Bringing Greek Mythology to the 21st Century through Multigenre Writing

“Think, Write Now!” Think of the current book you are reading or the last book that you finished. What resonated with you about that book? Was it a main character? A theme? Choose either a main character or a theme from this book and jot it down in your WNB. Then jot a description of the character or theme. Finally, brainstorm some other genres that you might write in to portray the significance of this character or theme.

Example… Character: Ponyboy from The Outsiders Description: He is a very reflective narrator who loves learning, reading, writing, and movies. He doesn’t fully fit in with his gang, The Greasers, because he has ambitions to go to college and use his intellect for good. At the same time he has an unwavering loyalty to his gang, viewing them as his brothers. He also doesn’t allow stereotypes to inhibit him from getting to know others. He sees metaphors and symbols all around him. He is proud of his identity. Possible genres: (1) His goodreads page with books he’s read, loved, and reviewed, (2) text messages or emails he would have sent to Cherry if cell phones were around in the 1960s, (3) his college application and/or college essay

What is a Multigenre Paper Anyway?!? http://www.learner.org/workshops/middlewriting/prog5.html

Rationale Reclaim opportunities for student choice within curriculum and common core framework Engage students in creative thinking Multisensory and multiple intelligences A synthesis/capstone project of all of the writing and literary skills we’ve practiced throughout year Narrative Informative Persuasive/argumentative Poetic Visual Oratory Reflective Starfish metaphor

Fitting Multigenre Into the 7th Grade Curriculum Month Unit September Launching Readers & Writers Workshop October Close Reading & Response to Literature (core text: The Outsiders by SE Hinton) November Writing Realistic Fiction December Reading & Writing Poetry January Reading Nonfiction, Research Skills February Writing Research-Based, Argument Essays & Debates March Survival Literature Book Clubs April Writing Literary Essays May Greek Mythology June Writing & Performing Monologues

Implementation Students choose a Greek god, goddess or creature to research in depth Students complete a DQI chart as their note taking structure and tool for generating ideas of appropriate genres to write in Students develop a multigenre project that includes at least 5 different genres interwoven to tell the life, story, and purpose of the god, goddess, or creature. For each genre piece, students must also write an endnote in the form of a reflective paragraph, which explains their rationale for using the particular genre. Students must attach a bibliography of sources with their project. At least 3 of their sources must be books.

Some Potential Genres (Not an Exhaustive List) birth certificate academic merit/award character resume comic strip picture book wanted ad written from the perspective of an enemy series of letters, emails, or text messages facebook page with newsfeeds of god/goddess’s adventures diary entries recipe Twitter post and hashtag 6 word memoirs advertisement wedding invitations/announcements showing marriage(s) of god/goddess map of character’s neighborhood/home/journeys music video documentary movie trailer modern style myth editorial Op Ed from the perspective of a god or goddess on an issue or concern eulogy honoring character’s life accomplishments obituary

Assessment Student and teacher-created rubric Peer evaluation Self evaluation Reflection of the project

Next Steps & Feedback I need to establish general assessment criteria to help me to build in mini lessons for this assignment and help students to develop evaluative criteria I need to create a model of this assignment to walk students through (perhaps using a character from our core text The Outsiders?) Your thoughts, suggestions, ideas, tips???

Works Cited Annenberg Learner Teacher Resources & Professional Development across the Curriculum. (2014). Write in the Middle, a Workshop for Middle School Teachers: Teaching Multigenre Writing. (Workshop Video). Retrieved from http://www.learner.org/workshops/middlewriting/prog5.html Camille, A. & Swistak, L. (2004). Multigenre Research: The Power of Choice and Interpretation. Language Arts Journal, 81 (3), 223-232. Gillespie, J. (2005). “It would be fun to do it again”: Multigenre responses to literature. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 48 (8), 678-684. Moulton, M. (1999). The multigenre paper: Increasing interest, motivation, and functionality in research. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 42 (7), 528-539. Putz, M. (2006). A Teacher’s Guide to the Multigenre Research Project. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.