I have really enjoyed working on my multigenre project over the past few weeks. I think I have enjoyed this project the most, simply because I have been able to write they way I want to write and about something of interest to me. Because I have enjoyed this project so much, I think I will be able to encourage and get my students excited about their own project. I also never realized that some many different style of writing could be considered a type of genre. It has been really interesting to learn many different types of genre and use them in my memoir project. Reading the Chapter 5 article reminded me a project someone in another one of my classes presented the other day. With her class, she did a North Carolina wax museum project where students picked a famous person from North Carolina and research that person. I thought this was an awesome project because they were able to use many different genres in this project, including biographies and I-Poems. That is a project that I hope to incorporate in my future classroom. I really am excited about doing multigenre projects with my future classes.
Multigenre Writing
The idea of multigenre memoir writing excites me more than any other assignment we’ve had thus far in class. I love the idea of being able to write about a topic in any form of genre that is best suit for you. I think this idea allowed students to have fun with what they are writing and their best writing comes out through this. I liked the idea of using “Fact Sheets” and “Rationale Cards” to help students in the process of writing and provide checkpoints for students. This allowed them to make sure they are on the right track while writing. In my future class, I think I will use the FQI model in helping my students figure out a topic to write about as well as help them get organized with their writing. I also liked the idea of requiring four short genres, two longer genres, and two alternative or art responses in their writing. This allows them to pick their own genres but allows their writing to have multiple sources of genres. I agree that multigenre writing gives less motivated students a reason to want to write because they get to do it their own way. I know that in my own multigenre writing, I have really enjoyed writing simply because I got to choose what to write about and I choose something that really interested me.
When I was Young in the Mountains
I really enjoyed this book. I felt that I had such a strong connection to the child who was telling the stories of her life growing up in Appalachia. Reading through her memories reminded me of stories I had heard from my mother, aunt and grandmother about how life was growing up in the mountains. As I turned each page, I could almost always remember a story that had been told to me about growing up back in the day and could relate it to what I was reading. This is definitely a book I plan to have in my classroom. It’s exciting to read a book and actually connect to it instead of wonder how it could have felt as that author.
A Study of Memoir
This article allowed me to better understand what a memoir actually is. I have always had an idea of what a memoir is, but I don’t think I could actually come up with a definition for memoir. As I read through this article, I highlighted specific facts of what a memoir should be and what I thought was interesting to learning about memoirs.
-”It is a snippet of memory that a writer tells about after they have had time to think about it.”
-You need time to be able to reflect back on a memory in order to write it.
-The snippet could last different amounts of time, depending on the piece.
-I liked the idea of the allowing the students to fill up their own bin of books of what they thought were memoirs. I liked that the students were able to search for themselves on their own to try and figure out what a memoir is and then come together as a class to define memoir.
- A memoir is a memory from an author’s life that is crafted into a piece of writing that can exist in different forms and genres.
-A memoir needs to have a combination of the memory and the author’s thinking and feelings about the memory.
-In a memoir, if you are unable to recall a small detail from an important memory, it is okay to embellish, but it is important to keep a memory’s integrity.
This article gave me a greater understanding of memoir and gave me ideas on how I can teach my future class about memoirs through writing and mini lessons.
“I” Poems
There were a few things that stood out to me when while reading this article.
-Inviting students to write in the first person is a way to allow them to express their own voices. (I remember learning about first person in school but I don’t think I was ever “invited” to write in first person. I think this is a style of writing that I would have loved and would probably made me appreciate writing more.)
-Invitations to write about people and places encountered in stories are invitations to continue thinking about and imagining them.
-Theories support the notion that writing can be a means for enhancing understanding from reading.
-When students read, they understand. When students write, they understand even more. (I always hated when teachers use to make me take notes on what I was reading. I look back on it now and realize that by taking notes on what I read, I was able to comprehend a lot more – even if I just remembered writing it down and not so much reading it.)
This also when along with – “students understand and remember ideas better when they have to transform those ideas from one form to another.”
I loved that this article gave an outline of how to write an “I poem”. I had kind of wondered where to get started with an I poem and after seeing this outline it made a lot more sense and made writing easier. I think I poems are a great way to start off the school year by using to get to know each other in class better. It is something I hope to use in my classroom.
I Am The Mummy
Though this wasn’t my favorite book to read this week, it was interesting to learn something new about something I had never read about before. I loved that it was told from a first-person perspective and it went from back in Heb-Nerfert’s time all the way to present day. I thought it was interesting that there were some words used that children probably have never heard of before but it was something they could learn and remember about mummies and how they are preserved. My favorite part of this book was at the very end. The very last line: “I once was beautiful.” It just made me smile.
Dirty Laundry Pile
This book made me think so much about things just sitting in my room and what they would say about me if they were able to talk. I wonder how often, if objects could talk, how often they would feel unnoticed or annoyed. Of the poems I read, my favorites would have to include “Prayer for a snowflake”. It reminded me of Frosty The Snowman and how I always felt so bad for him when it got warm outside and he melted. I feel like to be a snowflake would be stressful and exhausting. Always wondering if you’re even going to stick and then how long you will last. I loved how to “Washing Machine” poem used sound words so that you could envision yourself right next to the machine while you watch and hear it work. I also loved how the words would twist and tumble throughout the poem; a great effect to visualize the washing machine working. Lastly, I loved the “Crayon Dance” poem. I am a true lover of coloring and I just smiled while I read this poem. I never thought my crayons or markers ever pleaded for me to pick them. I bet it is something I will remember the next time I go to color a picture.
Train-Song
Again… pictures amazing! This book used such a short amount of words on a page and yet I got so much out of turning each page. I could visualize so much by just reading, “out in back… railroad track … clickety-clack… clickety-clack…” I could just imagine waiting on a train station and see the train slowing down and arriving to pick me up. I also thought it was neat that the first couple pages, you could imagine being on that Santa Fe train and rolling along while making all the stops in between. It was like reading song lyrics when I read this book.
Atlantic
I absolutely loved the pictures in this book. They were so appealing but yet so simple. I loved how informational it was and how the pictures were so abstract but yet they were exact with the information being given on that page. I loved the pictures with the “hidden” fish. I sat and read this book to a friend of mine and every time I turned the page and saw the fish pictures I would exclaim, “Oh! Look at the fishies!!!!” They of course, weren’t as excited as I was. I also think it is great when informational children’s books put facts at the end so that students may learn a little more about what they just read. This was such a simple book and yet so much could be learned through reading it.
