1. Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone Helping Students Navigate Unfamiliar Genres
Authors: Cathy Fleischer & Sarah Andrew-Vaughan
Presenters: Shelley L. Esman & Rebecca Conway
Rebecca

2. And, how do you find time to cover them all?
What genres, in your opinion, are the most useful for students to study?
And, how do you find time to cover them all?
Rebecca

3. Identifying Genres
ABC Brainstorming
Quick Share
Shelley

4. Genres and Sub-Genres: Impossible to teach them all!
Rebecca Genres (and sub-genres) Quite a Quandry!
Genres and Sub-Genres: Impossible to teach them all!

5. The Big Three of the Common Core
Narrative
Informational
Persuasive/Argumentative/ Opinion
Rebecca

6. Examples of Narrative
Shelley Ask Shelley-- write on board?

7. Narrative Story Folktale Legend Poetry Drama Memoir Vignette
Realistic Fiction
Fantasy
Science Fiction
Historical Fiction
Dystopia
Mystery
Comic Strips
Children’s book
Microfiction
Satire
Epic
Shelley

8. Examples of Informative
Shelley

9. Informational New Article Lab Report How to (Instructional Manual)
Compare Contrast
Cause and Effect
Sequential
Description
Magazine article
Blog
Brochure
Pamphlet
Eulogy
Analysis
Research Journal
Commercial
Writing for assessment
Recipe
Problem /solution
Shelley

10. Examples of Argumentative/Persuasive/ Opinion Genres

11. Opinion/ Persuasive/ Argumentative
Movie review
Art commentary
Book Blurb
Closing Argument
Critique
Business letter
Cover letter
Letter of recommendation
Letter to the editor
Letter to person in government
Political cartoon/satire
Shelley

12. Is there a downside to Genre Studies?
When form takes precedence over the ideas, purpose, and style of the writer*
When genre is viewed as simply formulaic structure**
When the teaching of genre supports anything other than best practice.
Rebecca *Muffin Tin Metaphor—do not teach genre in a strictly formulaic way. Language is not a batter that we’re pouring into molds.
**A prepackaged list of characteristics that students strive to include in their writing. (Academic exercise vs. meaningful communication in a social context.)

13. Genre is not just a template into which a writer fits her thoughts
Genre is not just a template into which a writer fits her thoughts. It may begin with a template but, because it is a rhetorical construct, it is further constructed by the context, the intended audience, and the positioning of the author.
We cannot prepare students for all the genres they “need to know,” since those genres, very likely, have not been invented yet.
It’s about the template, but not about the template alone.

14. Why the Unfamiliar Genre Project?
We all have genres that are easier/more difficult for us to write in than others.
While genres have particular constraints that make them unique, there are also ways of writing that cross genres.
In the study of unfamiliar genres, students analyze their genre and makes sense of the similarities and differences that exist between genres.
The metacognitive thinking involved in genre study helps inform future writing.

15. Immersion Inquiry Instruction Integration
What is Genre Study? How can teachers best help student writers enter new genres?
Immersion
Inquiry
Instruction
Integration
The 4 I’s of successful genre study—IMMERSON—multiple examples of the genre under consideration read AS WRITERS (to discover the CRAFT). Inc. audio, choral reading etc.
INQUIRY—students (& teachers) are intentional about asking deliberate questions about the genre. What characteristics do these examples have in common? What kind of sentence structure seems predominant? Why is this one written in the first person?
INSTRUCTION—Mini-lessons—short, focused lessons in process, craft, conventions, structure that connects directly to the student’s writing. (A lot of these lessons transfer across genres) INTEGRATION—thinking ACROSS genres.

16. The Goal of the UGP: Integration
The important lesson is to learn both the strategies for learning about a new genre and the overall understandings of writing that emerge from close scrutiny of a few genres.

17. How Does Genre Study Fit into a semester of ELA?
Three Effective Practices:
Writing Workshop
Writing-to-Learn
Writing Genres
Incorporating all three creates a deep &
effective way of teaching writing
Rebecca

18. Genre Writing Instruction
Student-centered & teacher-directed.
The goal is to move students from learning writing and genre study skills toward using those skills to successfully approach writing in new genres and for new audiences, situations, and purposes.
Rebecca

19. Interesting New Genre Standardized Test Writing
Presented as just one more kind of writing that has its own demands.
When we present test writing in this way, we hope we are sending a message to our students that the way they write for standardized tests is not the way they might write for other occasions and purposes, but they can—with a little preparation—meet the demands of this genre.
We can approach this genre study as we do any other—with the 4 “I’s.”
Rebecca IMMERSE, INQUIRE, INSTRUCTION, INTEGRATE Note: This strikes a balance in a world where these tests are a reality.

20. The Unfamiliar Genre Project WHY?
Give students a bagful of strategies
Build independence
Establish skills for future writing
Rebecca--Review

21. Unfamiliar Genre Project How to do it?
Research journal
Project proposal
Scavenger Hunt
How to book
Annotated Bibliography
The writing
Reflection Letter
Letter from an interested adult
Shelley

22. Variations of the Unfamiliar Genre Project
Integrate it into what you presently do
Do only chosen parts to shorten the process
Shelley

23. Our experience Our activity –with the cards
3 minutes to read the mentors with partner
5 minutes to take notes and ---make worksheet scavenger hunt ish
5 minutes to create their card and share
Copy the rubric
Put them into 8 groups
The investigate the mentor texts and then create their own card
Use page 36, 37 pages for examples of things to look for

24. Back to ABC Brainstorming
Formative assessment
*Star the genre that could be taught as “unfamiliar” genre