Entry #12: What I Knew Then, and What I Know Now

"There's an endless variety of text and digital genres, but too often the choices are limited to stories, poems, and reports. Instead, students need to experiment with a wide variety of genres and explore the purposes and formats of each." 

~Tompkins, 2012 (p. 7)

Before this class, I thought I had a decent understanding of each genre, however, I actually had a fairly limited understanding of some genres. Perhaps this is due to the fact that many of my writing pieces in the past have been limited to stories and reports as Tompkins (2012) describes in the quote above. Two genres in particular that I thought I knew well but actually did not were biographical and descriptive writing. Through the Genre Expert Presentations, I was able to deepen my understanding of each of these genres and expand on the background knowledge I brought with me to this class.

When I originally heard the word “biography,” I immediately thought of informational texts about a significant person that are written by someone else. I had this broad definition in my mind, but knew very little about the sub-genres of biography. Naturally, I was aware of “autobiographies,” texts about a person’s life written by that person, but I did not connect personal narratives and memoirs to my biographical writing schema. Through my Genre Expert project research, I learned how to tease apart the differences between the sub-genres of biographies. The puzzle piece visual that I created for our group’s materials for the presentation was the most helpful tool for me. 

Furthermore, I never really thought to question the information presented in biographies because in my mind, they were nonfiction texts that only contained facts. Although it may be true that biographies contain facts, reading Marshall’s (2019) article allowed me to expand my ability to think critically about biographies. Marshall (2019) drew my attention to the idea that biographies typically tell the story of an exceptional individual who overcomes adversity. As I search for mentor texts when teaching biographical writing in the future, I will certainly think about the script of the text. I will aim to find texts that tell both the stories of everyday heroes and tell celebratory stories that do not include an exceptional individual overcoming adversity. Muhammad (2020) would approve of these counter-narratives as they connect to students' joy!

These texts illustrate my shift in thinking regarding biography mentor texts.

Marshall (2019) also offered several examples of mentor texts that offer a counter narrative, one being Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming (which I read as one of my mentor texts). In addition to providing a counter-narrative, this mentor text also illustrated how a memoir could be told powerfully through verse. I never associated poetry and biographies, but now I know that many genres intertwine with biographical writing.

This is the activity from the Descriptive Genre
Expert Presentation. I described a picture from
David Wiesner's Flotsam.

Another genre that intermixes with biographical writing is descriptive writing. Before reading Tompkins’ (2012) chapter and being involved in my peers' Genre Expert presentation, I thought of descriptive writing as simply adding lots of adjectives to my writing. I deepened my appreciation for descriptive writing through this course as now I understand that a writer must be clever and careful when choosing words in the descriptive genre. Too many or too few adjectives may impact the effectiveness of the writing piece. During the Descriptive Genre Expert Project, I had the chance to write a descriptive piece based on a picture in a wordless picture book. Not only did this activity boost my confidence as a descriptive writer, but also allowed me to hone in on word choice by using sensory details AND comparisons (simile and metaphor). This is an activity that I would love to do with students in the future.

The mentor texts that I read for the biography genre
(as described above) and the letter genre were the most powerful for me. Personally, I had thought that the letter genre was quite simple, but reading Dear Mr. Henshaw allowed me to see how I could spice up my letter writing, particularly with clever closings like “Your annoyed pen-pal.” This helped me immensely when writing my first genre piece which combines elements of the narrative genre and letter writing. If the mentor texts were this valuable for me, I can only imagine that they will be helpful for students too!

Overall, my biggest takeaway from examining different genres and reading various mentor texts is that many genres overlap. There may be elements of the narrative genre combined with biographies and combined with descriptive writing. There are no bounds when it comes to creative writing, and this work in 618 allowed me to explore my creative side. As I read texts with students and by myself in the future, I will continue to think of elements of author’s craft that pertain to each genre.

References

Cleary, B. (1983). Dear Mr. Henshaw. Harper Trophy.

Marshall, E. (2019). Life writing and the language arts. Language Arts, 96(3), 167-178.

Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and historically 

responsive literacy. Scholastic.

Tompkins, G. E.  (2012).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (6th ed.). Pearson.

Woodson, J. (2014). Brown girl dreaming. Nancy Paulsen Books.