Entry #10: Something Worth 'Blessing, Addressing, or Pressing'

Thinking back to Hicks (2009) model for peer response, I have found another post that I found would be worth blessing, addressing and pressing. Peer feedback has always been difficult for me to provide to my classmates. This process can be extremely helpful and something I need to get used to because of my chosen teaching profession. As a teacher, you are always required to give feedback whether it be to myself, my coworkers or my students. This concept is always something I could work on improving as a way to become the best educator I can possibly be. In this post, I have chosen to give feedback on 'Entry #9: How can teachers promote biographical writing in the classroom setting?' written by my peer, Catherine Tighe (https://catherinetighe-lted618-spring2019.blogspot.com ). I think Catherine did a wonderful job discussing the power of teaching the genre of biographies to improve students' reading and writing skills. In this Written Expression course, each class member was required to teach a workshop on a specific genre. The genre I was required to teach about was biographies. Because I consider myself an 'expert' on this genre, it was so interesting to see how others viewed this particular genre. 

Bless 
I enjoyed that Catherine began her post by bringing in her own personal insights on the biographical genre. She discusses how young children are egocentric as they explore the world around them. She goes on to state how teachers can use this to their advantage to teach their students about creating their own autobiographies pieces. Also, I agree with Catherine on her stance that early writers should spend lots of time writing about themselves to create an authentic and developmentally appropriate experience. I liked the connection that Catherine made between Autobiographical Life Boxes and Show and Tell experiences. Both of these activities are a great way for students to become more comfortable with learning how to share their ideas and their writing pieces to others appropriately. I thought it was beneficial that Catherine took the time to pinpoint which elements of Author's Craft (ex. presentation and organization) could be developed or strengthen throughout Tompkins (2019) concept of creating Biography posters. Lastly, I loved how Catherine added a link within her post to an outline that could be used to create 'Me' quilts, another instructional activity students could use to support their understanding of autobiographies. Overall, I think Catherine's post was well-thought out and organized as she continued to integrate Tompkins ideas with her own opinions. 

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/unit-plans/teaching-content/unit-plan-writing-autobiography/

Address
It would be interesting to find out the ways the Catherine might use these biographical instructional strategies/activities in her own classroom. In what ways might you implement these learning experiences? Are there any strategies that Tompkins offered that you believe would not be beneficial for helping your students farther their understanding of this specific genre? Catherine's post talks a lot about autobiographies. I wonder if Catherine would spend time teaching her students about the 3 other types of life stories including: biographies, memoirs or personal narratives or just autobiographies? Would it depend on the grade level and/or students interests and strengths? When considering author's craft, like Catherine did for the Tompkins biographical activities, could you make an argument that most of these instructional methods offered in the biographical writing chapter could touch upon developing all of the different elements found in an author's craft? 

Press 
I thought Catherine did a fantastic job being a critical thinker while she wrote about the importance of learning about the biographical genre. It was hard for me to brainstorm possible critical questions to help Catherine move toward a stronger version of her opinion because I feel like she already stated it very well. One thought I had for Catherine would be to compare and contrast the biographical genre to the other genres she has previously learned about. What strengths or weaknesses does this genre provide that others do/do not provide for diverse readers and writers? 

References 

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.