Multi-Genre Projects: Growing Students into Confident Writers
“ ‘Write about what you care about.’ I did that, and it taught me that good stories have to be honest, writers must be brave, and there has to be passion” (Romano, 1995, p.13 ).
Overview
Scribbles vs. Free-Writes
Free-Writes
Free-writes, while having some of the similar elements as scribbles, are guided writing practices that also are meant to help students see that they have valuable experiences to write about.
Scribbles
Scribbles are meant for “students… to make their own choices about what to write about,” go “off-topic,” “use their personal voices”, and “tell the stories they want to tell” (Wiederhold & Dean, 2020).
Bottom Line:
Students begin to see themselves as growing writers.
Example Free-Write
Indelible Moments
“I sometimes ask students to map indelible images in their lives, to begin to objectify them with language” (Romano, 2019, p. 39).
Steps for Indelible Moments Free-Write
Step One:
Example Free-Write
Indelible Moments
Mentor Text Inspiration for Free-Write
Step Two:
Excerpt from Writing with Passion (Romano, 1995, p. 51)
Nick closed his eyes and saw. his father lying in the white satin of the coffin, one hand clutching a rosary, resting on his stomach. He looked trapped and coerced, desparate to escape death. Too much make-up caked his face. His expression was fixed in a severe frown forever. From the lid of the cofin hung a golden crucifix, quite heavy. Nick discovered later, when he hung it on the wall of his bedroom.
Nick saw himself, fifteen then, freshman year of high school nearly over, sitting beside his mother and sister in front of the coffin. He wept and every now and then he looked up to his father. The frown. The rosary. The oppressive smell of flowers that loaded the floor and tables around the coffin. His father. Dead. His own father.
Mentor Text Inspiration for Free-Write
Excerpt from Writing with Passion
Nick heard other voices...: old illiterate Henry Steen, bending close to his face, saying in breath that reeked of wine. “You’re going to miss Papa. You’re going to miss hin bad.” And Mrs. Kenney: “He looks like always.” And Mr. Techman: “He looks good, don’t he.”
And Nick nodded amid all this and thought, he doesn’t look good he doesn’t look like always he looks dead he looks still and. yes you son of a b**** I’m going to miss him and now he’s gone and we argued last week and now its too late to tell him I’m sorry iit’s too late to tell him I love him it’s too late too late too late.
Step Three:
Step Four:
Come up with some general patterns/rules that (genre) seem to follow:
Genre Sentence Starters
As referenced from Deborah Dean’s Stragic Writing, we practice noticing details about the following: content, structure, format, language, and sentences. We then create rules and patterns for the specific genre we are studying by using sentence starters.
Betty Botta bought some butter;
“But,” said she, “this butter’s bitter!
If I put it in my batter
It will make my batter bitter.”
Mini-Genre Studies and Mentor Texts
As we begin out Multi-Genre Unit, we pull from our scribbles and free-writes we have written over the year.
Memoir Mini-Genre Study
A memoir is a narrative, written from the perspective of the author, about an important part of their life. It's DIFFERENT than an autobiography as an autobiography covers the span someone's entire life.
More focused than an autobiography, a memoir is an intimate look at a moment in time.
Concepts and Definitions
(Click here) Mentor Text # 2: "My Father's Voice" by Tom Romano
Literary/Rhetorical Devices within this text:
Dialogue
Repetition
Imagery
Mentor Texts: Read the mentor texts.
Discuss & Write
Using your Genre Study Questions and Sentence Starters, discuss with your book/write club what you notice about each mentor text! After discussing both mentor texts, write what patterns you notice about memoirs as a genre. Use the sentence starters on the inside of your Genre Study Questions brochure to list rules/patterns that the genre seems to follow.
Turn one of your previous free-writes or scribbles into a memoir focused on one moment! (Consider using your Indelible Moments Free-Write.) Remember this is not a story that covers your whole life! Just one moment or experience.
Imitate the genre rules/patterns of memoirs. Today you are invited to imitate the writer's craft by including TWO of the following rhetorical/literary devices:
A minimum of 200 words handwritten are expected and are to be submitted to Canvas. Write legibly. Show that you counted your words. In another color mark & label your use of two of the rhetorical/literary devices above.
Activity Time
Student Samples
The Multi-Genre Project
During our Multi-Genre Unit, my students do genre studies of...
During the school year we have also done genre studies of...
All of these activities are designed to help students see the possibilities for writing and spark their creativity for the genres they will choose for their writing portfolios (multi-genre projects).
The Multi-Genre Project Rubric
My students receive their instructions adapted from Kelly Gallagher’s chapter on multi-genre project found in 180 Days: Two Teachers and the Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents
(Click here) The Writing Portfolio Expectations/Requirements
I invite them to pick an idea or theme that they care about that will be the thread throughout their projects. Because of the nature of our scribbles and free-writes during the year, most of my students' projects tend to lean towards personal narrative multi-genre projects.
Results
Student Samples
(Click here) Mrs. Ashurst’s Multi-Genre Project
“You must be fearless in writing the words that emerge in your mind...” (Romano, 1995, p.31)
I invite, but do not require, my students to experiment with using Canva to create a digital writing portfolio/multi-genre project
Results
“You must be fearless in writing the words that emerge in your mind...” (Romano, 1995, p.31)
Our multi-genre unit usually takes 4-5 weeks on an A/B schedule (aside from all the prep work during the. year). This includes opportunities to share and workshop (feedback sessions with their write clubs.
Contact Info:
Jessica Ashurst
jessica.ashurst@jordandistrict.org
Resources