Entry #12: How has my knowledge of the reading and writing genres developed throughout my LTED 618 course?

This semester, I have had the opportunity to gain new insights into the various reading and writing genres presented in Tompkins (2019) along with the importance of including digital media presented in Hicks (2013). Through class discussions and readings, I have taken away a lot of new information that I hadn't considered prior to taking LTED 618 and creating this blog.

Prior to taking LTED 618, there were several genres that I hadn't fully understood or knew how to teach because I didn't have the chance to look more closely at the importance of these genres in a classroom setting. These genres include journal writing, biographical writing, and descriptive writing. I had heard of these forms of writing before because I created pieces of work as a student, however, I didn't feel that I knew how to teach these specific genres in a classroom. I also didn't consider the various mentor texts that existed in order to model these types of writing.

After reading Tompkins (2019) and watching multiple Genre Expert Presentations revolving around journal writing, biographical writing, and descriptive writing, I was able to gain a lot of new insight into how I might teach these genres in a classroom setting. One aspect that was helpful for all three writing genres was the mentor texts that I was able to look at in our "classroom library" during the Genre Expert Presentations. This was extremely beneficial for me because I was able to see the various books that can be used to help students learn about each type of writing. I was also able to see how a teacher might use these mentor texts in a classroom because each Genre Expert Presenter used some type of mentor text in order to teach their genre to the class.

Another aspect of the reading and writing genres that allowed me to develop a deeper understanding of journal writing, biographical writing, and descriptive writing was the independent practice incorporated into the Genre Expert Presentations. This allowed me to understand what I learned from each presentation along with how I might teach students when approaching each genre.

Along with the reading and writing genres, I also had the opportunity to explore various types of digital media that I hadn't learned about prior to this class. One form of digital media that I had never used before was Blogger.com. This site has allowed me to consider the importance of digital media because students are able to create more digitally enhanced pieces of work. The site also allows the writer to think about author's craft and how organization and presentation come into play.

Other forms of digital media that I learned from Hicks (2013) were jamendo.com and freesound.org. These sites can be used to incorporate various sound effects when creating Audio Texts. I learned that digital media such as Audio Texts are a great way to get students engaged and motivated when creating pieces of writing in the classroom.

As a teacher, I might consider using Blogger.com or Google Sites into a reading/writing workshop because I believe that these are two great platforms for creative writing. Students can easily learn how to use each site, and it allows them to work on creating digitally enhanced pieces of work. Students are also able to consider the various elements of author's craft when using these types of digital media such as organization, presentation, and word choice.

Lastly, there is one genre that still intimidates me as a reader and writer and that is poetry. Although I presented on poetry during my Genre Expert Presentation and I had the chance to do more thorough research on poetry, I still become overwhelmed when thinking about all of the different forms of poetry that exist. I believe poetry is overwhelming for me because it is such a broad term and teaching one style of poetry is completely different than teaching another style of poetry. As a result, I would like to continue learning about poetry and ways I might teach this genre in a classroom setting.

References

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

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Entry #11: How did my blog entries help to meet the Student Learning Outcomes of this course?

Throughout the past four months, I have been creating various blog posts in order to demonstrate my knowledge of creative writing and how it might be used in a classroom environment. This experience has allowed me to take away a lot of new information that I hadn't considered before as a teacher. Now that I have had some time to reflect on this process, it is clear that the Student Learning Outcomes of my LTED 618 course have been met through the creation of my blog.

"Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the variety of genres that readers and writers use to communicate, including digital and traditional print formats."

I believe that this Student Learning Outcome was met through the creation of my blog. While reading Tompkins and discussing the various genres in class, I also had the opportunity to reflect and write about my own personal experiences with these genres through my blog posts. I also met this Student Learning Outcome by having the chance to use a digital format to write about my class discussions and readings.

"Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the role of purpose and audience in writing and reading and the elements of author's craft used to address the desired purpose(s) and audience(s)."

Through my blog posts, I had to consider my audience along with the purpose of my writing. I also had to think about the various aspects of author's craft such as organization, presentation, and word choice in order to clearly state my purpose to the desired audience. I had the chance to write for multiple audiences including my professor and peers depending on each post.

"Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the cognitive processes and strategies of reading and writing, including the composition strategies used in crafting digital compositions."

For this Student Learning Outcome, I had to learn how to transform my blog posts into digitally enhanced pieces of work. Instead of simply writing about my class discussions and readings, I had the chance to incorporate hyperlinks and visuals into my blog which wouldn't have been possible if I had written in a traditional writing format.

"Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the relationship between the writing and reading processes."

I believe this Student Learning Outcome was achieved from my readings and reflections of Tompkins and the various genres of reading and writing. Through my readings and blog discussions, I learned how the different genres for reading can also be used for writing as well. I also had the chance to consider my own personal experiences and incorporate what I might do differently as a teacher in my blog posts.

"Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the role of metacognition in writing proficiency and reading comprehension."

I think having a blog served as a great way to consider the role of metacognition in writing because it allowed me to really think about and reflect on the writing process along with reading comprehension as I created a new post each week. Each post focused on one aspect of writing, and I was able to think about my role as both student and teacher along with any prior experiences I brought with me.

"Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the role of assessment and evaluation in determining student writing proficiency and strategic reading comprehension."

This Student Learning Outcome was achieved when I was asked to "bless, address, and press" the work of my peers. Through this process, I had the chance to critically evaluate another's piece of writing by looking at the strengths along with the areas of growth.

Along with these Student Learning Outcomes, I also believe that I learned a lot about myself as a writer and how writing is much more than simply essays and papers that will be assigned and graded in classrooms. I learned that students need to be exposed to a variety of writing in order to be successful and that creative writing is very fun and engaging when taken into consideration. I learned so much about creative writing through my blog, and I would recommend blogs to anyone who is interested in writing.

References

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper

Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Entry #10: Why is Descriptive Writing Powerful?

Throughout the past three weeks, I have continued to observe and read the work of my peers in order to gain new insights and perspectives about creative writing. This has been very beneficial for me because I have had the opportunity to see what other students are choosing to focus on for their own personal blogs and what pieces of information have stuck out to them while learning about creative writing in a classroom environment. I have found that as a result, I am thinking about topics that I hadn't previously considered and am forming new ideas in my mind about how to approach certain topics and genres of writing.

After reading the blogs of my peers for this week's post, I was drawn to a particular post about the power of descriptive writing. This post stuck out to me because of a previous workshop presentation given by one of my peers about descriptive writing. I really enjoyed this presentation because it gave me a lot of insight about why descriptive writing is important in the classroom along with how a teacher might teach descriptive writing to students. I thought the activities that I completed were very fun and engaging, and I took a lot of information away with me. For this reason, I have decided to bless, address, and press Denise's blog about the power of descriptive writing.

Bless

I would like to begin by blessing Denise's blog for several reasons. Firstly, I thought Denise did a wonderful job at incorporating word choice into her blog. I liked how Denise personalized her blog by including her own prior experiences with descriptive writing and why she had challenges when including it into her writing. Secondly, I thought Denise did a wonderful job at including her readings to prove her argument which was the importance of descriptive language. Denise referenced Tompkins to talk about the five techniques she could use to make her own improvements to descriptive writing. Lastly, Denise incorporated visuals to aid in her writing and help the reader understand her point.

Address
In Denise's blog, she includes pictures of books that can be used to teach descriptive writing. Denise mentions each book and how they could be used as mentor texts in a classroom. I would like to know how Denise would use these particular books in a classroom setting in order to teach descriptive writing, and I am curious why Denise decided to talk about these books specifically. I really enjoyed how she included specific examples of mentor texts for descriptive writing, so I would love to learn more about how Denise might incorporate these texts in a classroom or if she has any personal connections to these texts.

Hicks (2013) states, "What is compelling about presentations as a digital writing tool is that so many other forms of media and composition can come into play". I thought Denise did a great job at using digital writing to establish the purpose of her blog which was to talk about the importance of descriptive writing.

References

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

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  UpperSaddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Entry #9: How can teachers promote biographical writing in the classroom setting?

After reading chapter nine and chapter ten of Tompkins (2019), I have gained new insights into how teachers can help students when thinking about biographical writing and informational writing. For this week's post, I'd like to take some time reflecting on biographical writing and its importance when learning and growing as a writer.

While reading this chapter I began to think a lot about autobiographies and how important it is to introduce autobiographical writing at a young age. I thought about how young children tend to be very egocentric in nature as they develop and learn about the world around them. Why not use that as an advantage and have children spend lots of time writing about themselves? I have seen many teachers do just that in various classroom settings. When young readers and writers first begin to write they often start by writing about their own personal experiences: what they did over the weekend, what they ate for dinner, what happened on the bus ride home. I believe early writers should spend most of their time writing about themselves because of their developmental level and because the writing is authentic.

One example that Tompkins (2019) provides in this chapter is the idea of life boxes. This is a fantastic strategy to use with early writers because it allows them to write about themselves in an authentic way. Students have the opportunity to share personal belongings with the classroom which makes them feel special and connects home and school together. When I was young, I loved participating in Show and Tell because I was excited to share a piece of my life with my teacher and classmates. I felt so special and motivated to write about things that meant a lot to me. Another example from Tompkins (2019) that allows early writers to practice autobiographies is the "Me" Quilts. I thought this was a great way to not only introduce autobiographical writing but to help writers with the prewriting stage. Having a "quilt" to look at with various pictures that symbolize a writer's life could be beneficial when deciding how to craft a piece of writing.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREEBIE-All-About-Me-Quilts-783930 

When considering biographical writing in the classroom, there were many other examples that Tompkins (2019) provided that I really enjoyed learning about and would love to try myself as well as with students. The Biography Posters was one idea that really stuck out to me because I think it's a great way to get students motivated to write biographies. I think it would be great to allow students to create these posters and present them to the class. Presentation and organization are two aspects of author's craft that would go well with this project. When I was in school, I always loved opportunities to be crafty and incorporate drawings, pictures, and designs into my pieces. This could be a great option for students who are artistically gifted and need more opportunities to show their strengths. 

I have gained a lot of new insights into biographical writing, and have found a new interest in this type of writing. As I continue to learn about biographical writing in class, I'd like to try to find ways to incorporate it into my own classroom. 

References

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  UpperSaddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Entry #8: How can writer's provide feedback to the work of their peers?

Hicks (2009) talks about the importance of peer review and mentions three ways to respond to the works of others: to bless, to address, and to press. When an individual blesses someone's piece of work they are offering praise. When an individual addresses someone's piece they are asking specific questions about the main ideas of the work. Finally, when an individual presses someone's piece they are asking critical questions and challenging the writer to explain their reasoning and clearly elaborate on their work.

https://minersp2019.blogspot.com 

After spending some time to reflect on the work of my peers, I have decided to focus on a peer's piece titled "Writing to learn integrates writing into all content areas." by Katy Miner. This blog post stuck out to me because of my own personal experiences with journal writing and the importance of incorporating journal writing into the classroom setting. I will use the ideas of Hicks (2009) to bless, address, and press this piece of work, and I will refer to chapter six of Tompkins (2019) when considering the various ways to incorporate writing in the classroom.

Bless
I'd like to begin by blessing my peer's work for the exceptional presentation of her blog post along with the content she chose to write about. Tompkins (2019) stresses the importance of author's craft when composing pieces, and this came to mind as I was reading this piece of work. When opening up to her blog page, I was very impressed with how each blog was presented and organized. When looking specifically at her post, "Writing to learn integrates writing into all content areas", I thought each idea written was presented in a way that was easy to follow and very engaging. I could hear Katy's voice as she wrote, so I believe her word choice was well thought out. Lastly, I enjoyed simply reading about journal writing because of my own personal interest in this genre. I was able to connect to many ideas that Katy discussed in her piece.

Address
One question that I have for my peer and her blog entry is, "What personal experiences have you had with journal writing when you were growing up in the classroom setting?" I ask this question because  I noticed that the author, Katy, focused more on the benefits of journal writing in the perspective of a teacher. Although Katy mentioned a particular experience at the end of her post, I would like to know more about her viewpoints when considering the benefits of journal writing. One reason that this post intrigued me is because I've had some wonderful opportunities as a student to work on fun and engaging pieces of journal writing that have had an impact on the way I view writing. I wonder if Katy has similar experiences or if she has not had similar opportunities when she was a student.

Press
I find that it's difficult to press my peer's piece because I am also still learning and growing as a writer and am looking for ways to improve and grow. However, one aspect that I would consider "pressing" this piece on is thinking about Hicks (2009) and creating a more digitally enhanced piece of work. One idea is to include some hyperlinks for each type of journal writing that truly gives the reader an example of what these pieces would look like in a classroom setting. Even incorporating pictures to show the different examples might be beneficial when crafting this blog.

Peer review is an extremely important aspect of the writing process, and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to practice the skill of blessing, addressing, and pressing.

References

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

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.