In the fourth and fifth chapters of Blasingame, multi-genre writing assignments are addressed and the pros and cons of teaching it discussed. I believe that this style of writing is a great way to build upon the student’s skills as a reader, researcher and writer. This type of assignment is a great way to provide the sense of ownership needed for a student to take pride in his/her work and to encourage them to put more into the experience of writing. For them to be able to choose a topic that would interest them and learn to narrow it down to a specific topic category as discussed on pages 63-64, would make the assignment seem less obligatory and droll.
I would like to use this type of assignment in my classroom; I feel that this would provide the perfect opportunity to guide my students through the writing process and really help them to discover their own, unique writing style. I know that I certainly enjoyed these types of assignments more than others with assigned topics and I took more away from the experience. Learning should be an experience, not a student’s “job” as I have heard some people put it. When you provide students with assignments that they can experience and are likely to enjoy, I believe that they would retain the information, not only on the topic, but on the constructive criticism provided by peers and mentors in the pre-writing process throughout.
In chapter five, Blasingame discusses teaching modes. I enjoyed this chapter, mostly because I believe that the importance of a student’s understanding of modes is what will dictate the depth of the paper. There are only so many words that a writer can use in any work of literature, the impact of the words used relies on the way in which they are said. That being said, the section on poetry starting on page 82 really hits close to home for me.
Personally, I am a poetry and music nut. I could make a day out of listening, reading and performing these two forms of art. In response to Walter Pater, for me, poetry is the only other form of art that actually does aspire to the condition of music. When I think about teaching poetry, I get carried away with ideas that are likely unrealistic, but exciting nonetheless. This section has helped me to start thinking of ways to direct these ideas into a more realistic teaching method. Blasingame says, “teachers might want to use a progression of activities, each more complex than the previous one, to help them ease into the process.” (p. 83). This quote fits in perfectly with part of my philosophy of teaching; I believe that all education must start from the bottom to reach the top, building a firm foundation first and then improving brick by brick.
By the time I reached the section, “Getting More Advanced,” I was basically ready to start writing poetry myself. I think that by having a more extensive poetry workshop, the students would be encouraged to share more intimate details with their peers and mentors and help to build a more comfortable environment for later workshops and assignments. I’ll have to think on this, but I like the idea of having this unit early in the semester or year for that very reason. This was a really fun read for me and has sparked my own intellect on how to organize my rubric more constructively.
Source:
Blasingame, Jim, and John H. Bushman. Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall, 2005. Print.