Genre Pieces Project Thoughts

At the start of this semester, we read Tompkins’ (2019) chapter on the writing process, where I was more formally introduced to the stages of the writing process. I was familiar with writing workshop because of my previous experience in schools. There were times when I was observing in some classrooms where the teacher had the stages of the writing process posted on a clip chart where students would put there clip on whichever stage of the writing process they were currently in. However, I cannot recall learning the 5 stages of the writing process or using all of the stages of the writing process during writing while growing up. What I mostly remember from writing at a young age is writing a piece from start to finish, and then drawing a picture that went along with writing. I do not recall ever going back to the first copy and going through all of the stages of the writing process.

The genre pieces project has challenged me greatly. I have loved being able to write about a topic that is of high interest to me, that aspect of the project has made this project much more enjoyable. I decided to have my topic be about the Girl Scouts of America Organization. I have such a strong passion and love for the organization, which is why it is the perfect topic for me to take time diving in deep with on three different genres pieces. I have been able to create three different pieces, all of which have a unique voice, purpose, and primary audience.

While I have been having a lot of fun with this project, it has really challenged me as a writer in several different ways. Like I talked about earlier, when writing I typically just dive right into the piece, I typically skip over the prewriting stage because I get so excited to start writing. I don’t normally just take the time to think about the topic and write down everything and anything that comes to mind. Now, I have learned to take time to consider the topic I am writing about while I organize my ideas. I now consider the potential audience who might be reading my piece and my purpose for the piece. The last step in the prewriting stage that I never considered was deciding on the appropriate genre for my piece. Now, that I have learned all through Tompkins (2019) the importance of the prewriting stage, I make sure to take time during this stage.

The other two stages that Tompkins’ (2019), which I typically neglect, is the editing and revising stages. Typically, I complete a writing piece or a writing assignment, run the piece through spell check and a program called Grammarly, and then I am done with the writing piece. I am ashamed of even admitting this, but I don’t always reread my writing pieces. I simply use spell check and leave it at that. Now that it is a requirement to show proof of all stages of the writing process, I have been challenged to engage with each of the stages. It has pushed me to become a better writer. I am grateful for the challenge this project has given me.

References

Tompkins, G.E., & Jones, P. D. (2019). Teaching writing: Balancing process and product (7th ed.). NY, NY: Pearson.

Hey there, Catherine!

When I initially read the requirements for this weeks blog entry, I got very nervous. I am not the biggest fan of giving feedback to my peers, especially in a professional way. The reason that I am not the biggest fan of giving feedback to my peers is that I don’t want to seem like I know more or know something better than they do. My classmates are more than my peers or colleagues in my professional master’s degree program, they are my friends. I do not want to offend my friends in any way. However, because they are my friends I know that they welcome any feedback that I give them because it can either help them grow their learning, or it will just be another conversation we have centered around our professional program! Keeping all of this in mind, in addition to what Hicks says, “To bless is to simply offer praise. To address means to ask specific questions about the ideas. To press is to ask critical questions in order to help the writer move towards a stronger version or the writing or a clearer explanation of his/her opinion.” (p.83) I will be taking a closer look into one of Catherine’s blog posts.

When I began reviewing all of my classmate's blogs, Catherine’s most recent blog post immediately caught my eye. The blog posting that I will be reviewing from Catherine’s blog is titled “Entry 7: How can students use Google Sites to create more digitally enhanced pieces?” The reason Catherine’s blog immediately caught my eye is that I am OBSESSED with all things Google. I love Google Classroom, Google Slides, Google Forms, Google Docs, Google Drive, the list goes on and on. However, Google Sites is a relatively new platform for me. Before taking LTED 618, I never had a reason to create a Google Site. The title of Catherine’s blog posting caught my eye, and I wanted to dive into either “bless, press or address” (Hicks, 2013) on what I took away from her blog.  

                                           

I absolutely love the personal connection and background Catherine gave around her experiences working with Google. She provided multiple ways that the school district she works in uses Google Classroom because the school is one-to-one with technology, allowing teachers to use a platform like this daily in the classroom.  She and I have used Google Classroom in similar contexts. I appreciate Catherine sharing her personal experiences with using Google Classroom. When Catherine began thinking more in-depth about Google Sites, I initially got a little anxious because I don’t know how to use Google Sites. When I played around on the platform, I was having a really hard time because I could not figure out how to do it. I am wondering how Catherine would go about teaching students about how to use Google Sites? There are so many different aspects that go into making a Google Site, you would have to teach how to use the platform before the students would be able to publish work in the way Catherine was thinking about using it. I love the idea of using Google Sites, but I am not sure how realistic this platform of Google would work out for students to use. I am also wondering if Catherine was thinking of an age for students to start using Google Sites to publish their work? Would this platform be suitable for the class in 3rd grade who have already been introduced to working with Google Classroom? Or is it more suitable for students who are older and have more patience to play around and/or learn about this technology platform for publishing their work?  I can’t wait to chat with Catherine about my questions!

References

Hicks, T. (2013).  Crafting digital writing.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

"Genre Expert" Workshop Presentation

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on my genre expert workshop presentation. The genre I was assigned was narrative reading and writing. Initially, when I was thinking about this project, I really wanted to do my presentation on letter writing. I love writing letters and receiving letters from others. My boyfriend and I write letters to each other very frequently. Even though we see each other several times a week, we still enjoy writing letters to one another because it helps us reflect on our relationship and work on our writing skills. When I was assigned to do my project on narrative writing and reading, I had to stop and think about what experiences I have had with narrative reading and writing. There are only a few experiences from my experience during undergrad that I can recall involving students and narrative writing. The first experience was in a second-grade classroom, the kids were writing personal narratives like crazy. They were not really taking time to go through the writing process. I also did not notice that the teacher was teaching the different structural elements that I learned about while reading the chapter about narrative writing in Tompkins (2019).  When students are explicitly taught about the structural elements of narrative writing they will develop into better writers.

Tompkins (2019) discusses the five story structures that a writer uses are plot, setting, characters, theme, and point of view. For my presentation, I initially was not sure how I should approach the genre presentation. There was so much that I read and learned about this genre, I wasn’t sure what to focus on. When I reread the chapter on narrative writing, Tompkins (2019) said, “Often character is the most important element because the experience the author creates for readers is centered on a character or group of characters.” (p. 176) I decided to focus on character development for my genre expert workshop presentation. I had so many ideas running through my head when I made this decision. I began my research looking through the Reading Teacher journals and found several supporting articles, which support my thinking, and validates what Tompkins (2019) discusses in the chapter on narrative writing.

I am very proud of the work I have put into my presentation for Monday. I thought through each of the slides I created making sure that I will only use the slides as a tool and not to read directly off of. Knowing myself, I needed to include a few amounts of details into the presentation or else I would sit a read directly off of the board. I also took a lot of time to find an excellent read-aloud book to use for part of my presentation. I also found a lot of additional picture books that have strong characters that will aid in my presentation when it is time for independent practice. I really hope that my presentation goes over well. I get extremely nervous presenting in front of people. Even though I am friends with all of the people in our class, and I know they will not judge me for my work. They are always so encouraging and supportive of me. However, I still get very anxious about presenting in front of people. I am excited to see how the presentation goes over on Monday!

References

Tompkins, G.E., & Jones, P. D. (2019). Teaching writing: Balancing process and product (7th ed.). NY, NY: Pearson.