing workshop.  While I had read about this strategy in articles, I had not utilized it in a classroom setting.  After having experience with the writing workshop format in our class, I feel more comfortable with the strategy and see the benefits of using it in my future classroom.  The biggest concern that I have at this point is my “Teaching the Genre” expert presentation.  I always have anxiety before a presentation; I feel as though I’ll forget something or freeze up in front of everyone.  I will just need to think positively, make sure I’m well prepared, and remember that there are only three people in this class, so I shouldn’t feel too nervous.  Aside from this concern, I do not have many other concerns.  So far, I understand the content of this course and am enjoying our class.

Sincerely,

Melissa N.

Alexander, P. A. & Jetton, T. L. (2000). Learning from text: A multidimensional perspective. In

M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading

research: Volume III (pp. 285-310). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Hicks, T. (2009). The digital writing workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Kucer, S. B. (2009). Dimensions of literacy: A conceptual base for teaching reading and writing

in school settings. New York, NY: Routledge.