Week 8
This weeks reading is going hand in hand with my dyad placement. Our sixth grade class has been working on different genres in reading and writing. The class started reading memoirs and then experienced writing a memoir. Now they have moved on to mysteries and they have a writing activity that goes along with this genre also. I found the framework for teaching writing genres on page 196 of Writing Essentials very useful. I like the idea of finding out what the students know about the different genres and then you could pick a few different types to focus on. The students definitely benefit from being able to read actual books that reflect the genre being talked about. It allows them to see different approaches to the literature.
On page 200, Routman talks about letter writing and how there is no substitute for an actual letter. With the internet being more prevalent these days students are more likely to know how to send a letter via email and not through the good old fashioned post office. I remember in high school we had a lesson on letter writing. Every student was to think of a business that they liked (Nike, GAP, etc.), we then wrote the business a letter saying what we like about their clothes, or products that they made. It was a fun way to learn the importance of letter writing. In fact, many of the students in the class received letters back from the company with either gift certificates or coupons for their store.
In both of the situations that I talked about above, there has been an introduction done by the teacher. On page 222, Routman talks about doing a shared writing to engage students and also show students what is expected of them. This ties back to the optimal learning model. Once the writing has begun, then I like the idea of students conferencing with each other and helping edit each others work.
