Week 11- MGRP Reflection

Genre Summary and Reflection from my multigenre research paper

1.      Newspaper Article

I chose to create a newspaper article, specifically an article in the school section of a local paper, because this is often where current events in a school corporation are shared with the general public.  In creating this article I had to consider the practical implications of teacher collaboration and what actual teachers and other members of the school community may have to say about it. When teaching this genre I would place a heavy focus on the formatting specific to the genre; headlines, subheadings, page headers, and text organization.  I would also focus on the voice used in the article.  A newspaper reporter should portray a neutral voice that reports facts, but does not share opinions.  I appreciated the challenge of discovering what was unique about newspaper writing and using an actual newspaper as a mentor when creating this genre. 

2.      Political Advertisement

Since schools are funded by the government through the taxes paid in the local community, those community members have a say in how schools are run through electing school board officials.  Changes in the way things are done, especially corporation wide, are usually discussed with the school board for approval.  I chose to create a political advertisement that would convince a community member to support a school board candidate that supports teacher collaboration. 

The high contract colors, the child crying, and the bold statistic at the top of the ad, and the candidate’s name in all capital letters are meant to draw attention to the ad.  The smaller font describes the issue in more detail and can be read once closer attention is paid.  This type of ad is able to serve its intended purpose even if the community member does not stop to read the smaller details.  This genre could be taught to children who would like to advertise an event or even bring classmates’ attention to a new station or project displayed in the classroom.    

3.       Notes

A very important aspect of teacher collaboration is that teachers reflect on student assessment data and the instructional practices used to produce that data.  If a child is not achieving, the first action that a teacher would make would be to reflect on those instructional practices with the collaborative team.  The team would look at the data and instructional strategies used by other teachers and modify the student’s instruction from there.  These teacher notes are meant to bring greater understanding of that aspect of the process to the reader.

 Some distinguishing features of personal notes are that they are written in a very casual tone as they are intended for personal use only.  Correct punctuation and complete sentences are not always used.  Important words or phrases will be marked by underlining or highlighting and bullets can be used to set apart lists to remember.  This genre would be particularly useful to older primary aged students through high school aged students.  Note taking is an important strategy in recalling specific details within larger topics.

4.      Foreword

I created this foreword for a book written by Dr. Richard DuFour.  He is one of the most well recognized authors writing about teacher collaboration and student achievement today.  I chose this genre to illustrate how collaborative teams are formed and to highlight the systematic nature that a collaborative team needs to have in order to be effective. 

            A foreword is usually written by a colleague or someone who knows the author personally.  This personal relationship is further illustrated through the use of the first person point of view.  Often details of professional interactions and accomplishments are shared in an effort to establish respect for the author.  A foreword ends with the writer’s positive comments about her colleague’s book.  This is a genre that I had never considered before this project.  I chose it because I started to notice that the forewords in all my favorite professional books were written by other well known professionals in the field.  This genre would be a really fun one for children because they could write forewords for each other’s books.  This would be a positive experience because a foreword is meant to be positive and point out the good in the author and the writing.

Week 10- Genres of Literacy

I have spent the last 4 years teaching different genres in my classroom's Writer's Workshop; memoir, expository writing, poetry, fiction... I have never considered the true meaning of 'genre' and all that it encompasses.  From reading our book on multigenre research papers I am feeling like I should spend time teaching so many other genres, their distinguishing features, and then have my students decide which is the best way to express their information based on their purpose and who their audience is.  I have read Study Driven by Katie Wood Ray and this idea did not resonate as clearly with me at that time.  I think it is time to revisit...

Week 10-Seedfolks

Reading Seedfolks this week was really enjoyable, but very interesting when you think about using this title in the classroom.  In working on my multigenre research paper I have been focused on changing pieces of writing to different genres based on the use of the information.  This book made me think about children writing from different perspectives.  This is not something that had been very prevalent in history education.  Normally the information disseminated to our students is from the American perspective when there are always other people involved.  Their views can be very different and I think that this is an important lesson for children.  The book Baseball Saved Us is a wonderful story Ken Mochiszuiki is a story of a boy and his father in a Japanese internment camp in California during World War II.  The perspective of a young child in this very difficult situation is very touching.  Although there are some pieces of literature out there like this one, they are not very prevalent.  It would be cool for the creation of documents from different perspectives to be an invitation!

Week 9- Literacy Invitations

Week 9- Literacy Invitations

The idea of literacy invitations makes sense within the context of the philosophy of whole language instruction.  I think it is especially important that we instill in our students that, “inquiring into critical issues is complex work that won’t always lead to quick and easy answers” (Van Sluys, 2005, p. 25).  Supporting students to think critically and inquire into issues on their own will create a generation of learners that are able to transfer the knowledge that they have learned to different tasks and applications.  This is essential in a world that is advancing at such a pace that the jobs that students will work as adults do not exist when they are students.      

When thinking about how exactly to guide students to learn in this way I realized that even the simple words “You are invited to…” as suggested by Van Sluys (2005) gives the responsibility of the learning to the students.

I caught myself thinking about my kindergarten students and what invitations can look like for them.  We have a time during the day that is called ‘choice time’.  The goals of this time are for students to work creatively, imaginatively, and cooperatively.  There are many parallels between this time and invitations, as defines by Van Sluys.  One big difference between the two is that I have toys and materials in designated areas where children are supposed to play with them.  There is very little movement of materials out of their designated areas.  I liked the suggested idea of students communicating with the teacher, “Where are you working?”/” What do you need?” (Van Sluys, 2005, p. 28).  This would put emphasis on the plans and ideas of the students at the center of the learning where, by designating areas for materials, I am putting the materials at the center of the learning.     

Donut Shop

The donut shop article made me think very reflectively about my current practice with my kindergarteners.  We are having very productive reading and writing workshops.  The kids are reading with partners, they are discussing their connections, retelling stories, choosing their own books, starting to recognize words in familiar and repeating texts, choosing thier own topics, and writing books to be placed in their reading workshop bags.  Their literacy experiences are based in their interests and shared experiences.  I feel like these experiences constitute 'learning in context'.  But, the donut shop article took this concept to a whole different level.  To begin to expand the students' writing and planning to something even more authentic than choosing their own books, I gave the children journals to journal their 'choice time' experiences and plans.  Choice time is a time in the morning where kids are encouraged to learn through play.  There are blocks, dinosaurs, legos, a dramatic play area, a dollhouse, art supplies, magnetic letters, planes, cars, and a train set.  During this time the students plan what they are going to do during the period and then carry out their plans.  Journaling what they do during this time will serve multiple purposes.  It will show each student's writing over time, it will also help them to document their plans in order to discuss and expand on them in the future.  To me, this seems to fit some of the purposes of the donut shop; learning from eachother, working together towards common goals, and documenting plans through literacy.  Any thoughts on how to expand this idea? 

They are writing!

I have had a wonderful last couple of weeks with my kindergarten class in writing!  The visual we have been using in class about 'the space between invention and convention' has been on my mind a lot as my kids are writing in writer's workshop.  One little girl knows all of her letter sounds and freely writes stories (mostly pattern books because those are the ones she is reading also).  I found her sounding out 'shell'.  She was just sitting there 'shhhhhhhhhh'...'ssssshhhhhhhhhhh'.  She truned to me and said, 's' sounds like 'sssss', but I need to write 'shhhhh'.  She was ready to be introduced to the digraph sh.  We talked about some other words that use that sound and she was off; she wrote about shells and sheep and ships that day in her 'I like' book!  :)

Crafting Writers 1-6: helpful reminders and new inspiration

The first six chapters in Crafting Writers K-6 by Elizabeth Hale are the exact reason I find teaching writing so exciting!  I attended a workshop in the summer of 2009 taught by Lester Laminack, a friend and colleague of Katie Wood Ray.  I had been teaching for three years and LOVED teaching Reader’s Workshop, but didn’t have a lot of passion for Writer’s Workshop.  I was there to get some inspiration.  I loved reading about writing and had read many books by Ralph Fletcher, Katie Wood Ray, and Georgia Heard.  My main problem was that I REALLY don’t like to write and the small noticings about writing that Hale talks about in Chapter 3 were not things that I noticed when analyzing writing. 

That week Lester reintroduced me to the idea of writer’s craft and it allowed me to find a love of teaching writing that I had not possessed before.  Two points that I enjoyed reading were, ‘reading like a writer’ and ‘crafting with punctuation’.  Since I love to read (especially children’s picture books), the section about ‘reading like a writer’ really resonated with me.  I like the process that Hale suggests for this strategy; recognize the small part à name it à say why it is good (2008, pg. 27).  I agree that it is often easy to identify writing that you (or a student) think is good, but identifying why is the hard part.  I can see myself using this strategy in my classroom.  This strategy connects so well to Hale’s example about speaking in Italian on page 15.  Often children’s book writers, Hale mentions Patricia Polacco and I would add Lester Laminack, have a lyrical and warm way of writing that children enjoy but do not naturally imitate. If our end goal in reader’s and writer’s workshop is to produce knowledgeable, creative, and thought-provoking readers and authors, making this connection between reading and writing seems crucial.

Hale’s chapter on crafting with punctuation is a wonderful resource.  I say “resource” because it is broken down in a way to really guide teachers through the possibilities of this idea…which is genius.  Grammar has always seemed so silly to me because it has traditionally been taught so completely out of context that remembering all of those rules, to my brain at least, is impossible.  Thinking of punctuation as a tool to achieve something in your writing has so much context!  I like to tell my students that the punctuation marks they leave in their writing are like road signs for their readers; they tell how you intend the story to be read.  In reading conferences it is fun to read students’ writing back to them to check if it sounds as they intend.  If not, there is punctuation work left to be done.    

Having taught third and fourth grade for the last three years, the aforementioned topics are the ones that I found the most exciting and connected to.  Chapter 6, however, answered my current need.  I have recently moved to a kindergarten teaching position and have been a little lost as to how to transfer my new love of crafting to my little emergent readers and writers.  How so you teach writer’s craft to a five year old who can’t write?  It is a question I have spent a lot of time thinking about.  I am happy to announce that our first unit of writing was focused on drawing skills and we will now be revisiting that unit and using some of Hale’s helpful tables and suggestions before we begin personal narratives in November!  This is really the chapter that helped me connect what I know and love about the teaching of writer’s workshop to my very young writers.