Learning Log Entry 11

The Genres!

Throughout the semester we have covered various genres in order to develop our reading and writing skills.  Learning how to read in the genres has helped me to better write in the genres - and vice versa.  By understanding the components that create a piece and looking at well done examples of the genre, I feel more comfortable with reading and writing.

I started this semester feeling that I had a fairly set understanding of the poetry and descriptive genres.  As I have shared over the semester, I have written poetry for most of my life and spent a great deal of my first experiences with poetry learning new styles and searching for new authors.  I worked with an ELA teacher this past year in writing workshop (I wrote about Deanna and her writing workshop before, I can't remember the post off the top of my head) and learned a lot in her unit on descriptive writing through hearing and teaching many mini-lessons on the genre. 

I was most unfamiliar - as odd as it sounds - with the expository genre.  I think that because I read and write in the genre so often I have a fuller understanding of the limitations of my understanding.  The biggest thing that I want to learn is how to integrate the expository genre with the other genres - which I have developed over the course of the semester, but I still have a ways to go.  I think the biggest thing I've learned is that perspective doesn't always have to be the author or even a human form: ie a journal of a volcano the week before it explodes.  Or, even better, a double entry journal with a volcano's perspective and a person who lives near the volcano's perspective.

I think I have learned the most about the biographies and personal genres.  I never realized that there were so many different sub-sets of the biography genre!  Knowing that there were different ways to approach a biography helped me to understand the limitations of a biography - what it means to write a biography, and what falls outside of the category.  I can see my students looking at scientists, writing their own biographies through the lens of science learning (kind of following an event or theme through their lives), or creating the biography of a mountain as it is built up and then eroded down to sand and clay.
I never understood the role of the personal genre beyond a learning log (like this!) in a classroom.  I have expanded my understanding of how writing from the author's perspective can help that author to develop an understanding of a text.  I think that this genre in particular is very good at helping students write to understand reading - a very important aspect of this course.  By analyzing their thoughts about a piece, how it relates to them or their background knowledge, by reflecting on how characters feel and how their actions might impact other characters - all of these things extend beyond the text and help the writer expand their understanding and skills to beyond surface comprehension.

I think that most of the genres can and should overlap with one another.  I like that I can continue to develop ideas on how to use these genres to teach my content, and use my content to help teach these genres.