http://www.khmerinstitute.org/articles/art04.html
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Responses from My Melody 1st and 2nd graders
Prezi for the Tulane University Maya Symposium, 2012: http://mari.tulane.edu/TMS/program.html
http://www.khmerinstitute.org/articles/art04.html
http://www.khmerinstitute.org/articles/art04.html
Sunday, February 3, 2013
"a great present"
Here is the email response from My Melody School after receiving the letters and pictures from Winston's 8th graders:
Good morning Sara, that is a great present you have sent us.
I think our students will be thrilled to read the letters your students sent them. Also I think it will motivate them to
do well in reading and writing. I will give it to them this week and you will receive their response very soon.
The level of difficulty is just great as the language is simple, it has direct questions which are easy to answer and
the subjects are familiar and interesting to our children.
Would it be good to send the letters in spanish? The reason I ask is because here there is virtually no one that
can translate them to English (except for me). Either way let me know and we can always find a solution.
Have a great weekend and you'll hear from us soon
Igor Xoyon
Guatemala
Good morning Sara, that is a great present you have sent us.
I think our students will be thrilled to read the letters your students sent them. Also I think it will motivate them to
do well in reading and writing. I will give it to them this week and you will receive their response very soon.
The level of difficulty is just great as the language is simple, it has direct questions which are easy to answer and
the subjects are familiar and interesting to our children.
Would it be good to send the letters in spanish? The reason I ask is because here there is virtually no one that
can translate them to English (except for me). Either way let me know and we can always find a solution.
Have a great weekend and you'll hear from us soon
Igor Xoyon
Guatemala
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Audience: 6 year olds
This week we wrote letters to six and seven year olds at My Melody School in Chimaltenango, Guatemala.
My Melody School has students from age two to seven, and my students wanted to get to know them. We thought of making picture books for all the students, but then we decided that we first wanted to introduce ourselves through picures and letters hoping they would do the same; my 8th graders wanted to learn more about the kids in Chimaltenango. How to write letters to kids who are just learning to read and, more importantly, just learning to read Spanish and their native Kaquichel, we did not exactly know.
The principal at the school sent me names of students who are at the point where they could read our letters and potentially write back.We first had to think through this writing project rhetorically. Who is the audience? What language features and text structure do we use? What is important about this genre? Students brainstormed what they knew about six and seven year olds in addition to what they knew about the community. We knew that the kids did not live in houses, or on streets per se, that they didn't play in parks or watch TV. We knew, sort of, what they ate from our research earlier in the year, but we didn't really know much about how they got their food or cooked. We knew that the kids would work at an early age, but we didn't know what they kids did after school or if they played sports. As far as language, we did know that the kids were just learning to read and write, and so we imagined that we would need to write with simple sentences, in large print, with simple words. We also knew that the letters had to tell the kids something about us while asking questions about their lives.
After considering our audience and language, we wrote short letters in English. But then the question came up about translating the letters, and whether or not we should send English and Spanish versions of our writing to the kids -- and we also had to figure out how we would send the letters.
Our class has a lot of bilingual students whom I knew could help with translations, and because I've seen some cliques forming in my class, I thought that this would be a great project for the class to integrate.I made five groups in the class to be sure each group had two or three bilingual students to help translate the letters. Kids worked together to translate the English letters into Spanish letters -- to talk about how to phrase questions, how to punctuate questions, how to write the date and even "dear" at the beginning of the letter. It was the first time I saw my diverse class -- about 50% bilingual, Latino, 10% bilingual, Polish, 5% Latino, 5% Asian, and 25% Caucasian -- really collaborating. All about the room Spanish phrases waft through the air "querida," "sinceramenta," "deportes," "me gusta," "mi familia," and "how do you say..wait, tell me again." Students were also very careful with their printing to be sure the Maya kids could make out the letters in each word. Students were passing around their letters to make sure their Spanish was "right" before proudly submitting the letters to me for scanning.
The My Melody principal and I have shared access to a webpage where we can upload and thus exchange letters and photos between our schools.
My Melody School has students from age two to seven, and my students wanted to get to know them. We thought of making picture books for all the students, but then we decided that we first wanted to introduce ourselves through picures and letters hoping they would do the same; my 8th graders wanted to learn more about the kids in Chimaltenango. How to write letters to kids who are just learning to read and, more importantly, just learning to read Spanish and their native Kaquichel, we did not exactly know.
The principal at the school sent me names of students who are at the point where they could read our letters and potentially write back.We first had to think through this writing project rhetorically. Who is the audience? What language features and text structure do we use? What is important about this genre? Students brainstormed what they knew about six and seven year olds in addition to what they knew about the community. We knew that the kids did not live in houses, or on streets per se, that they didn't play in parks or watch TV. We knew, sort of, what they ate from our research earlier in the year, but we didn't really know much about how they got their food or cooked. We knew that the kids would work at an early age, but we didn't know what they kids did after school or if they played sports. As far as language, we did know that the kids were just learning to read and write, and so we imagined that we would need to write with simple sentences, in large print, with simple words. We also knew that the letters had to tell the kids something about us while asking questions about their lives.
After considering our audience and language, we wrote short letters in English. But then the question came up about translating the letters, and whether or not we should send English and Spanish versions of our writing to the kids -- and we also had to figure out how we would send the letters.
Our class has a lot of bilingual students whom I knew could help with translations, and because I've seen some cliques forming in my class, I thought that this would be a great project for the class to integrate.I made five groups in the class to be sure each group had two or three bilingual students to help translate the letters. Kids worked together to translate the English letters into Spanish letters -- to talk about how to phrase questions, how to punctuate questions, how to write the date and even "dear" at the beginning of the letter. It was the first time I saw my diverse class -- about 50% bilingual, Latino, 10% bilingual, Polish, 5% Latino, 5% Asian, and 25% Caucasian -- really collaborating. All about the room Spanish phrases waft through the air "querida," "sinceramenta," "deportes," "me gusta," "mi familia," and "how do you say..wait, tell me again." Students were also very careful with their printing to be sure the Maya kids could make out the letters in each word. Students were passing around their letters to make sure their Spanish was "right" before proudly submitting the letters to me for scanning.
The My Melody principal and I have shared access to a webpage where we can upload and thus exchange letters and photos between our schools.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Extension: Intersecting Cultures Book Groups
To continue our work with globalization and students' interests in global issues and culture, students chose a group of three and novel from the list below to read and discuss together. There were fifteen novels with a similar subject: intersecting cultures. We talked about issues of immigration, segregation, discrimination, assimilation, acculturation, xenophobia, and tolerance. We also read a few poems like "Elena" by Pat Mora and "You have to live in someone else's country to understand" by Noy Chou, a Cambodian immigrant. Below is a list of the books and how we divided the books for three book groups. In their groups, they did active reading notes during reading and then post reading, they completed one of four "jobs": discussion director, sequencer, anthropologist, and theme-ologist. The final series of images are a few of the posters that students did after their final book group for the purpose of synthesizing all their work and making sense of the character's journey, the resolution of the conflict, and then to analyze issues of intersection cultures as we discussed over the course of reading these novels. Finally, they had a written exam where they synthesized the novel, the poems, and the research they did on the cultures that intersected.
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| The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Sherman Alexie. |
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| Of Beetles and Angels |
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| Nothing But the Truth and a Few White Lies |
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| La Linea |
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| Behind the Mountains |
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| Song of the Buffalo |
Project-based Learning: Fundraising
Students raised $850 for My Melody School
in Chimaltenango, Guatemala!
 |
| Our shopping cart...preparing for the concession stand at the 3 on 3 basketball fund raiser, December 7, 2012. |
Thus, students at my school wanted to do something, and I thought that we could use reading and writing to do so. We decided to work with My Melody School in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. We made contact with the principal and learned about their good work to provide nutrition, healthcare, clothing and bilingual education (Spanish and their indigenous Kachikel). We read about fund raisers, wrote proposals, talked through what was possible and what might also bring our own school community closer. Then, students wrote flyers considering purpose, audience and writer (rhetorical triangle), and finally, we met to develop procedures for the different events. Here is what they came up with:
1. a 3 on 3 basketball tournament -- Here, we had to learn the language of the game to develop posters for rule and brackets (take possession at the top of the key; check the ball on every possession; make it, take it; call your own fouls); we had to do presentations on the announcements thinking of our audience and our purpose to talk about the event and our mission for My Melody; students.and approached people to "sell" the event and then worked the events coming in at lunch to talk through their role. One student asked me if he could bring a friend whom I did not know. I agreed and said that I would like to meet this student. During lunch, my student brought is friend and introduced me formally. The student said how proud he was to be a part of the event. I heard basketball players talking in the hallway about how it is just a good cause. Teachers got a team together to compete, too.
2. dodgeball tournament -- December 20th. Eight teams of five signed up for $20 each to participate in a dodgeball tournament. It was great fun to see so many players and fans. Some teachers sponsored their homerooms for the event. At half-time, the poms squad came out to perform a dance, and then it was back to the battle. We sold homemade cookies, pop, chips, and water to fans and players. For an hour and a half, this group of students played with joy and lots of aggression (check out the clip) -- a much needed event when winter break is just a day away.
3. Xbox FIFA tournament -- Today was the XBox, FIFA tournament. 12 kids signed up to play a single-elimination bracket for $5 each. The students, whose idea it was, brought in his Xbox and the game, and we set up the game on the overhead projector and big screen. Lights turned down and volume turned up, kids battled it out in 4 minute halves (8 minute games). I brought in laptops so kids could play computer games on the side, but most preferred to watch the action and cheer each other on. We had concessions - -pop, chips, waters, and cookies -- for $1 each, and some kids even gave a $2 donation to watch the tournament. It was beautiful.
4. Holiday gram sale at lunch -- This tactic sparked a lot of interest from students on both sides of this table. We sold "holiday grams" during lunch for nearly a week; a holiday gram is a card with candy that a student can buy and have delivered to a friend or teacher. The fund raising group created three holiday cards from which "givers" selected and then offered a candy bag or candy bar for sale. It was great to see and listen to the orders because students talked about to whom they wanted to wish a great holiday break or just to send a secret note of admiration. Again, students reached deep into their pockets to send a sweet to a friend for the "Mayan kids." After taking all the orders, I went to Walmart to get all the "goods" for the after school workshop where we filled and delivered all the orders. Students, some quite unexpected, showed up after school ready to write "to and from" cards and assemble the candy bags while listening to some holiday tunes. On the day of the delivery, I saw some students with their candy bags and asked how it felt to get this surprise, and one said it felt great "to know someone was thinking about me."
To make a donation, go to the My Melody giving page: http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=21530.
To make a donation, go to the My Melody giving page: http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=21530.
Monday, October 29, 2012
November 3rd, Students Present at the Youth Summit
Yesterday, four students from my eighth grade classes presented at the UIC's Youth Development Summit at Uplift High School in Chicago. Students in the Youth Development M.Ed. program at UIC created a "platform for youth workers and allies to share ideas and practices about the growing Youth Development field," and so this conference welcomes youth workers, educators, social workers and any really anyone who "believes in the power of young people to change the world." For us, however, this was a platform for the youth voices to show why society should believe in young people. The four students who represented our classes moved their audience to see what happens when adults get out of the way and let young voices be heard.
Students applied to represent our class at this summit, and four students (and I need to get parental permission to publish their names and beautiful faces) were selected (rather this opportunity selected them). They spent a week during lunch preparing for the presentation. I was there to ask questions, but the students really organized how best to "uncover" how they came to discover what globalization was and how it is impacting people around the world, but specifically the Maya. The message of this presentation is that leaders read to know, write to learn, and speak to teach. The audience fell in love with these students and were truly inspired by what these thirteen year olds had come to know about their worlds. I think that the audience knew they were witnessing something both remarkable and ordinary. In other words, it was remarkable to hear what young people can do, but it was ordinary in the sense that I believe any four of my students could have done this presentation. It should not have been so astonishing, and the fact that people were thinking this was so extraordinary is an indication that society needs to create more space for youth voices to be heard.
I will post their powerpoint and pdfs of their writing on our new website. Teens Teach, https://sites.google.com/a/ccsd15.net/teens-teaching-global-participation-project/.
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| Mural on the wall of Uplift High School |
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Distribution: Teens Teach
The day of distributing our work is the day students really see the power of literacy and the joy of teaching others. Today, students presented their multigenre projects in two forms: first by sharing one genre as an oral presentation and second by making their project available to classmates in all their classes.
To prepare to present, I asked students to share their creative genre, but some chose their print media or informational genre. They practiced reading it for volume, clarity, pace, and body language (avoiding distracting gestures or verbal utterances). Listeners prepared by taking notes on the presentation quality and information. I gave students a small piece of paper. On one side was a rubric to increase awareness of effective presentation skills and on the other side was the celebration phrase "What you taught me today was..." Then, the presenter shared his or her selected piece to a small group while the group practiced "being a good audience member" (no walk, no talk, eye contact, attentive nodding,applause at the end). After the presentation, the audience members wrote what they learned on the celebration note. And finally, after each member of the small group presented and listened, they exchanged celebration notes.
The next step was to read projects in their entirety and to learn about other topics/research questions. I gave students a handout with three columns -- one for each multigenre project they read. Students chose any mulitgenre project from the sharing/teaching wall to read, and then they responded on the handout. I asked student to write 3 facts they learned, their favorite genre and why, and any additional questions that came up after reading the project. After students read and responded to several projects, I cut up the columns and distributed them to the writer/author/teacher of the project so that he/she could see, again, how their writing can both teach and bring joy to others.
We will post these projects on our Teens Teach: Global Participation Project website.
To prepare to present, I asked students to share their creative genre, but some chose their print media or informational genre. They practiced reading it for volume, clarity, pace, and body language (avoiding distracting gestures or verbal utterances). Listeners prepared by taking notes on the presentation quality and information. I gave students a small piece of paper. On one side was a rubric to increase awareness of effective presentation skills and on the other side was the celebration phrase "What you taught me today was..." Then, the presenter shared his or her selected piece to a small group while the group practiced "being a good audience member" (no walk, no talk, eye contact, attentive nodding,applause at the end). After the presentation, the audience members wrote what they learned on the celebration note. And finally, after each member of the small group presented and listened, they exchanged celebration notes.
The next step was to read projects in their entirety and to learn about other topics/research questions. I gave students a handout with three columns -- one for each multigenre project they read. Students chose any mulitgenre project from the sharing/teaching wall to read, and then they responded on the handout. I asked student to write 3 facts they learned, their favorite genre and why, and any additional questions that came up after reading the project. After students read and responded to several projects, I cut up the columns and distributed them to the writer/author/teacher of the project so that he/she could see, again, how their writing can both teach and bring joy to others.
We will post these projects on our Teens Teach: Global Participation Project website.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Workshop Topics
As students are synthesizing their research and considering how best to render what they learned in Writing Workshop, you can help by providing mini-lessons during the lesson time so that they can work on a topic for writing time and sharing time.
An Overview:
During the first drafts, and if this is the first time you are doing multigenre research papers, the mini-lessons should be genres. And depending on your students, you will want the genres to be ones they can complete during the period (with maybe a few finishing touches needed for homework). What I noticed about teaching this project to students who have not done it before is that they are often mesmerized by the task; that said, in each of my classes, there was about a third who loved the freedom and used their research and creativity to get going. For them, they just needed a general overview of the project, and they were off. For the other two-thirds, however, it is not the case. They need support, and this is where differentiation comes in. I had to ask, What does each child need to get to this finished product in the timeline provided? Because this was the end of the quarter, I gave the class three class periods for research (40 minutes) and three class periods for writing, with a fourth class period for assembling and reflecting. As with any class, I imagine, that time was too much for some kids, just right for some kids, but not enough for most of the kids. For the kids for whom this as not enough, they generally did not do any work at home to make up the time they needed, so the issue of differentiation comes up here. Who needs differentiated instruction or materials so that in the time allotted everyone can be successful, which means writing for different purposes, using research to inform writing, practicing conventions, and publishing/distributing their writing (all from the new ELA Common Core Standards for Writing)?
Here are some ideas for the mini-lessons and differentiation for four writing days and one organization/publication day:
Day One
Lesson time -- review a sample multigenre paper:
Show students the middle pages. Pass around sample multigenre papers. What are the different pieces doing? Give students a "genre analysis" form where they do the following in writing:
After looking at a few genres (or you can have partners look at different genres and compare), show how the genres are doing different things for the topic such as offering different points of view, with different purposes, and different formats/structure.
Introduce the newspaper genres by showing a sample newspaper: editorial, hard news article, editorial, obituary (for example); note how the newspaper has several genres and ask students to note the distinguishing feature of these with the genre analysis. Select one genre to teach directly such as the hard news. . Give students a sample article with these parts labeled: headline, byline, starts with a lead/summary, short paragraph in columns, quotes from sources, and photo with caption.
Writing Time --The goal is for this piece of writing to "answer" their research question, so the headline should be related to their research question; for example, What is the School of Americas and how has it impacted the people of Central America? How does food bring the family together? Tell students that they can try any of the print media genres, but for students who need the extra support to completed this writing, provide them with a hard news organizer and template that organizes the parts of the hard news story. http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson249/pyramid.pdf
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson249/format.pdf
Sharing Time -- You can use this time how you wish. This is a time for students to talk about what they've written and to hear what others are doing. I ask students to "like" and "question" as peer readers.
Day Two
Lesson Time -- visual display: After students have written a short news story with an answer to their question, this genre can organize and extend one part of the new article in a visual way. I recommend this be a sort of concept web, but you can provide alternatives for visual genres like a collage of images. For this, show students how to put the topic in the middle (e.g., training for School of America; milpas for food; Semana Santa for festivals). Then, students can add several questions or sub topics connecting to the middle, and then finally details from research to connect to the sub topics. This genre helps the reader after the new article by answering some informational type of questions, but it renders one area of research more deeply. Provide students with sample visual displays like a character sketch, concept web, venn diagram, etc., and model how you extract one key concept from research to explore in this piece
Writing Time --Give students a little time to talk about what topic they can extend in this next genre by sharing with a partner or talking it through whole group, then let them go. For students who need extra support, provide them with a graphic organizer and get them started on their topic; for example, I might give a student who is working on festivals a venn diagram that has categories of comparison such as significance, time of year, method of celebration, and how it reflects family.
Sharing Time -- Ask students to "like" and "question" with partners; in other words, have students trade papers and make notes on the visual display noting what they like and asking questions so that the writer can add more information during revisions.
Day Three
Lesson Time -- informational genre: Today students can show a new point of view by writing an imagined interview. Interviews are a way to get a firsthand account of an event or experience, and in a multigenre paper, this provides perspective to the topic while engaging the writer in critical thinking. Provide some samples of interviews; I recommend interviews of people students might know such as celebrities or athletes. Ask students to do a genre analysis of one sample interview:
Day Four
Lesson Time -- Creative Writing and So What? This could be the last genre of the project if you wish, and if it is, then you have to talk about So What? The final genre should explore the why of this project: Why should we care? Why is this worth knowing? Or, in other words, So What?
So far, we have an overview of the topic in the print media genre, a more detailed account of one area of the topic in the visual display, and a new point of view in the informational genre, so this final one can be more expressive/imaginative. This genre has a lot of possibilities, and depending on your class, you can limit it to one genre or provide a brief overview of several. For these projects, the poem is really a powerful way to end the project. Some students will want to do a "personality poem" like an "I am" poem to provide another point of view or even a song or rap: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson391/I-am-poem.pdf. Some students will want to write a short story to reveal a day in the life or an actual account of an event or situation, and some students will do graphic short story.
Provide a few samples of these genres, and include some "how-to" instructions in the workshop area of your classroom so that students can try out any genre they'd like in this category. For students who need extra support, a skit or a structured poem seems to work. I liked the two-voice poem for some topics where the writer can position two voices from their research in conversation poetically; you can provide students with a template for this: http://www.writingfix.com/PDFs/Comparison_Contrast/Poem_Two_Voices.pdf. The Internet has a lot of how-tos and samples for you to copy and place in your workshop area of your classroom.
Writing Time -- Provide students with some time to gather materials and talk to their table about what genre they will write and how this genre will render their research in a new way. As the ending of their project, it should emphasize the theme and the answer to their research question leaving the reader with something to ponder. As stated above, provide students who need a little more support with the poem or skit template if needed and work individually or in a small group to generate ideas for this final genre.
Day Five
Lesson Time -- Organizing and Publishing. Review a sample paper: Ask students how a book is constructed and what parts of the book help them know what is about and how to use it (cover, title, summary, blurbs, chapter titles). A multigenre paper is the same. It has a several individual pieces linked by a topic, but you need some connecting genre to unify the middle parts (cover page, table of contents, letter to reader, and endnotes). The letter to the reader and the endnotes are likely new genres for students, so these will take some direct instruction.
For the letter to the reader, start with the friendly letter format. You can show a sample letter and label the parts. Talk about what this letter can do to unify the four genres and help the reader better understand how to read this paper and why it is worth reading. You can talk about what might be in the body paragraphs. Here is a sample template that you can use for the lesson and provide for students who need the extra support; additionally, you can add sentence stems for students needing further differentiation: http://www.printablepaper.net/preview/friendly_letter-no_prompts
For the endnotes, start with asking students what a bibliography is. Most seem to know, so you can show them a sample bibliography beside endnotes and ask them to compare these genres. In a multigenre paper, this is really where students can cite their sources and explain how they used their research; teaching this genre also helps students consider how endnotes are a solution to plagiarism. For the purposes of this paper, I made a table for students that looks different than MLA endnotes, a modified version.
Title: ______________________ Explanation of how you used this source in your genres :
Author: ____________________ ___________________________________________
Copyright: __________________ ___________________________________________
Writing Time: Students will need a lot of writing time today, so for students who need extra support the templates will be crucial. Students should first do the letter to the reader and then work on the endnotes. If there is time today, have students assemble their work: cover page, letter to reader, table of contents, four genres, and endnotes. You may also want to collect research logs and drafts, but as you can see, we did not take these genres through revisions and final edits. If your schedule allows, you can extend this project an additional few days so that you can provide more substantial feedback and so that students can do revisions, even type their projects if you have access to computers. Students who are more independent learners showed me drafts of their genres during writing time so that I could provide feedback and suggestions for revisions; these were also the students who had access to computers and printers at home and were able to type their projects. I would say, for my student population, about a third of the students had time for revisions on this schedule but two thirds did not do any work at home, so they submitted their first drafts for assessment. For this reason, it is important for teachers to do some feedback during writing time throughout the week. Walk around during writing time, kneel down beside your students, read a little, give a little encouragement, and then show students some things they could revise as they are writing by asking questions and remind them about some of the conventions you've been teaching if you see the need for editing. You want to keep this positive.
Sharing Time: Save this for the Distribution/Sharing day.
An Overview:
During the first drafts, and if this is the first time you are doing multigenre research papers, the mini-lessons should be genres. And depending on your students, you will want the genres to be ones they can complete during the period (with maybe a few finishing touches needed for homework). What I noticed about teaching this project to students who have not done it before is that they are often mesmerized by the task; that said, in each of my classes, there was about a third who loved the freedom and used their research and creativity to get going. For them, they just needed a general overview of the project, and they were off. For the other two-thirds, however, it is not the case. They need support, and this is where differentiation comes in. I had to ask, What does each child need to get to this finished product in the timeline provided? Because this was the end of the quarter, I gave the class three class periods for research (40 minutes) and three class periods for writing, with a fourth class period for assembling and reflecting. As with any class, I imagine, that time was too much for some kids, just right for some kids, but not enough for most of the kids. For the kids for whom this as not enough, they generally did not do any work at home to make up the time they needed, so the issue of differentiation comes up here. Who needs differentiated instruction or materials so that in the time allotted everyone can be successful, which means writing for different purposes, using research to inform writing, practicing conventions, and publishing/distributing their writing (all from the new ELA Common Core Standards for Writing)?
Here are some ideas for the mini-lessons and differentiation for four writing days and one organization/publication day:
Day One
Lesson time -- review a sample multigenre paper:
Show students the middle pages. Pass around sample multigenre papers. What are the different pieces doing? Give students a "genre analysis" form where they do the following in writing:
a. name the genre
b. describe the appearance of the genre
c. is this informational, image-oriented, argumentative/persuasive (how are the ideas organized)
d. what point of view is it -- first, third
e. . how many voices do we hear
f. how are the sources acknowledge or are they acknowledged
After looking at a few genres (or you can have partners look at different genres and compare), show how the genres are doing different things for the topic such as offering different points of view, with different purposes, and different formats/structure.
Introduce the newspaper genres by showing a sample newspaper: editorial, hard news article, editorial, obituary (for example); note how the newspaper has several genres and ask students to note the distinguishing feature of these with the genre analysis. Select one genre to teach directly such as the hard news. . Give students a sample article with these parts labeled: headline, byline, starts with a lead/summary, short paragraph in columns, quotes from sources, and photo with caption.
Writing Time --The goal is for this piece of writing to "answer" their research question, so the headline should be related to their research question; for example, What is the School of Americas and how has it impacted the people of Central America? How does food bring the family together? Tell students that they can try any of the print media genres, but for students who need the extra support to completed this writing, provide them with a hard news organizer and template that organizes the parts of the hard news story. http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson249/pyramid.pdf
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson249/format.pdf
Sharing Time -- You can use this time how you wish. This is a time for students to talk about what they've written and to hear what others are doing. I ask students to "like" and "question" as peer readers.
Day Two
Lesson Time -- visual display: After students have written a short news story with an answer to their question, this genre can organize and extend one part of the new article in a visual way. I recommend this be a sort of concept web, but you can provide alternatives for visual genres like a collage of images. For this, show students how to put the topic in the middle (e.g., training for School of America; milpas for food; Semana Santa for festivals). Then, students can add several questions or sub topics connecting to the middle, and then finally details from research to connect to the sub topics. This genre helps the reader after the new article by answering some informational type of questions, but it renders one area of research more deeply. Provide students with sample visual displays like a character sketch, concept web, venn diagram, etc., and model how you extract one key concept from research to explore in this piece
Writing Time --Give students a little time to talk about what topic they can extend in this next genre by sharing with a partner or talking it through whole group, then let them go. For students who need extra support, provide them with a graphic organizer and get them started on their topic; for example, I might give a student who is working on festivals a venn diagram that has categories of comparison such as significance, time of year, method of celebration, and how it reflects family.
Sharing Time -- Ask students to "like" and "question" with partners; in other words, have students trade papers and make notes on the visual display noting what they like and asking questions so that the writer can add more information during revisions.
Day Three
Lesson Time -- informational genre: Today students can show a new point of view by writing an imagined interview. Interviews are a way to get a firsthand account of an event or experience, and in a multigenre paper, this provides perspective to the topic while engaging the writer in critical thinking. Provide some samples of interviews; I recommend interviews of people students might know such as celebrities or athletes. Ask students to do a genre analysis of one sample interview:
a. name the genre
b. describe the appearance of the genre
c. is this informational, image-oriented, argumentative/persuasive (how are the ideas organized)
d. what point of view is it -- first, third, both
e. . how many voices do we hear
f. how are the sources acknowledge or are they acknowledged
Talk students through selecting a subject for the interview and how this subject can, again, reveal something more about the topic that is not in genre one or two. Perhaps the student can interview a Central American soldier or a CIA trainer for School of Americas, or a priest for Semana Santa, or Mayan child weaver who is learning how to weave from her mother. The idea here is to learn about the subject's possible background or biography, then his or experience, and finally about the significance of this topic in his or her life.
Writing Time -- Students have samples and their research, so they can just go, but you may want to ask them to talk to their partner about their writing plans. For students who need extra support, provide a template with a headline, byline, an introductory paragraph, question/answer format, and a brief conclusion. Have a mini conference with these students to help them brainstorm subjects and questions. If you have an aid or a co-teacher, this can be done in a small group.
Sharing Time -- Repeat the format of yesterday's sharing time. Students will exchange papers and "like"/"question" directly on the paper.
Day Four
Lesson Time -- Creative Writing and So What? This could be the last genre of the project if you wish, and if it is, then you have to talk about So What? The final genre should explore the why of this project: Why should we care? Why is this worth knowing? Or, in other words, So What?
So far, we have an overview of the topic in the print media genre, a more detailed account of one area of the topic in the visual display, and a new point of view in the informational genre, so this final one can be more expressive/imaginative. This genre has a lot of possibilities, and depending on your class, you can limit it to one genre or provide a brief overview of several. For these projects, the poem is really a powerful way to end the project. Some students will want to do a "personality poem" like an "I am" poem to provide another point of view or even a song or rap: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson391/I-am-poem.pdf. Some students will want to write a short story to reveal a day in the life or an actual account of an event or situation, and some students will do graphic short story.
Provide a few samples of these genres, and include some "how-to" instructions in the workshop area of your classroom so that students can try out any genre they'd like in this category. For students who need extra support, a skit or a structured poem seems to work. I liked the two-voice poem for some topics where the writer can position two voices from their research in conversation poetically; you can provide students with a template for this: http://www.writingfix.com/PDFs/Comparison_Contrast/Poem_Two_Voices.pdf. The Internet has a lot of how-tos and samples for you to copy and place in your workshop area of your classroom.
Writing Time -- Provide students with some time to gather materials and talk to their table about what genre they will write and how this genre will render their research in a new way. As the ending of their project, it should emphasize the theme and the answer to their research question leaving the reader with something to ponder. As stated above, provide students who need a little more support with the poem or skit template if needed and work individually or in a small group to generate ideas for this final genre.
Day Five
Lesson Time -- Organizing and Publishing. Review a sample paper: Ask students how a book is constructed and what parts of the book help them know what is about and how to use it (cover, title, summary, blurbs, chapter titles). A multigenre paper is the same. It has a several individual pieces linked by a topic, but you need some connecting genre to unify the middle parts (cover page, table of contents, letter to reader, and endnotes). The letter to the reader and the endnotes are likely new genres for students, so these will take some direct instruction.
For the letter to the reader, start with the friendly letter format. You can show a sample letter and label the parts. Talk about what this letter can do to unify the four genres and help the reader better understand how to read this paper and why it is worth reading. You can talk about what might be in the body paragraphs. Here is a sample template that you can use for the lesson and provide for students who need the extra support; additionally, you can add sentence stems for students needing further differentiation: http://www.printablepaper.net/preview/friendly_letter-no_prompts
For the endnotes, start with asking students what a bibliography is. Most seem to know, so you can show them a sample bibliography beside endnotes and ask them to compare these genres. In a multigenre paper, this is really where students can cite their sources and explain how they used their research; teaching this genre also helps students consider how endnotes are a solution to plagiarism. For the purposes of this paper, I made a table for students that looks different than MLA endnotes, a modified version.
Title: ______________________ Explanation of how you used this source in your genres :
Author: ____________________ ___________________________________________
Copyright: __________________ ___________________________________________
Writing Time: Students will need a lot of writing time today, so for students who need extra support the templates will be crucial. Students should first do the letter to the reader and then work on the endnotes. If there is time today, have students assemble their work: cover page, letter to reader, table of contents, four genres, and endnotes. You may also want to collect research logs and drafts, but as you can see, we did not take these genres through revisions and final edits. If your schedule allows, you can extend this project an additional few days so that you can provide more substantial feedback and so that students can do revisions, even type their projects if you have access to computers. Students who are more independent learners showed me drafts of their genres during writing time so that I could provide feedback and suggestions for revisions; these were also the students who had access to computers and printers at home and were able to type their projects. I would say, for my student population, about a third of the students had time for revisions on this schedule but two thirds did not do any work at home, so they submitted their first drafts for assessment. For this reason, it is important for teachers to do some feedback during writing time throughout the week. Walk around during writing time, kneel down beside your students, read a little, give a little encouragement, and then show students some things they could revise as they are writing by asking questions and remind them about some of the conventions you've been teaching if you see the need for editing. You want to keep this positive.
Sharing Time: Save this for the Distribution/Sharing day.
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