Now is the time for me to sit here and think, reflect, and truly dig deep into what I have learned this semester not only about the content, but with my own experiences with blogging for the first time. I had always seen a friend or two of mine have blogs, but I never had an interest to have one of my own. I felt that the information would seem to personal to just go an release all over the internet. But to each his own as they say- because it is really up to the writer to decide how much information you want to reveal to your internet audience. What I would have never expected was the fact that I could use a blog for educational purposes- for myself or for my students! The class discussions we have held about online writing experiences, the class textbooks (Hicks and Tompkins), and by giving a genre presentation, I was able to gain a much broader experience with digital writing, teaching tools, and genre features.
I really enjoyed being able to see how others' were learning in the class. It was nice to not feel alone on some of my opinions about writing, and it was nice having the chance to free-write. I was able to reflect about my teaching experiences or even my own experiences in writing from my past. I think I initially struggled to connect with some of the readings, but once I read other posts and was challenged by Dr. Jones, I began to unravel my thoughts a little more and dig deeper. I had to question my thinking, think about what I would do in certain situations if I had my own classroom, and I had to connect with the readings all at the same time. I think I became a stronger "blog" writer a few blogs into this assignment.
I have taken the time to read over the student learning outcomes. I feel that I was able to meet outcome #1 because I was able to explore a variety of genres, experiment with them through my blog posts and genre pieces project, and I was able to read about them in the Tompkins book. The Tompkins text was a vital piece in helping me to learn about a variety of genres that readers and writers use to communicate. It had excellent examples from real classrooms, and it offered research about each genre.
I was able to understand better about the role of purpose and audience in writing because of the genre pieces project. I am still learning about audience through this class and my literacy clinic class (LTED 685), but I understand the connection between having an audience and how that can alter an entire writing piece. Each piece in my genre project has an audience that would best fit the piece I chose to write.
I was able to meet outcome #3 because we were able to explore newer forms of writing through the Hicks text. I have increased my knowledge about podcasts, blogs, subscribing to webpages, and so on, but I need to actually sign up or mosey on through these sites to actually understand how to follow through with some of these new digital literacy resources- naturally.
I remember reading about the relationship between reading and writing. I know it is a transactional process, and it takes many stages for a writer to complete. Dr. Jones helped me realize that writing can always be edited and there does not necessarily have to be a finished,"permanent", writing piece. I was able to think metacognitively and reflect about my experiences using this blog and how it can help me in the future. Of course I was able to increase my reading comprehension through the online reading assignments, class reading opportunities amongst peers' posts, and with text chapters.
The Hicks reading helped me to understand the types of reading and writing assignments that are appropriate for learners. There were have to be many modifications for online resources in the younger grades, but teachers would have to familiarize themselves with the writing too first, then read it to the kids.
It helps having a rubric made available to us to understand the purposes of the assignment, how we are getting graded, and what I can do to try to earn the most points when I demonstrate my full potential toward a writing task.
I was able to somewhat gain a better idea of writing assessment by seeing the rubric available for each of our assignments in this course, but I need to further develop my knowledge on writing assessment or evaluation for my students. I need to learn to set high expectations, but not get too "nit picky". I need to understand that each individual's writing will be different amongst once classroom, and sometimes I just need to look past the writing to see the message behind someone's writing piece.
This has been an interesting experience. I hope to use blogs in the future with my classroom to help students connect, build community, and learn about themselves as writers.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Entry #11- Developing My Understanding of Genre Features
I feel as though I have gained multiple perspectives on the variety of genres we learned about this semester. It's interesting to actually think the semester is coming towards a closing, and everyone has participated in presenting their genre. At first, I was very confused with how we were supposed to go about our presentations, but it definitely helped that Dr. Jones started off with her examples with the journal writing genre. I found it very interesting to learn about the different types of journals teachers can use in their classrooms with their students. Not only can students have the opportunity to reflect and become self-regulators of their own reading and writing, but students often have opportunities to write about specific topics or free-write topics to develop their sense of audience and general writing skills.
Tompkins states (2012), "As they write, students shape their thinking and personalize their learning. Because writing is such a powerful tool for thinking and learning, teachers incorporate journals into their instructional programs to nurture students' writing fluency and facilitate their learning in language arts and across the curriculum" (p.108). This is my favorite part about writing- it can be incorporated across the curriculum. ELA and science can be intertwined to help students gain meaningful experiences learning to read and write about things such as the life cycle, or teachers can have students use a journal such as double-entry journals to write information about one of the presidents and their personal responses about that for social studies.
I know that I am definitely going to use journals in my classroom across a wide range of topics in the curriculum.
I also enjoyed learning about the biographical genre and the descriptive genre. All groups presented very well for each week there were presentations, but I felt the people who led the descriptive genre really set the tone with the type of presentation we needed to give in order for the class to be engaged and fully understand how the genre could be utilized in the classroom, along with other ideas and books for us to use in the specific genre presented. The descriptive genre is a genre I learned much more about and would continue to read about in order to utilize different ideas for writing pieces in my classroom. It is important that writers use multisensory word pictures, vivid, yet powerful words to make their writing more descriptive. Dialogue, word choice, creative sensory images, and having careful selections of words allows writers to help their writing pieces come alive (Tompkins, 2012). I would definitely use the "Guess the flavor" activity that this presentation group (Alyse and Nicole) used in order to activate our senses and enhance our understanding of this genre.
I was also able to understand the biographical genre a little better in the sense that I do not have much experience with autobiographies- so it was nice to see some teaching tools I could use in my classroom for this genre, such as the "life box" that Kristen brought in the class. I am excited to build my experiences working with these genres with students in my classroom/future classroom.
When I was assigned the persuasive genre, I was a little nervous at first. After I read more about it in the chapter and had strong support and communication with my group members, I was able to see this genre wasn't so "scary" after all! It was just a matter of not having any experience working in this genre. I learned much more about this genre than anticipated-mainly because my presentation sort of forced me into delving deeper on the topic. Argument is naturally within us! Especially in younger children who can be very egotistic- so it is important as teachers for us to help students understand how to organize their persuasive thoughts into writing (Tompkins, 2012). I learned that children need to understand when they write persuasively, they need to develop a stronger sense position and follow through with reasoning behind their position(s). My presentation group and Tompkins' book helped me to understand more about propaganda and the different forms of persuasion-ethos, logos, and pathos.
I may not have had the greatest or most broad experiences with poetry in my past, but I certainly look forward to enhancing my experience with this genre as well. I am disappointed I had to miss the presentation on poetry and the expository genre, but I would definitely say I have the most experience working with kids in the expository genre-fortunately. I could see myself incorporating both in my classroom, whether it is through morning daily routines, or through book reports about different animals in the rainforest! I think I have a broader and more open-minded opinion about poetry now that I am aware of the different forms of it (free verse, rhymed verse, formula, haiku, and acrostic poems)
My understanding for each genre has increased quite a bit- especially with the genre I presented in persuasive writing. This was a great experience, and I am glad I have handouts and resources available for each genre for me to use in the future.
Tompkins states (2012), "As they write, students shape their thinking and personalize their learning. Because writing is such a powerful tool for thinking and learning, teachers incorporate journals into their instructional programs to nurture students' writing fluency and facilitate their learning in language arts and across the curriculum" (p.108). This is my favorite part about writing- it can be incorporated across the curriculum. ELA and science can be intertwined to help students gain meaningful experiences learning to read and write about things such as the life cycle, or teachers can have students use a journal such as double-entry journals to write information about one of the presidents and their personal responses about that for social studies.
I know that I am definitely going to use journals in my classroom across a wide range of topics in the curriculum.
I also enjoyed learning about the biographical genre and the descriptive genre. All groups presented very well for each week there were presentations, but I felt the people who led the descriptive genre really set the tone with the type of presentation we needed to give in order for the class to be engaged and fully understand how the genre could be utilized in the classroom, along with other ideas and books for us to use in the specific genre presented. The descriptive genre is a genre I learned much more about and would continue to read about in order to utilize different ideas for writing pieces in my classroom. It is important that writers use multisensory word pictures, vivid, yet powerful words to make their writing more descriptive. Dialogue, word choice, creative sensory images, and having careful selections of words allows writers to help their writing pieces come alive (Tompkins, 2012). I would definitely use the "Guess the flavor" activity that this presentation group (Alyse and Nicole) used in order to activate our senses and enhance our understanding of this genre.
I was also able to understand the biographical genre a little better in the sense that I do not have much experience with autobiographies- so it was nice to see some teaching tools I could use in my classroom for this genre, such as the "life box" that Kristen brought in the class. I am excited to build my experiences working with these genres with students in my classroom/future classroom.
When I was assigned the persuasive genre, I was a little nervous at first. After I read more about it in the chapter and had strong support and communication with my group members, I was able to see this genre wasn't so "scary" after all! It was just a matter of not having any experience working in this genre. I learned much more about this genre than anticipated-mainly because my presentation sort of forced me into delving deeper on the topic. Argument is naturally within us! Especially in younger children who can be very egotistic- so it is important as teachers for us to help students understand how to organize their persuasive thoughts into writing (Tompkins, 2012). I learned that children need to understand when they write persuasively, they need to develop a stronger sense position and follow through with reasoning behind their position(s). My presentation group and Tompkins' book helped me to understand more about propaganda and the different forms of persuasion-ethos, logos, and pathos.
I may not have had the greatest or most broad experiences with poetry in my past, but I certainly look forward to enhancing my experience with this genre as well. I am disappointed I had to miss the presentation on poetry and the expository genre, but I would definitely say I have the most experience working with kids in the expository genre-fortunately. I could see myself incorporating both in my classroom, whether it is through morning daily routines, or through book reports about different animals in the rainforest! I think I have a broader and more open-minded opinion about poetry now that I am aware of the different forms of it (free verse, rhymed verse, formula, haiku, and acrostic poems)
My understanding for each genre has increased quite a bit- especially with the genre I presented in persuasive writing. This was a great experience, and I am glad I have handouts and resources available for each genre for me to use in the future.
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