Expand the Possibilities of Genres You Teach Blog Series

Sometimes our greatest learning and growth comes when we try doing what we’ve always done a little differently. It’s hard at first, no doubt. Changing my grip for my tennis serve was a disaster for a while, and then… my serve was better. I’m sure many of us can recall a time when we’ve broken a habit, and it was hard, but then better. As I read many of my co-authors’ post, I kept thinking about how what they wrote would make me change my practice, challenging me, but making me better. Our hope is that you take some ideas, make them your own, maybe grapple through the initial discomfort of change, and then expand the possibilities of how you teach writing. 

Here’s what you can look forward to this week:

Betsy gets us started on Sunday with a post about the writing process. How does process impact writers regardless of genre and unit, and how can we expand our students’ understandings of their individual processes?

I continue the series on Monday with a post about ways to keep narrative writing alive and well during instruction on other genres. 

Kathleen offers creative approaches for weaving poetry into the lives of our student writers. Her post will be available on Tuesday. 

On Wednesday, Stacey pushes our thinking beyond the five-paragraph essay. She will nudge us towards helping students write to think while still being mindful of some basic essay features/structures. 

Thursday’s post from Marina addresses ways to use technology throughout informational writing. 

Kelsey addresses ways to expand the possibilities of how we teach opinion writing. 

Get ready for a how-to focus on Saturday when Beth writes about ways to adapt and extend how-to writing, to make it more accessible or more challenging, according to your students’ needs.

And finally, Lanny rounds out the series reminding us all of the importance of knowing and incorporating writing standards in our instruction, even as we work to expand the possibilities within the genres we teach. 

As always, our blog series includes an opportunity to win a book, and this series has two– Craft and Process Studies: Units that Provide Writers with Choice of Genre by Matt Glover and Focus Lessons: How Photography Enhances the Teaching of Writing by Ralph Fletcher. 

Giveaway Information:

• This giveaway is for a copy of each of the following books: Craft and Process Studies: Units that Provide Writers with Choice of Genre by Matt Glover and Focus Lessons: How Photography Enhances the Teaching of Writing by Ralph Fletcher. Thanks to Heinemann for donating a copy for one reader. (You must have a U.S. mailing address to win a print copy of this book.)
• For a chance to win this copy of Craft and Process Studies and Focus Lessons, please leave a comment about this or any blog post in this blog series by Sunday, February 9th at 6:00 p.m. EST. Betsy Hubbard will use a random number generator to pick the winner’s commenter number. His/her name will be announced in the ICYMI blog post for this series on Monday, February 10th.
• Please leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment so Betsy can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win.  From there, our contact at Heinemann will ship the book to you. (NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be published online if you leave it in the e-mail field only.)
• If you are the winner of the book, Betsy will email you with the subject line of TWO WRITING TEACHERS – EXPAND THE POSSIBILITIES. Please respond to her e-mail with your mailing address within five days of receipt. A new winner will be chosen if a response isn’t received within five days of the giveaway announcement.