Entry #4 * Exploring The Journal Genre
"Writing can be a point of contact where students engage in learning that is based on their identities and life experiences" (Wiseman, 2003, p. 809). During Dr. Jones journal genre presentation, I was very humbled by this quote. I have always told myself I don't like writing, or, I'm not good at it. However, this I've come to learn is an untruth. I write all the time without really thinking about it. I have a notebook that I write down almost everything from something I want to remember, to an emotion that I can't express at the moment so I write it down. I use technology to text and send emails everyday. I've never sat down to think about how much I use writing in my everyday life, until now. I have a plethora of "journals" around me all the time.
This week given the opportunity to focus on any aspect of reading, I have to say how quite excited to incorporate journal reading and writing in the classroom with my students. After the presentation, and reading Tompkins (2012), I can see how journaling can influence students to engage in writing more. For example, if I was teaching a 2nd grade class and I gave all my students a personal journal to free-write every morning for about 15 minutes. This is just one way to incorporate writing into the classroom, as well as developing the skill of writing fluency, which is a very important skill to have in order ot understand what you're writing. (Tompkins, 2012, p. 110). Having the time to free-write about whatever you choose can be a powerful way to become inspired by your writing as well as become more comfortable with the writing process.
Some of the mentor texts suggested in Tompkins (2012) I am actually familiar with and have read multiple times during schooling years. I remember reading Diary of a wimpy kid by Marissa Moss, Keena Ford and the second-grade mix up by Melissa Thomson, and Anne Frank. The diary of a young girl. I am fortunate that I have been exposed to so many different types of journals such as personal, historical, and science journals during my elementary and middle school experience. During our in person class session on 2.15, I was able to take a look at a variety of texts I was unfamiliar with that fall within the journal genre. One text that I took a closer look at was Diary of a fly by Doreen Cronin. I wanted to look at an elementary level age book because that is the area I hope to teach. I really enjoyed reading this specific book because it was fun and also can be used as a mentor text in the classroom. The way the author uses journal writing to keep the audience engaged is fascinating. This text takes you in chronological order by date of real life events of a fly. I can imagine reading this book to my students (ideally second grade), and later giving them their own journal to start their own diary. When referring back to this specific text, I can explain to them how the illustrations keep the text engaged, and how the specific date on each page really acts out the setting. This one book gave me a variety of ways to create an authors craft mini lesson. A specific example of a mini-lesson of with this book could be based on components of the text where I ask "Why is this a good title? How does the title help you as a reader?" (Richard and Hawes, 2011, p. 371). Using mentor texts through exploring different genres this semester as a growing reader teacher will allow me to gather great resources for future reading and writing lessons.
References
Rickards, D. & Hawes, S. (2006). Connecting reading and writing through author's craft. The Reading Teacher, 60(4), 370-373.
Wiseman, A. M (2003). Collaboration, initiation, and rejection: The social construction of stories in a kindergarten class. The Reading Teacher, 56(8), 588-601.
This week given the opportunity to focus on any aspect of reading, I have to say how quite excited to incorporate journal reading and writing in the classroom with my students. After the presentation, and reading Tompkins (2012), I can see how journaling can influence students to engage in writing more. For example, if I was teaching a 2nd grade class and I gave all my students a personal journal to free-write every morning for about 15 minutes. This is just one way to incorporate writing into the classroom, as well as developing the skill of writing fluency, which is a very important skill to have in order ot understand what you're writing. (Tompkins, 2012, p. 110). Having the time to free-write about whatever you choose can be a powerful way to become inspired by your writing as well as become more comfortable with the writing process.
Some of the mentor texts suggested in Tompkins (2012) I am actually familiar with and have read multiple times during schooling years. I remember reading Diary of a wimpy kid by Marissa Moss, Keena Ford and the second-grade mix up by Melissa Thomson, and Anne Frank. The diary of a young girl. I am fortunate that I have been exposed to so many different types of journals such as personal, historical, and science journals during my elementary and middle school experience. During our in person class session on 2.15, I was able to take a look at a variety of texts I was unfamiliar with that fall within the journal genre. One text that I took a closer look at was Diary of a fly by Doreen Cronin. I wanted to look at an elementary level age book because that is the area I hope to teach. I really enjoyed reading this specific book because it was fun and also can be used as a mentor text in the classroom. The way the author uses journal writing to keep the audience engaged is fascinating. This text takes you in chronological order by date of real life events of a fly. I can imagine reading this book to my students (ideally second grade), and later giving them their own journal to start their own diary. When referring back to this specific text, I can explain to them how the illustrations keep the text engaged, and how the specific date on each page really acts out the setting. This one book gave me a variety of ways to create an authors craft mini lesson. A specific example of a mini-lesson of with this book could be based on components of the text where I ask "Why is this a good title? How does the title help you as a reader?" (Richard and Hawes, 2011, p. 371). Using mentor texts through exploring different genres this semester as a growing reader teacher will allow me to gather great resources for future reading and writing lessons.
References
Rickards, D. & Hawes, S. (2006). Connecting reading and writing through author's craft. The Reading Teacher, 60(4), 370-373.
Wiseman, A. M (2003). Collaboration, initiation, and rejection: The social construction of stories in a kindergarten class. The Reading Teacher, 56(8), 588-601.
Makayla, this entry was a little harder to follow than some of your previous entries. Perhaps it was because there was so much that you gained from the readings and from our Journal Expert Workshop that it was hard for you to decide what to spend more time focusing on in this entry? At the end of the entry you began to talk about how you might use a mentor text to teach students about journal elements. What grade level were you thinking about as you imagined asking questions like, "why is this a good title?" I'd also be interested to hear what other kinds of questions you might ask about a specific mentor text.
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