1. Bringing Greek Mythology to the 21st Century through Multigenre Writing

2. “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.

3. 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 s he would have sent to Cherry if cell phones were around in the 1960s, (3) his college application and/or college essay

4. What is a Multigenre Paper Anyway?!?

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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, s, 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

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

10. 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???

11. 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 Camille, A. & Swistak, L. (2004). Multigenre Research: The Power of Choice and Interpretation. Language Arts Journal, 81 (3), Gillespie, J. (2005). “It would be fun to do it again”: Multigenre responses to literature. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 48 (8), Moulton, M. (1999). The multigenre paper: Increasing interest, motivation, and functionality in research. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 42 (7), Putz, M. (2006). A Teacher’s Guide to the Multigenre Research Project. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.