As apparently the last supporter standing of the good ol' five paragraph essay, (perhaps better known as the "FPT" (Wesley, 57)), except for maybe that poor soul Tracy Novick, who, coincidentally, only wrote five paragraphs in favor of the five paragrapher, let me just say I was pleasantly surprised to see some alternatives to the old standby in this week's readings. I guess what I was such a fan of wasn't necessarily the structure itself, or the way that it somehow led students to come up with original, well-written, relevant papers (it didn't), but I liked that it provided a clear way to organize. Being a product of middle school in the 90's, I can say that I was taught to use this method throughout my own secondary education, and admittedly continue to use it today (although not necessarily just for five paragraphs, but in the way I organize and outline my thoughts). However, I can't argue that the format isn't limiting to student's thinking, like the one student in the Wesley article who wondered how to fit seven pages into five paragraphs (57). I agree that while providing structure, that structure can actually "stunt the growth of human minds" (57) by providing perhaps too narrow and too rigid a format, leaving out a lot of room for creativity, expansion, argument, and risk taking.
So what else then? If the FTP is like, way out of date, then what are we supposed to teach our students? Or how do we provide this same organization that I have personally grown so accustomed to but encourage the risk taking, creativity, and mental challenge of a less formal paper at the same time? And more importantly, how do we make room for this creativity, but still teach the same valuable skills necessary for a college writing, a business letter, or professional writing of any kind? I think one thing that I really took out of the Dornan et al. text was about the "Write-to-Learn" style paper. In staying in line with their previous argument that "writing is a process", it only makes sense that our students would learn not only how to write, but what they are writing in the process of doing it. I find that in my own writing, I am constantly changing my intro/thesis to match the direction I've ended up taking the body of it. So while this might support certain rhetorical devices concerning theme and topic, what about the organization again? I liked their diagram of the upside down triangle (131) and the way it clearly asks for an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. While I think this model is lacking in some respects, with enough scaffolding of paragraph theme, topic sentences, supporting details, etc., I think this shows potential for reframing the way the essay is taught in a less limiting, more idea-centered way.
On that note, and as the topic of what I really wanted to talk about in this posting, was that of the multi genre paper. I really enjoy the complexity, variety, and multi layered-ness of this alternative to the five paragraph essay. While I don't agree that it can replace a lot of what a more traditional paper can offer, I think teaching it in conjunction with more research based, argumentative, or formal papers can be very beneficial to students. I was talking with one of my cooperating teachers about possibly incorporating this into the last 4 or 5 weeks of my student teaching, and he seemed to be completely supportive. From what I can see so far and from what he's told me, students really don't have enough opportunities to write in the classroom, especially on a more personal or creative note as the multi genre paper would allow. Although I'm still a little intimidated by the format having never written a multi genre paper myself, I really want to be able to test this out on my ninth graders this spring. Is anyone else trying to do this to? Or am I the lone crazy out there? And if anyone is as nuts as I think I might be, is this something that would be better tied into one of our nominal themes/enduring understandings, or is this something better left completely open and completely personal and open-ended? I definitely see some potential for incorporating more historical aspects or writing styles into this, but I mean, really, 10 weeks on To Kill A Mockingbird? More like 10 weeks on To Kill Miss Kubsch. haha. "that was a joke." Geissler, that was for you. I guess while this is something I'm very seriously considering, I think it's about actually implementing it in the classroom and the practice that makes me nervous. To finish this up, some things I'm taking away from it:
1. Talk about differentiation. Poetry, play writing, non-fiction, comic strips, photographs, recipes???? I think this paper, if successful, would be hugely motivating for some students who usually wouldn't be.
2. Something different. How many times have they done this before? But also a huge opportunity to teach, again, that process of writing. Between practicing with initial exposure to the genres, freewriting for ideas, the drafting, opportunities for peer and teacher review, I think this alternative leaves a lot of room for students to practice both their writing and critiquing skills. Not to mention they would be critiquing and polishing one piece at a time, one genre at a time (or so i would think), making it easy for them to be clear and concise yet creative and personal with their writing.
3. SUPER clear expectations. I think because this paper seems to be so out of the box, it is going to be extremely important to be so explicit about what is expected of the papers and what I'd be looking for with each genre as well as the overall theme. As my cooperating teacher was saying, every single thing you teach needs to have a purpose. I can definitely see places where students will be like WTF is this? Why am I writing this mess of a paper? What am I getting out of this? In order for this to be as successful as Romano claims it can be, teachers need to think of these arguments and be prepared to let their students know about them.
Link 'O the week:
I'm sure most of you have at least heard if not used this website before, but it's something I still use to this day. It's mostly a free dictionary, but I find it might be a good, credible source to point students to for finding out everything from the history of language, to articles on the way English is changing, to tips for better writing, to even information on some texts. It's pretty much fantastic.
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