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!

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.

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.