Final Reflection

I have learned a great deal from reading Tompkins (2019) and Hicks (2013) over the course of this semester. I was eager at the start of the semester to dig deeper into the multiple genres of writing, and the types of digital media that are available now. Tompkins (2019) allowed me to dig deeper into the multiple genres of writing. Hicks (2013) allowed me to discover the types of digital media that are available now.

Over the course of this semester, I have learned about eight different genres of writing:  journal writing, narrative writing, poetry writing, nonfiction writing, biographical writing, argumentative writing, descriptive writing, and letter writing. I was excited to get started learning about the different types of genres that we teach students in school. I was excited when I was assigned to the narrative writing genre for my genre expert project. When I was student teaching, I was teaching about the character, plot, and theme, but I did not know the connection between what I was teaching and the narrative writing genre. I now know after reading Tompkins (2019) that why I was teaching about characters, plot and theme, was to create building blocks for what students need to include in their writing to make a good narrative writing piece. Now that I have the knowledge that I have learned from Tompkins (2019), I am better equipped to teach the narrative writing genre. I have strategies to use to teach the genre, in a way that students will be able to understanding and later transfer what they have learned.

Hicks (2013) discusses five different types of digital writing: crafting web texts, crafting presentations, crafting audio texts, crafting video texts, and crafting social media. This whole concept of digital writing is fairly new to me. I have always been very excited about the use of technology and integrating it into multiple stages of instruction. Before, I was only going off of what I have observed in classrooms that I have previously been in. Now that I have had the opportunity to read Hicks (2013) book about crafting digital texts, I have a wider range of tools to use that incorporate technology into instruction. Out of the five types of digital writing the one that I feel I have learned the most about and will be able to use in the future is crafting audio texts. I loved learning about the multiple ways to use audio texts such as podcasts. I have learned to love podcasts more than I ever thought possible. I have begun listening to podcasts daily because of what I learned from Hicks (2013). Podcasts can be incredibly powerful, stimulating, and thought-provoking!

In general, I would not consider myself a master in any of these genres or digital writing so I would have to say most of them still intimidate me to some extent. I do not think I will fully be comfortable with any of them until I have the opportunity to teach them, and begin mastering my instruction around the genres and digital writing. I am aware that I still am not 100% confident with all of the genres of reading and writing, and the multiple types of digital writing. I believe knowing this will make me a better teacher in the future.

References

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

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

"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.