Before taking this class I knew the basics about the
different literary genres we have discussed in this class. However, after my readings and listening to
my peers presentations I am much more knowledgeable on the subject. At the beginning of this class I knew that I
had a lot to learn about the specific features of each genre and how to teach
it. The genre that I felt the most
comfortable with was letters and that is what I chose for my genre
presentation. While I knew most of the
text features of this genre, like the format of personal and business letters,
I learned great tips on how to effectively teach this genre to students. I learned that using real letters as
examples, and having students write letters that will really be sent, helps
them to see the relevancy of letter writing and makes the experience more
authentic.
Another genre that I felt pretty comfortable with was
journals. However, after reading
Tompkins and attending Dr. Jones’ presentation I was reminded of the many
different formats of journals. I was
familiar with simulated journals, reading logs, dialogue journals, and personal
journals prior to this presentation.
However, I now know what a double journal entry was or how to use it in
the classroom. This genre that I thought
I knew a lot about, was enriched and I know a lot more about it now.
I also learned a lot about the persuasive genre. While most of what I learned, I already knew
but had just forgotten. Going into the
presentation and readings I thought that persuasive writing was just
essays. But after the presentations I
realized that it was a lot more than that.
I learned some of the ways to persuade, different parts of a persuasive
essay, and features of persuasive writing such as double speak and
propaganda. I also found the graphic
organizer they provided very helpful, and I could see myself using it to teach
persuasive writing to students. This was
the genre that I learned the most about and feel much more comfortable with it.
The last genre that I have learned about was the
expository genre. I knew more about this
genre and have used it as a teaching tool in the past. I knew the different text structures and
features, such as table of contents, headings, and maps. I have learned more about this genre in the
past few years, as the new standards require much more use of expository texts,
even with young children.
I am so glad to have learned so much about the different
genres in this class. I feel much more
able to teach each genre, and more educated on them myself. I am eager to learn about the poetry,
narrative and biographical, and descriptive genres in the next few weeks. I am also excited to present my genre to the
class!
