Entry 10: Reflecting on the Genres we have Explored

I really enjoyed presenting and participating in the genre expert projects. I feel I have learned a lot by studying my own genre, and by participating and interacting with the others. We've been exposed to the journal genre, poetry, the biography genre, the persuasive genre, and the expository genre. I can not say I was 100% comfortable with any of these.

Before this class, the genres I felt most comfortable with (that we explored) were poetry and biography. Now, after the presentations I  almost feel more overwhelmed by these two genres, but not in a bad way!  I felt I had a good grasp on these two, but was then exposed to so much more taht i did not know about: activities, strategies, and mentor texts. I also witnessed just how expansive the genres are, so now I feel there is much more to have to grapple with as far as they are concerned. I do feel more equippped to deal with certain aspects of these genres, Presenting and participating  in the presentations opened my eyes to more.

As far as journals, expository, and persuasive, I feel I have a foothold now. Those (especially expository and persuasive) have always intimidated me, but after reading Topmkins (2012) and participating in the presentations, I feel more comfortable.

What I learned from the journal presentation is the idea of a double entry journal. Typically when I thought of journals, I thought of narrative and fiction. These double entry journals reminds me a learning log, and allows the student to make connections with the text and make those connections visibly on an organized template. I also like the simulated journals. I think this is such a great way to get our students thinking in new ways. By putting themselves in someone else's shoes, they can see diffrent perspectives and develop empathy. And of course, all the great mentor texts we were able to browse through and get acquainted with!

The expository genre opened my eyes to the different text structures. I knew some of these, but not to the extent I do now. I was most comfortable as a reader of this genre, I still feel uncomfortable as a writer or even a teacher of writing in this genre. That is probably due my exposure to the genre, I am not frequently asked to write in this genre.

The persuasive genre I realized depends on audience more than all others we looked at. This is because when we are trying to persuade someone it will only work if we can appeal to and reach our audience, otherwise it will be futile to try to persuade. I also really liked, and will always remember the Harry, Ron, and Hermione trio to symbolize ethos, pathos, and logos. I think this genre is probably the most important to focus on for me, because this type of writing matches what I must focus on with my students: evidence based claims. The graphic organziers included in the packet handed out are extremely useful too as is the argument, persuasion, or propaganda chart.

For all of these genres, I learned strategies and tools to use with students to help them become better readers and writers of these genres as well as a plethora of great mentor texts to use to model and teach these genres.