Entry #11

 When I think about writing I don’t think that I am good at it , and I usually avoid it because I don’t really enjoy it.  So at the beginning of this course I was nervous that my struggles would hinder my ability to learn the genres to best benefit my students.  As we moved through the semester however I gained more confidence in each genre.  I also gained a unique look into each genre that I think will benefit me as I start to form lessons to teach my students so that they don’t have the same struggles I myself have in writing.  I think that I have learned more about genres specifically through this course then I have all my different reading/writing experiences in the past.

          The genres I knew at the beginning of class that I knew well I would list narrative, descriptive and biography.  These genres were the ones that I have used the most and enjoyed the most because they fall into my personal interest of social studies most of the time.  While I had a good grasp of each I also have learned much more about each one.  Narrative is much more than just sitting down and writing in your own voice.  You have to consider all the different aspects of what a narrative is.  Same with biography and descriptive, I had a good grasp of the genre as a reader which net me up to absorb everything given to us to become a good writer as well.

          I struggled with poetry as genre both as a writer and a teacher at the beginning of this course.  I found it to be the most intimidating genre.  There were so many different types of poetry, with so many different forms that it can take, how was I going to be able to teach them all?  I also found poetry to be intimidating because of the creativity behind it,  I don’t find myself creative or artsy how could I expect my students to do what I didn’t think I could?  After watching the presentation on poetry and having Dr. Jones introduce different forms I have many more ideas about how to make poetry much more accessible to students.  The If I ruled the world poem and the I am poems I now see that there are many form poems that can be introduced for the students to use, it will ease them in and allow the students who like me were intimated to still participate. I also pick up something from working in a first grade classroom since September, the teacher introduces a poem a week, they discuss it and students have to illustrate it.  I think that this helps by making poetry they see every day and not so scary. 

          I think that all the other genres make sense to me as a writer which is the first step to teaching it to students.  Then looking into all the packets that the groups created with mentor texts, graphic organizers and different strategies will move onto create the best lessons to engage students.  I think that each presentation has helped to set me up to create a writing workshop that can teach each genre and foster students independence so that they can be writers on their own, and not dread it like I do. My own feeling about writing are what intimidate me about teaching it,  I want my students to enjoy putting their ideas on paper.