What I've learned about the genres and digital media

Learning about the genres was my favorite part of this course! As a future teacher-librarian, I will need to know the genres well so that I can identify quality mentor texts that will serve both teachers and students alike. I’m glad I took this course and know that the knowledge I gained will benefit me in the future.

At the beginning of the semester, I felt like I had some background knowledge on all genres except descriptive writing and letter writing. However, I was only thinking of the genres in terms of books that were written in these genres. While I understood how to write descriptively and had studied letter writing formats as a kid, I couldn’t think of any mentor texts that were written in these genres.

I now understand that the word “genre” refers to more than a published work. I enjoyed learning about the features of each genre, identifying those features in mentor texts, and writing my own examples of the genres. For example, I knew that nonfiction means writing that is based on facts, but I never knew the features of a nonfiction text and how to approach reading them (shout-out to my classmate Stephanie for an amazing genre presentation on this topic!). If I were sharing a nonfiction text with students in my library, I would teach them the features and show them how to approach reading this text like I learned in Stephanie’s genre presentation. The process reminded me of close reading where we went back and reviewed different parts of the text to understand it better. I think doing this would help demystify the concept of nonfiction texts, which many students may find intimidating.

Researching the benefits of letter writing for my genre presentation was eye-opening for me. I never knew that letter writing was valuable because it’s an authentic literacy activity. I read several studies that demonstrated a significant increase in students’ reading comprehension and writing skills through the process of writing and receiving letters (see annotated bibliography on my genre presentation handout for more information). Furthermore, Tompkins (2012) said that “because letters are written to communicate with a specific and important audience, children think more carefully about what they want to say, write more legibly, and are more inclined to use spelling, capitalizations, and punctuation conventions correctly” (p. 130). I am now a firm believer in the benefits of letter writing and would want to incorporate a letter program in my future school, perhaps through a pen pal program.

As future ready educators, I appreciated that part of this course was Hicks’ text on digital media. Despite having a communications/digital media background, there was still much for me to gain from Hicks. In a previous post, I wrote about my realization that anything can be a mentor text, both in print and digital formats. While I’m not intimidated by the prospect of seeking/using digital texts like audio and video in the classroom, I didn’t realize how they could be beneficial as mentor texts to demonstrate the elements of author’s craft. I would like to use them in my library to demonstrate elements of craft and the different genres.

I also really enjoyed Hicks chapter on what makes for a quality digital presentation (especially the “stickiness” factor), a skill that I believe many students lack. If students were tasked with creating digital presentations for a class, I would love to give them a crash course in how to use a platform like Google slides or PowerPoint and provide them with pointers for making a sticky presentation.

After learning about the different genres and types of digital media, I can honestly say that none of them intimidate me. I understand their features and how to evaluate them for elements of author’s craft. I may be hesitant if asked to create an audio or video text, but this course wasn’t intended to focus on how to produce audio or video text. However, Hicks provided me with many sites and free digital tools I can access going forward. I plan to keep his text and will use it in the future to access this information! I will also keep Tompkins’ book on my shelf, especially as a reference for mentor texts in the different genres. Both of the textbooks for this course will serve me well in the future.

My copies of Tompkins' and Hicks' books, with my notes on craft on the covers!

Dear LTED 618 classmates

April 14, 2019 

Dear LTED 618 classmates,

How are you doing today? I’m doing well, but I have been very busy with work, school, and home life lately. Can you believe we are already almost at the end of the semester? It seems like these last few months have flown by!

Tonight, I’m looking forward to giving a genre expert presentation on letter writing. Even though teaching letter writing is not a requirement for teachers, I hope my presentation will open your eyes to the benefits of this form of writing for students of all ages. While my primary mode of letter writing these days is through email communication, I have enjoyed writing traditional letters practically my whole life.

Selfie with a mail truck!

I got my first pen pal in fourth grade through a volunteer pen pal program at my church. Her name was Sharon, we were the same age, and her family was Christian missionaries in Ireland. While I never met Sharon, I loved writing letters to her and learning about her life. She would send me postcards and photos of Ireland, and I would send her little trinkets and other things I thought she would like based on our correspondence. That same year, my elementary school adopted a heavy focus on letter writing. Every classroom was assigned a street name and given a class mailbox. Students were taught to write friendly letters to one another and given time to do so. We even had a “post office,” and would take turns playing the various roles including postmaster, mail clerk, and mail carrier. I remember really enjoying this yearlong project because I liked receiving letters from my friends after I wrote them letters, and it was fun to own the process by working in the “post office.”

Several years later, my pen pal was my cousin Danielle. We would write letters back and forth to each other every summer while she was at her family's cottage in the 1000 islands. I remember how excited I was to receive these letters, and how I became obsessed with printing out fun stationery prints on my home printer and then hand-writing the letters. I still have several of the letters she wrote at home at home, alongside store-bought stationery and envelopes that I use to write the occasional thank you note.

My high school had a mailbox system in every homeroom. Our homeroom teachers would put school communications like cafeteria menus, spirit day schedules, and photo order forms in these mailboxes. My friends and I enjoyed writing notes to each other and leaving them in each other’s mailboxes as well.

As an adult, most of my traditional (aka pen to paper) letter writing is limited to thank you notes or birthday cards. However, I look forward to the day when I can leave notes in my son’s lunchbox for him to read at school just like my mom did when I was a kid.

I hope you enjoy the presentation tonight. I'd love to hear your feedback. If you wish to share, please post a comment here or email me at mshippe0@naz.edu.

Sincerely,

Michelle

Reflections on this assignment

Dear Dr. Jones,

I hope you are doing well. Since I will be presenting on letter writing in class next week, I thought it appropriate to continue to hone my letter writing skills through framing this blog as letter to you.

It’s wild to think that eight months ago I had no concept of how to teach (or develop) reading and writing skills in elementary level students. When we first met, you asked me what grade level I wanted to work with. Since my classes at Nazareth have been geared towards working with elementary students, my eyes have been opened to the possibilities of working with this age group. At this point, I see myself either in an elementary library or a middle school library. I believe there is a level of creative thinking and wonder in these age groups (as well as an excitement for hands-on projects!), that I don’t think I would find at the high school or college level. I also discovered how much I love children’s literature, and reading it means so much more to me now that I can view it from critical lens. I want to thank you for laying the groundwork for my future professional endeavors as I continue down this path.

You’ve asked me to reflect on how keeping a blog this semester helped me reach the student learning outcomes for this course. Looking at these outcomes, I believe my blog has helped me meet them all in different ways. Writing this blog has helped me realize that writing and reading are interconnected processes, as well as the role metacognition plays in reading and writing proficiency (outcomes 4 and 5). While talking in class about a reading is one way to learn, I found that taking the time to write about my takeaways from the readings and how to apply them to my own professional life was highly beneficial. Writing this blog has been my “medium to think,” and reflect on the readings, assignments, and discussions from this course.

My favorite part of this course was learning about the genres (outcome 1)! I loved reading mentor texts as I learned the key elements of each genre and how to teach them. Through this blog, I explored the journal genre, narrative genre, and poetry genre further. I believe my writings on these genres will be a useful resource for me in the future as I introduce these genres to students.

Another big takeaway for me was learning that ANYTHING can be a mentor text, both in print and digital formats. I learned to assess texts by looking for their purpose and form, as well as the elements of author’s craft (outcome 2) or Hicks’ M.A.P.S. criteria for digital texts. While I came into this class with a fairly strong understanding of composition strategies for digital texts (outcome 3) based on my professional work, I didn’t realize that the compositions themselves (ex: video, audio) are mentor texts.

Finally, I made tremendous strides this semester is learning how to help others revise their work, by understanding the role of assessment and evaluation in determining reading and writing proficiency (outcome 6). Prior to this course, I thought evaluating student/peer work meant looking for misspelled words and grammatical errors. Now, I realize that purpose, audience, and form should take first priority when assessing/evaluating student work. The writer’s workshops have helped me hone this skill, and I had the chance to write a little about what I learned on the topic of revising work in a previous post. Since learning about the genres, I can also help look for the hallmarks of the genre in the work. For example, I helped Anna with her argumentative genre piece this week by drawing on what I learned about the structure of arguments/counterarguments from Tompkins.

While this assignment was challenging at times, I’ve never had the opportunity to evaluate academic texts at a critical level on a regular basis like this. I think this was a fitting assignment for this course and I hope to continue using “writing as a medium to think” in the future!

Sincerely,

Michelle Shippers

Bless, Address, & Press No. 2

I love reading descriptive writing. I believe that the mark of a good story is one where the author evokes vivid images in the reader’s mind. After reviewing my peers' recent blog posts, I’d like to follow Hicks' model for peer review and “bless, address, and press (p. 83)” Denise’s blog titled The Power of Descriptive Writing.

Bless: While reading Tompkins chapter on teaching descriptive writing, Denise wrote that “the most beneficial element to me was incorporating sensory images. These senses can really allow the reader to feel like they are a part of your story.”  Tompkins said that young writers often incorporate just one sense, sight. (p. 139). I like Denise’s idea to require students to incorporate at least three senses in their descriptive writing pieces. Tompkins shares a variety of ways that teachers can help young writers craft sensory images (p. 139). In a library setting, I could choose mentor texts that evoke the five senses and use them for read-alouds. Then, I could ask my students to help me pick some of our favorite descriptions from the book and create a list of “sensory words,” that we liked. We could keep these words up on a board for various writing activities, or we could write stories together or individually that use some of these words!

Example of a sensory words chart
Source: Rocky Fork Middle School

Address: I’d like to commend Denise for sharing her personal struggles with descriptive writing in elementary school. Denise believes writing in general was a challenge because she didn’t know what to write about. I believe this is a common struggle for young writers, and one that Tompkins addresses several times in the text. Before expecting a student to write a story (let alone make it more descriptive) students need to understand the elements of story structure which include plot, setting, characters, theme, point of view, and narrative devices. Of course, Tompkins tells us that that descriptive writing is not limited to narrative writing (p. 153), but I think it’s a good place to start before a student can write descriptively.

One way to test a student’s knowledge of story structure is to ask them to retell a story they are familiar with (Tompkins, p. 182). I think this is a great way to get young writers started, first with simple narratives and then with descriptive writing. I think it’s not realistic to ask young writers to write a descriptive piece if they haven’t mastered the basic elements of story structure. If I was working with young writers on descriptive writing and some of them didn’t know where to start, I would differentiate my instructions for those learners. Can they retell a familiar story through writing? Once the students have proven they can write a simple story, then I think it’s appropriate to press them to revise it (as Tompkins says) “using words to paint a memorable picture and evoke a distinctive mood” (p. 136).

A sample organizer that kids can use to retell a story.
Source: education.com

Press: I was glad to see that Denise included two mentor texts in her blog: Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner (2001) and The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg (1986). She writes that The Stranger “would be a great resource for teaching students about how to use and implement figurative language within their writing.” I would like to know more about Denise’s specific ideas to use these two mentor texts to teach descriptive writing. After sharing Skippyjon Jones (which Tompkins says is a great example of word choice on pg. 137) how would she teach her students to write more descriptively using this book as a model?

Kudos to Denise for digging deeper into Tompkins’ chapter on descriptive writing, and I enjoyed the opportunity to add my own insight and feedback!

Source outside class textbook
Holmes, D. (2019, March 30). Entry #9. The Power of Descriptive Writing.  Retrieved from https://holmessp19writing.blogspot.com/2019/03/

Poetry in the library?

As a marketing professional, I don’t often have the opportunity to work on creative writing. The copy I write is sales-focused (although I try to create engaging descriptions!). I am enjoying learning about different genres and writing drafts for my genre pieces project. Through all of this, I am trying to think about different ways that I could apply learning about the genres into the school library. I wrote about some ideas for journal writing in the library in a previous entry here, but now I’d like to focus on my new understanding of poetry and how to teach it in the library.

Tompkins’ chapter 7 talks about writing poetry, and my classmate Catherine did a wonderful presentation on writing color poems to accompany our reading. I haven’t studied poetry in years, and I really enjoyed this chapter and reading mentor texts. I decided to write an acrostic poem for my genre pieces project inspired by Schnur’s Summer:An alphabet acrostic (2011). Like Schnur’s poems, I tried to incorporate some

An excerpt from Schnur's
Summer: An alphabet acrostic.
Image sourced here

lines that would read together as one sentence instead of every line standing on its own. My poem is written for my son and contains several vertical words that will read together as one phrase. Here is an excerpt of my acrostic poem using the words “my son.”

My son, my heart, my Dylan

You have changed me in so many ways

Someday you will leave my arms

Out in the world to build your own dreams

New experiences await you

While I love writing and would love to teach writing, I was concerned that my passion wasn’t part of what librarians do. Earlier this week, I visited Brookview Elementary School in the West Irondequoit School District to observe librarian Julianne Westrich. As luck would have it, Juli was teaching a unit on language that day!

In the third grade class I observed, Juli taught them how to write a book spine poem, a poem using only book titles. She began with a minilesson, modeled a few examples she had written, and then had the students write their own poem using piles of pre-selected books. She reminded them that the poems needed to contain the exact language found on the book spines with no added words, and that the poems probably wouldn’t rhyme. In chapter 7, Tompkins says that “although rhyme is considered an essential poetic device, it shouldn’t dominate students’ poems" (p. 161). I think this was a good activity to not only teach them how to write a poem, but also to show them that poetry doesn’t need to rhyme. I wish that Juli had asked the students to share some of their poems, but unfortunately the class had to stop their activity so that they still had time for book checkout. If I taught this lesson, I would want to include a poetry café element so that students had the opportunity to share their work and receive positive feedback from their peers, perhaps in the next class if time prevented us.

In the first grade class I observed, Juli was talking about personification. She did three read-alouds including the fiction book Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea by Ben Clanton (2016), and parts of two non-fiction books about narwhals and jellyfish. Tompkins talks about personification as a poetic device in chapter 7. After explaining the concept to students (and learning that narwhals are real creatures!) the students worked together with Juli to personify an animal together. I loved this activity and think that it was developmentally appropriate for the students (Juli told me she plans her lessons based on Common Core standards; the Writing Strand is standard 10). It was interesting to see how she also incorporated a minilessson on fiction/nonfiction texts through her read-alouds. I would love to teach a similar lesson if I were working in an elementary library.

Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea 
by Ben Clanton. Image sourced here

I am excited to see that librarians like Juli are finding ways to teach poetry/poetic devices in the library that address State Standards. I look forward to learning more about the genres and making connections to the work of a modern library media specialist! 

Sources

Clanton, B. (2016). Narwhal: Unicorn of the sea. New York: Tundra Books.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers. Common Core State Standards. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, Washington D.C. 2010

Schnur, S. (2001). Summer: An alphabet acrostic. New York: Clarion Books.

Bless, Address, & Press No. 1

After looking through my peers’ recent blog posts, I would like to expand on Kristina’s Week 7 blog on narrative writing. Hicks says that a good critique should bless (offer praise), address (ask specific questions about the ideas), and press (ask critical questions to help the writer move forward) (p. 83). I hope to achieve all three for Kristina through my feedback today, as well as add to my own understanding of the elements of story.

1. Bless: I really enjoyed Tompkins’ chapter on narrative writing as well as Kristina’s presentation on teaching the genre, so I was excited to see Kristina wrote about preparing for her presentation in her most recent blog. Since I’ll be doing a presentation on letter writing in several weeks, I was eager to learn how Kristina prepared for her presentation. She did a wonderful job explaining her process, from her own experiences with the genre to her research process (great idea to search The Reading Teacher journals for relevant articles!). She also remembered Hicks’ elements of a good presentation, focusing on the stickiness factor (p. 73). As someone who also may be inclined to read off the slides, I need to keep these elements in mind when designing my own genre presentation.
2. Address: Kristina wrote about her hesitations for teaching the narrative genre, having very few memories of learning to teach narrative writing during her undergraduate. I hope these memories are an exception to what most elementary teachers are teaching now, as I remember learning about story structure several times over when I was in elementary and middle school.
   
   In chapter 8, Tompkins talks about the elements of narrative writing, beginning with plot. I remember learning about the story structure pyramid when I was in school.

   

   Freytag's (story structure) pyramid.
   Retrieved from rookreading.com

   My classmates and I would read a story and then map it out using the pyramid, from exposition (beginning) to climax (middle) and end (resolution/denouement). Later, we learned to write our own stories using the story structure pyramid as a guide to map out the plot. In high school, I remember using the pyramid to map out Shakespeare’s plays to add to my own understanding of the text.
   
   Tompkins’ cites Applebee’s (1980) research that “by the time children begin kindergarten, they’ve already developed a concept of what story is, and these expectations guide them as they respond to stories and tell their own.” (Applebee, cited in Tompkins, pg. 171). Tompkins goes on to say that children as young as two and a half have a concept of story (p. 171), something I notice with my own 2.5 year-old who will eagerly say “The End!” when we finish a story. As a future library media specialist, I’m certain that helping my young readers understand the elements of story would be important. I found these great videos on weareteachers.com that would be great to show my students while we discuss the elements of story!
3. Press : Kristina says that “when students are explicitly taught about the structural elements of narrative writing, they will develop into better writers.” I would like to know her ideas for teaching young students these elements. We got a glimpse into Kristina’s life as a teacher through her genre presentation, and I really enjoyed the character maps to show the outside and inside (F.A.S.T. acronym) of characters. What are some other teaching strategies that she might use for teaching the elements of story/narrative writing with elementary students? I believe that including more examples of ways to teach story in her blog (such as talking about the character maps) would be beneficial to readers like me who are interested in learning more about how to teach story. 

Sources outside class textbooks
Applebee, A.N. (1980). The child’s concept of story: Ages 2 to 17. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Wells, K. (2019, March 17). “Genre expert” workshop presentation. Retrieved from https://kristinawells-lted618-spring2019.blogspot.com/2019/03/genre-expert-workshop-presentation.html

Feedback and New Learning from Hicks' Chapter 3: Composing Web Texts

I really enjoyed last week’s readings from Hicks, and I believe that there are many applicable lessons for the school library. For my blog this week, I want to talk more about what I learned from chapter three of Hicks and how I may apply those lessons in my future career.

In chapter three, Hicks talks about criteria for identifying credible web texts. As a future librarian, I know I will have students who turn to the first site they see on Google and believe it’s a credible source. Hicks talks about “filter bubbles” (p. 33) that Google uses to serve us information based on our previous search history. Although I recognize that ads I see on social media are related to my Google searches, I never realized that my searches themselves carried a bias.

I think it’s important to make sure my future students understand how filter bubbles work, and I will teach them to verify information with other sources. Hicks cites Rheingold’s research that recommends questionable information be backed up by at least three separate sources (p. 33). I will teach my students to “think like journalists,” and always check their facts! Since Google filter bubbles function based on the user’s search history, I would ask my students to log-out from any open accounts (Google, social media etc.) when doing their research so that they are not finding filtered information. This would be more important to do at home as schools may block these sites anyway but students are more likely to be “signed-in” at home.

In this same chapter, Hicks gave valuable advice for responsible posting on social media (33). Hicks always encourages students to think like digital writers, considering their audience and purpose whenever writing posts, comments, or sharing other content. Doing so will avoid mindless posting that serves no purpose. While using social media smartly would be a great general lesson for a group, I know that students often create social accounts for their clubs (example: yearbook committee, student government etc.). I would love to invite clubs that have social media posting responsibilities

into my library to give them a lesson on crafting quality content that is purposeful for the intended audience! This same lesson could apply to teachers that want to start using social media as an extension of their classroom community, but aren’t sure how to craft copy. An elementary teacher using Instagram or Facebook is probably sharing photos for parents to see what they are doing, while a middle/high school teacher using Instagram or Snapchat may be writing content that’s intended for the students to see and interact with. I’m looking forward to reading chapter 7 of Hicks which talks more about crafting social media copy and thinking about how I could apply the lessons in my library.

Today’s classrooms require more and more students to compose web texts. However, students may fall into a trap where they are only composing what Hicks calls “digitally convenient” texts (p. 34). While these texts are published online, they lack links, photos, videos, and other multimedia elements that would enhance the piece. Looking at my blogs this semester, I am going to make more of an effort to create digitally enhanced texts that serve my purpose and audience. In the future, I would welcome the opportunity to teach students how to transform their digitally convenient texts into digitally enhanced texts that serve the audience and the purpose for the writing. Or, I could offer this lesson to teachers so that they can apply it back in their own classrooms. Through conversations with other library media specialists and teachers, I’m learning that teachers often shy away from technology they don’t understand, while students are eager to use it but may be using it improperly. I look forward to being the kind of librarian that both teachers and students trust for reliable information as they develop as digital writers and keen researchers!

Sources outside class texts
Rheingold, H. 2012. Net Smart: How to Thrive Online. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Note: Images in this blog were gathered from Google and licensed for reuse.

Dear Dr. Jones: A student's reflection

Dear Dr. Jones,

Now that we are nearly at the midpoint of the semester, you have asked us to reflect on LTED 618: Reading Improvement through Written Expression. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect in this class. When I saw we would be reading Hicks' Crafting Digital Writing, I was excited because as a professional communicator, I am accustomed to writing copy for digital means (web copy, blog copy, and social media copy). When I saw we would also read Tompkins’ Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product, I started to infer that this class would be about teaching writing. What I didn’t expect is that we would learn through writing. In my third blog entry for this course, I elaborated on “writing as a medium to think,” and I have been surprised at how quickly my knowledge on teaching writing and the elements of good writing have expanded thanks to these weekly blog assignments.

My writer's notebook from 8th grade

In Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing developed by the Council of Writing Program Administrators, the authors say that students need to develop certain habits of mind (ways of approaching learning) in order to succeed in college and beyond. While I talked about metacognition and persistence as key habits for me in this course in blog 3, I recently had a breakthrough in the creativity realm. After several weeks of struggling to make connections from the weekly readings to my past life as a student, I decided to look through old writing assignments from my childhood. I located a writer's notebook from eighth grade that my English teacher assigned as part of a weekly writer’s workshop. I read through a year’s worth of journal entries ranging from personal experiences and creative works of fiction to my analysis of current events (this was the 1998-1999 school year and you can see my 8^th-grader reactions to President Clinton’s impeachment and the shooting at Columbine High School). Reading this notebook was eye-opening. Even though I consider myself a writer, I often struggle to get a draft down quickly because I don’t allow myself to freewrite. However, my 13-year old mind wasn’t afraid to just write without stopping. Sometimes there were mistakes, but I was amazed at the variety of stories that I wrote that year during those writing workshops. I’ve recommitted myself to freewriting for this assignment, which requires both creativity and persistence. Following the freewrite, I go back and revise/edit as needed, but I’m no longer writing sentences and deleting them to start again. I believe this breakthrough has given me back a lost “mojo” when it comes to creative thinking and critical analysis, and I hope that carries through to composing in multiple environments.

As a potential future library media specialist, I’ve really enjoyed Tompkins’ frequent lists of mentor texts to aid in the process of teaching writing and understanding the genres. I like that Tompkins’ lists aren’t just geared towards elementary learners and I want to stock my library with some of these texts to use in book talks or for teachers to use in their genre lessons.

Since I know a good library media specialist should excel in teaching digital literacy, I have really enjoyed Hicks' book. In this week’s readings, Hicks talks about how to write/analyze quality social media content and how to create standout presentations. If I was in a middle school or high school library, I would love to create lessons plans for both of these topics and offer them to teachers. These are both important topics for digital writers, but not something most teachers would have the time to teach. I would love to work with students on these important topics that would also help develop their rhetorical knowledge!

While I was initially struggling with this particular assignment, I feel like between the weekly readings/class discussions and finding examples from my own writing past has made the assignment easier. I'm looking forward to the genre expert presentations to enhance my learning of the genres. I'm still feeling a little unclear on other two major assignments for this course, but expect the details to become more clear as we progress through the semester and meet with our writer's groups.

Sources outside class texts

Council of Writing Program Administrators, National Council of Teachers of English, & National Writing Project. (2011). Framework for success in postsecondary writing. Retrieved from  http://wpacouncil.org/framework/

How do you teach students to revise their work?

How do you teach young writers (or any developing writer) to revise their work?

For this week's readings, we were asked to read Giving Feedback: Preparing Students for Peer Review and Self-Evaluation, by Zoi. A Philippakos, and Chapter 4: The Writer's Craft from Gail E. Tompkins' Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product. 7th ed.  Philippakos provided useful advice for teaching students to revise their work. Tompkins reviewed the writer's craft and the various elements that make up strong writing.

When I was completing my undergraduate degree, I worked in the writing center at Nazareth College. My job was to help students review their papers and offer commentary. Many of them didn't know they needed to  revise their work to make their papers stronger. They were looking for a proofreader, someone to review their citations, or to check that they had fulfilled the basic requirements of the assignment by reviewing an assignment sheet. One way I helped them revise their work was by asking them to locate their thesis statement, or main point of the essay. No matter the subject matter, the thesis statement should have been located near the beginning of the essay or in the introductory paragraph. After they located this statement, we would then review the rest of the essay to see how they used the writer's craft to prove/maintain their thesis. I would help them identify weak points by asking questions that went beyond conventions, and provide suggestions for revisions. 

According to Tompkins, during the revising stage, "the focus is on making changes to communicate more effectively" (p. 56). That was my goal as a tutor in the writing center was to help my students communicate more effectively. Even though I didn't always understand the subject matter of their papers, by asking them questions that related back to their thesis and how they used writer's craft elements like ideas, organization, and voice, the students were equipped with ideas for revising.

Since all teachers don't have the time to work in-depth with each student on revisions 1:1, Philippakos recommends peer review. Philippakos cites several studies that prove a symbiotic relationship through peer review: the writer benefits by understanding the reader's needs, and the readers are exposed to more examples of writing which will positively impact their own approach to writing (p. 14). Of course, teachers need to first model what peer review should look like, possibly by doing a think-aloud with various samples of writing to show stronger and weaker papers (Philippakos, p. 14). I think this is a great idea and one I would implement should I ever need to work with a group on revising their writing. 

Philippakos also recommends creating specific evaluation criteria (and genre-specific criteria) so students know what they should look for when reviewing their peers' essays (p. 17). In class this week we developed genre-specific criteria for evaluating narrative texts as a group before taking the time to do some narrative text review. I think it's a great idea to empower students to create their own evaluation criteria (under the guidance of the teacher). It activates their background knowledge on the topic, and empowers them to feel confident during peer review time. A popular project in middle school libraries today is a "fake news project," where students are asked to review several articles and determine what is more likely to be credible and what is more likely to be fake based on the sources provided. If I had the opportunity to do a project like this in my library, I could start by asking the students to help me develop criteria for what constitutes a credible source. While students wouldn't be revising a writing project, they may "revise" their choices after reviewing their own student-created evaluation criteria.

I enjoyed this week's readings, and it was a good reminder to me that revising and editing are truly two separate parts of the writing process. I will be looking at my own writing for this course more closely so that I can question, elaborate, and clarify when needed! 

Sources outside class textbook
Philippakos, Z.A. (2017). Giving feedback: Preparing students for peer review and self-evaluation. The Reading Teacher, 71(1), 13-22. DOI: 10.1102/trtr.1568

Writing as a medium to think

"Writing is, after all, a medium for learning to think." - Donald Graves

Through the writing of this blog, I am making connections to our class readings and my own life experiences as a student. My writing will serve as a repository of information that I can refer to in my future endeavors (when teaching students about the journal genre for example), and my writing has allowed me to think critically about our class readings.

This week, we were asked to read Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing by the Council of Writing Program Administrators, and Counterpart strategies: Fine tuning language with language by Stephen B. Kucer and Lynn K. Rhodes. Both emphasized that students need to learn how to write well for success in college and beyond, and that reading and writing are interconnected processes. 

In the first article, the authors emphasize that teachers need to develop rhetorical knowledge in their students, "the ability to analyze and act on understandings of audiences, purposes, and contexts in creating and comprehending texts" (p. 6). I feel that my teachers often taught context (for example, understanding the time and place for a historical fiction work), and also taught purpose, but we did not focus on audience. The books we read in school were part of the curriculum, so beyond thinking they were geared towards our reading level, I didn't take much consideration for the audience of the works. 

Today, I understand the importance of knowing your audience. For example, when I write marketing copy for my job in the Nazareth College Arts Center, I know my audience is likely to be college-educated, arts-minded, and local. It's crucial that I tailor my copy to my intended audience for success. If my audience doesn't enjoy/relate/understand my copy, then they won't be motivated to act and buy tickets to see a show. I completely agree that students need to understand the important of audience when reading/writing, and this is something I would emphasize when discussing books in my future library or when working with students on developing their own compositions.

Since understanding audience, purpose, and context is key to my professional writing, I believe that I do allow myself the time and rhetorical space to think when I write. I believe that I am an exception when it comes to approaching writing, but it's how I make my living and is necessary for success. Most professions require daily writing, even if it's just through the practice of frequent emails. While these individuals are aware of their audience, they may not consider the purpose for their writing, and seldom use writing to re-consider or clarify because we are in a fast-paced world. I think it's important to teach young people the value of taking time with their writing, even if it's just an email, so that they are effectively using the medium to question, clarify, or synthesize thoughts and ideas.

Through the writing of this blog, I am approaching learning with an active stance. In the Framework for Success article, the authors say that active learning occurs when the writer employs "habits of mind," which are ways of approaching learning that are both intellectual and practical (p.4). In order to fully engage with this assignment throughout the semester, I need to continually engage certain habits of mind.

Unlike my classmates, I am taking this course independent of a graduate program. Content can be challenging when I don't have current classroom experience that I can draw from and make connections to and from. I need to rely on the role of metacognition in my writing, which the authors of the Framework article describe as "the ability to reflect on one's own thinking as well as on the individual and cultural processes and systems used to structure knowledge" (p.5). I need to work harder to make connections to the weekly readings and class discussions, drawing on information from my own life experiences. I also need to remain persistent (another habit of mind) in my goal to succeed in this assignment. Luckily, my natural curiosity and interest in creative projects (two more habits of mind!) will help guide me along my path.

References
Council of Writing Program Administrators, National Council of Teachers of English, & National Writing Project. (2011). Framework for success in postsecondary writing. Retrieved from  http://wpacouncil.org/framework/

Kucer, S. B. & Rhodes, L. K. (1986). Counterpart strategies: Fine tuning language with language. The Reading Teacher, 40(2), 186-193.

The journal writing genre

"When people write about something, they learn it better." (Fulwiler, 1987, as cited in Tompkins, p. 100)

For my blog entry this week, I will be writing about the journal writing genre. Tompkins encourages teachers to use journal writing across the content areas so that students can have more opportunities to write while using writing as a tool to assess their own knowledge/learning on a topic (p. 119). I think this is a wonderful idea. I remember using composition books in elementary school to keep a learning log for science class. While I can't recall at what stage we used the learning logs, I know we recorded our learning through note-taking and drawing in our notebooks.

In a school library setting, I could use learning/reading logs to help my students when they are doing research with non-fiction texts (I'm thinking of older students, perhaps upper elementary to middle school age). If students were brought to the library to review non-fiction texts for a project, I could supply them with a simple handout to record the most important details from the text (print or digital) for their projects, including page numbers or website address. The students could refer back to their writing while working on their project, and the log would serve as their notes on relevant source material.

Another type of journal, the double-entry journal, is another great way to use writing to deepen a student's understanding of a topic. The journal is divided into two parts and students write different information in each part. Tompkins says that "though this type of journal, children become more engaged in what they are reading and become more sensitive to the author's language" (p. 110).

A few ways to use a double entry journal (explained in Tompkins p.110-112)

• Student writes a quote on the left and  explains the quote on the right/makes connections to their own life or experience
• Students make predictions about a text on the left and actual outcome on the right
• Students take notes on a topic during a lesson (like in a science or social studies unit) and then ask more questions/make personal connections/post reactions on the right

I remember using double-entry journals in middle school as part of a regular writing workshop in my English class. We would pull quotes from books we were reading in class and write those on the left, and then write our responses on the right. I believe our teacher may have guided us in selecting the quotes. I loved this assignment because it deepened my understanding of the text and, if I was able to draw a connection to my own life, made it more relatable to me. Perhaps I could make a more interactive version of the double-entry journal in the library with a display, like a bulletin board. I could put quotes that tie to different themes (female authors? black history month? banned books?) on one side of the board and have students record a short response on a piece of paper and tack it to the board.  This might be stretching the definition of the double-entry journal, but I like brainstorming ways to get students thinking about writing in the library!

One of my favorite ideas for journal writing is a simulated journal, where the author takes on the point of view of a character from a story they are reading. As a creative-minded young person, I always enjoyed these assignments. I still remember taking on the voice of Johnny Tremaine, the 12-year old protagonist in Esther Forbes' award-winning novel, for a 7th grade project. I can't remember anything about this story other than that our class was so unsatisfied with the ending that our teacher asked us to write a final chapter from the perspective of the main character. The following year, I took on the voices of Ethan Frome, his wife Zeena, and lover Mattie for another journal project while studying Edith Wharton's famous novel. Both of these projects allowed me to go deeper in my understanding of the books and their characters.

When students are given regular opportunities to journal, they will not only become better writers, but also will learn how to express themselves through writing, an important life skill in our world of texts and emails. I look forward to seeing how I can encourage journal writing in the library.

Sources
Fulwiler, T. (1987). The Journal Book for Teachers in Technical and Professional Programs.
  New York: Heinemann.

The writer's craft and digital writing

I have always loved to read, which I’m certain has contributed to my skills as a writer today. By reading quality literature, I can increase my vocabulary, expand my knowledge, (or in the case of fiction) expand my creativity and imagination. However, I can’t say that I have consciously recognized the elements of writer's craft in my reading. I need to learn to read with a critical eye so that I can help students recognize the elements of good literature.

Hicks quotes the work of Fletcher and Portalupi (1998): “When we help students get a feel for the setting, voice, tension, inner story, or recurring detail, we are helping them develop new lenses with which to develop their own writing. Such lenses are critical if they are going to develop into the writers they want to be (cited in Hicks, p. 12).”

In order to create better writers, we need to teach readers to identify what matters in a text, and how the author uses the elements of craft to communicate this message. Looking at my bookshelf, my favorite reads are the ones where the author has a strong voice—whether given to the protagonist in a first-person narrative (The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick, She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb) or by the author in a biography (Bossy Pants by Tina Fey and Yes, Please by Amy Poehler). While I’m not consciously seeking it, I now recognize that voice plays a strong role in my favorite reads.

Tompkins identifies six elements of writer’s craft: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation (p. 71). While I don’t consciously consider these while reading traditional or digital texts, I definitely consider these when writing. My ideas flow naturally into my composition’s organization, and through consistent writing, I have developed my writer’s voice. I choose precise words to communicate meaning, and will often go back through my work during the editing/revising stage and substitute words or phrases to emphasize what I want my reader to know. Sentence fluency is a natural part of this process, followed by use of proper conventions (also a focus during editing/revising). The sixth trait, presentation, comes earlier in my process if I’m writing for digital communication. When I was writing a blog on wedding planning for the Democrat and Chronicle, I sometimes located photos and videos that would accompany my text before or during the writing process. While I couldn’t place them until the writing was complete, presentation wasn’t an afterthought of my process, but (as Hicks says) an intentional part of the writing process.

Following this week’s readings, my understanding of the author’s craft has changed. Tompkins' six traits are the ones I remember learning in school, but Hicks has expanded on this principle in writing for digital communication. No longer are students expected to write all stories by hand as word processing is an expected part of the elementary curriculum. Even the youngest digital writers today will learn about selecting legible fonts, choosing font sizes, and adding spacing between lines and paragraphs when typing their stories. Furthermore, they are introduced to other digital storytelling tools like video and audio at an earlier age. As a future library media specialist, I would thrive on the opportunity to work with students on how to use digital resources and/or best practices for using them to tell compelling stories.

References (outside class textbooks)
Fletcher, R., and J. Portalupi. 1998. Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8. Portland, ME.
   Steinhouse Publishers.

The importance of interactive read-alouds and learning how to design a writing workshop

While I believe all students should have a chance to write about their interests so that they can find joy in writing, it’s important to guide students to become better writers. Teachers use interactive read-alouds to give students examples of good writing and to introduce various genres (Tompkins, 27). In my library, I would choose both fiction and nonfiction high-quality books to read to my students. Exposing them to a wide variety of literature in different genres would open their eyes to the many styles of writing. Once exposed to these texts, we could discuss what makes them unique and then students (working with their classroom teacher) could create their own stories using the elements they learned about from the mentor texts.

Tompkins references Heffernan’s research (2004)which found that young students needed guidance to write about topics beyond the superficial. While students may initially delight in writing about their loved ones and pets, he noticed the essays began to lack passion and students were bored with writing. However, they didn’t know what to write about next. Heffernan successfully used mentor texts to introduce students to social issues. These issues were reflected in their writings (as cited in Tompkins, p. 26).

When thinking about encouraging students to write, my inclination would be to let them write about their passions. It surprised me that even a favorite topic could grow stale, but it surprised me even more that young children could be influenced to write about deeper issues based on age-appropriate mentor texts for interactive read-alouds. Using these mentor texts appropriately would help develop young writers into critical thinkers. I also had not considered that any example of writing could be a mentor text, including, as Tompkins states, “poems, magazines, Internet articles, email messages, newspapers, and instructions manuals. (p. 27) The modern school library media specialist is expected to embrace all modes of text, including those beyond the library shelf. It would be interesting to see how I could use texts to share examples of different kinds of writing with my students.

While I haven’t led a reading/writing workshop, I believe it would be relatively easy to set up my library or classroom for optimal learning and lay the groundwork to establish a community of learners. As an adult, I have attended several writing workshops. The best ones had the students arranged in a way that allowed for easy collaboration, such as facing each other around a table even though we were focused on individual writing projects. Even better ones allowed time to share our works and receive compliments and light feedback from our peers.

What would be challenging is learning how to differentiate instruction, especially when working with struggling and advanced students in the same grade. I’m not sure yet how a librarian may need to differentiate instruction, but I do believe that all teachers (including the librarian) need to know how to meet the needs of all their students.

Tompkins provides some useful tips for differentiating instruction, including the use of tiered writing projects (p. 36) in a writing workshop. She explains that in tiered writing projects, “teachers create several tiered or related activities that focus on the same essential knowledge but vary in complexity (36).” Students work on projects with various levels of complexity, and use different mediums (create posters, write reports, etc.) to achieve their goals. Like all means of differentiating instruction, it’s important that tiering be made invisible so that students don’t make comparisons between one another.

I look forward to learning more about how to tier reading/writing workshop and differentiate instruction so that all students can be successful.