Beginning of my Genre Unit: Reflection

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I'm really excited about this comprehensive genre unit I have begun. Today (yes, Tech had school today even though nearly every other MPS school had off!), I was able to have my kids complete their life maps. The final touches of their maps were completed after about twenty minutes of class. After I had collected all of their masterpieces, I asked them to get out their notebooks (which is usually accompanied by a unison groan) so that they could record some vital details about the next step in our genre "journey." Just as my students are accustomed to, we conducted a "think aloud" about the relationship between narrative and descriptive writing. Just as I had anticipated, I had a decent number of students who were already contemplating the definite connection between these two genres, and I had others who challenged this idea (these are often my favorite learners, because I admire their inability to accept things for "face value.") As we held this think-aloud, I recorded ideas on my handy-dandy post-it poster paper. See the notes below.


Block two's ideas:
-narrative and descriptive writing can both be entertaining.
-narrative and descriptive writing are both kind of imaginative.
-narrative and descriptive writing are kind of expressive.
-narrative and descriptive writing can be fun to write.
-narrative writing and descriptive writing don't need research (or citations).
-narrative and descriptive writing use point-of-view.
-narrative and descriptive writing both use interesting words.
-you can use descriptive writing in narrative writing.


Block three's ideas:
-narrative and descriptive writing can both be emotional.
-narrative and descriptive writing can be about something personal.
-narrative and descriptive writing can be done without bibliographies.
-narrative and descriptive writing are fun to read.
-narrative and descriptive writing are fun to write.
-narrative and descriptive writing are more loose (from your head).
-narrative and descriptive writing shows what's going on in your life.
-narrative and descriptive writing try to explain a part of you to someone else.
-narrative writing needs (most of the time) to be descriptive.


So, as you can sort of notice, although these two blocks weren't thinking identically, they sort of worked through this think aloud in similar ways. And, (much to my excitement) they BOTH created an excellent connection between narrative and descriptive: good narrative writing aims to include plenty of great descriptive writing within it! After this think aloud, I had a hard time getting my students to quiet down. They were very interested in sharing examples of stories and movies that include great descriptions within the plot. So, instead of having them use a metaphoric microscope to "zoom in" on one part of their narratives (their life maps), I decided to roll with it. I had them quickly pick groups of three or four (which, in my class, when I haven't pre-arranged for them to use their group cards, means groups of two, three, four, five, or six...) and create a list of narratives that include excellent descriptive portions. As an additional task of this activity, I asked them to (as a group) select one example from their list and have each group member write a reflection about how this descriptive writing affected how they read the narrative.  


Some examples of the narratives with very descriptive portions:
"Shame" By Dick Gregory-->the part about how he is pregnant with poverty was very detailed.
Harry Potter-->lots of descriptions of the places.
"Birches" By Robert Frost-->he describes the birch trees so much.
"99 Problems" By Jay-Z-->he gives tons of details about his troubles.


Examples of reflections to these descriptive portions:
"I think when he be saying that he pregnant, it make me picture this weird idea of a little boy who pregnant. When I picture that crazy thought, it make me feel kind of bogus like he probably feel being so poor." (in regard to "Shame").
"When I read the descriptions about the buildings and stuff in Harry Potter, it makes me imagine like what it is like. I think the details make it easier for me to see it, and it makes it easier for the movie people to make those movies." (in regard to Harry Potter)
"Those pictures of the birches makes the whole poem flow. Like, the story that in the poem couldn't be there without those pictures. He real good at making me see what he say, and it make the whole story about the boy make sense because the birches fill in the gaps." (in regard to "Birches")
"Jay-Z raw. He tell it like it is. For some folk, those information is old news. For other people, those stories is untouchable. So, he know he got to give real examples of life on the street. I think his descriptive writing is probably the only way his song make sense. I like that he be talking about a life that some people don't know nothing about." (in regard to "99 Problems")


Since time is never on my side, the bell rang just as we were getting to the opportunity to share our ideas with each other. I am pretty happy with what I read, though! I'm excited for Monday when we will have the opportunity to discuss the importance of descriptive writing, and when we will get the chance to describe the "crap" out of one portion of our narratives.