Chapters 1-Introduction
Multigenre writing is using different genres to investigate a topic. Some examples are a riddle, a letter, a speech, a want ad, and an alphabet book. Genre is a social process and the purpose of a genre should be taken into consideration. In order to teach multigenre,teachers must model and provide direct instruction.
Chapter 2-Before the Multigenre Writing…
Teachers must organize their writing workshop and make the workshop become a routine. Once the routine is in place, the focus is on student writing and helping students see how they can improve their writing. The teacher needs to helps students with first frafts, revision, editing, getting started, and help students incorporate ideas from professor writers. There are 10 key essentials in making a writing workshop successful on page 12. Students need to engage in critical anaylsis of a genre and read several books within that genre before they begin writing the genre.
Chapter 3-Introducing Multigenre Writing
To get started students must find at least 3 important topics and research them. Then they can explore some books and investigate the genre. A genre discussion guide will help students (see page 27). Once students have explored multigenre, they must pick a topic and present their beginning thoughts and propose how they want their project to look. Then the teacher needs to go over the structure of the project and talk about writing the defense, which is attached to each piece and explains why the writing piece should exist. Finally, the teacher will explain the importance of having visual elements, which is artistic expression, in their multigenre project.
Chapter 4-Teaching and Managing Multigenre Writing
Organizing and managing a multigenre project is cruical! I think it is great for the children to set goals and fill out the multigenre weekly goal sheet to help them stay focused and work independently while the teacher is conferencing. I think the hardest part of the multigenre for first graders will be teaching them to research. A lot of my students struggle knowing where to find information and using the Internet..I need to work on that!
Chapter 5-Units of Study adn Multigenre Writing
The most helpful part of Chapter 5 for me was the primary focus on biograhy. In order to use multigenre in first grade, I need to scaffold the projects more and help the children with their research (and may even do some whole-group and small group research). I think the kids would enjoy doing a multigenre project on Ruby Bridges, Martin Luther King, Jr., George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and etc. I think they would learn a lot more through the mulitgenre project. However, the multigenre project requires a lot of work, effort, and patience from the teacher….that’s going to be the difficult part!
Chapter 6-Assessing the Multigenre Process and Project
Multigenre projects take a lot of time but very worthwhile time. The national, state and local assessment results prove that multigenre projects help students. In multigenre writing, the students are expected to understand the genre so well that they can craft a powerful piece of writing. When teachers engage students in multigenre writing, the students are learning about real writing tasks and meeting the expectations of the NAEP writing assessment.
Chapter 6 was very relieving to me because I was really concerned about the time involved with multigenre projects. This chapter helped me understand the importance and benefits of multigenre writings. Multigenre writing requires more skills and knowledge than my normal classroom writing assignments because the students has to know about the genre and the information they are using. I believe that multigenre projects are a very useful and rewarding learning experience but it is just out of my comfort zone just because it’s not what I’m use to and how I am used to teaching. However, I do believe that once I create my own multigenre project and see beneficial it is to me, I may become more comfortable using it in my classroom. This is a learning experience for me!
Chapter 7-The Next Steps
This chapter reviewed the important steps of using multigenre in the classroom. For example, teachers need to make sure there is a daily routine and their writing workshop is organized. The critical conversations about the literature is also very important.
Chapter 7 also mentioned to work with struggling writers every day in a small group or in an individual setting. Teachers must scaffold in order for struggling writers to be successful.
The chapter ends with two important notes: teachers should create their own multigenre projects and make sure students are able to chose their topic and share their multigenre projects.
