Entry 12: Reflecting on the Genres Explored this Semester

Impact of Genres Explored This Semester

    This semester I explored the Narrative, Biography, Poetry, Personal Writing (Letters and Journals), Descriptive, and Persuasive genres of reading and writing. At the beginning of the semester, I thought that I knew the Narrative, Descriptive, and Persuasive genres. I now know that I have a richer and deeper understanding of these genres for my current and future teaching. I have more understanding of the descriptive genre because this was my genre expert presentation and I did lots of research to become the expert of this genre. Through my reading, looking for sources, researching learning activities, and completing the genre presentation, I feel like I really understand the descriptive genre at its core. I also appreciated the activity of presenting on one topic, it made me understand my topic more but it also made me realize how good of an audience I should be for others. I realized that I should be prepared for class, answering questions, completing the activities that the group asked of me and just simply be engaged in their presentation. 

    Before the narrative presentation and reading, I thought setting was just location. Now I have a broader and deeper understanding that setting is location but it is also weather, time, and time period. This was made clear to me because of the mentor text analysis activity that the group had me complete.  I was able to identify the many elements of setting, characters, and point of view in "Henry's Freedom Box." I did not realize the many elements of setting, character and point of view before the reading and the groups presentation. Before the persuasive reading and presentation, I was unaware of the many layers of persuasive reading and writing. I thought that you were just simply trying to get someone to do something with your writing. Now I realize that it is more than that, it is persuading someone through logos, ethos, or pathos or a combination of them. I learned that through your writing, you can persuade someone through their emotions, their need for something or that it is logical to get it or that someone's qualified and therefore you should believe them. I appreciated the advertisement activity that this group engaged us in as well as figuring out what type of persuading our mentor texts were. 

    Examining mentor texts for each of the genres solidified my knowledge and understanding of each of the genres. I was able to make connections, find examples, find evidence of my understanding, and add to my collection of texts for each of the genres. Examining mentor texts was the best part of learning about each genre, as well as learning how each group used the mentor texts to teach us about the specific genre of interest. I think finding mentor texts was a good part because you had to identify first what makes a text the specific genre and then find one that meets the criteria. Then, using the mentor text in class was a great part because you identified specific elements of the genre in the mentor text and it gave you examples of lessons and ways to teach the genre.