cyborgsdodance

Click on the link below to view all snaps from the MultiGenre Presentations.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7341570@N03/show/

Below are the print and/or slide-show texts of the MultiGenre Metaphor presentations we saw in class. These texts alone do not fully convey what was communicated through the various modes of drama, song, and images in the presentations. They do, however, presents a story of their own. There is some really good writing in these pieces. Check them out.

Writing Instructor as Hockey Mom Download file
Excerpt from "Josh Newstrom's Journal Entry"

I think my mom and Mrs. Penny must be a lot alike cause they always say the same stuff to me. Mom says, I’ll buy you your skates and take you to practice, but it’s up to you to work hard and succeed. Mrs. Penny says, I’ll give you suggestions and try to help you get where you’re going with your writing, but you need to give it your all.

I love the voice in this piece. It captures the enthusiasm we bring into our work, whether it be hockey, writing, or teaching, when we feel that someone believes in our abilities. I hope to bring that encouragement to the students, teachers, and colleagues I work with in the future, and especially to my son who reminds me daily to never underestimate his abilities.

Teachers as Trainers: Let's Get Physical
http://community.livejournal.com/teach_and_train
This multigenre project uses the blog platform as repository for the various pieces of the whole.

Excerpt from MGMM Press Release:

ELA Educators Announces the Release of the New Personal Trainer for Writing.

Mpls, March 8, 2007. For years students have felt they are stagnating in their writing throughout their K-12 years. Research has shown that most students (85%) do not get the recommended daily 30 minutes of writing exercise that the National Writing Project (NWP) recommends. Many students actually exercise more that they write!

Now there is a solution to this pandemic that is sweeping our country: the Writing Personal Trainer (WPT). The job of the WPT is to stretch students’ writing abilities and comfort zones in a non-threatening way. Every day WPT leads students through numerous aspects of writing including: freewriting, drafting, editing, peer review, mini-lessons, sustained writing time and sharing of writing and techniques.

Whether intended or not, the satirical voice of this press release describes well some of the educational programs and gimmicks that are presented to administrators, teachers, and the public in general as panacea for education's ill.

Writing Instructor as Water

Excerpt from Preface to Water

We believe our teaching methods, and the craft of writing itself, is fluid like water and, therefore, often changes states, takes on different meanings, and plays many different roles. both writing and teaching can be mercurial subjects that resist containment, explanation, labeling, and/or exact definition.

Writing as Travel: Teacher as Guide
Sonnet 21--Writer's Guild Motto

Come writers, let us guide your journey.
When confronted with a choice between
words you must keep the goals of your story
in mind. Always decide what you mean
to say. Write clear like a Canadian night,
strong and bold like the rivers of old.
Thoughts as beautiful as the twilight
of a bucolic landscape. Untold
success should come if you structure your
thoughts like a German railway station,
orderly and smooth, never an obscure
phrase to disjoint like a drought in Scotland.
these tips will take writing to new places;
through problems of old, to brand new vistas.

Excerpt from Letter to Reader:

We are a group of idealistic teachers who believe that what we do matters. We are also, however, aware of the challenges that face us: the blights, droughts, and early frost of despair, indifference, and cynicism. We only have our bare hands and the simplest of tools at our disposal, but we are determined to make a difference so that the next generation does not starve.

Let the planting season begin.

While many of the students in the class voiced criticism of the multigenre project, stating that group work was the last thing they wanted to do, I can't help but be drawn to assign this project again. The final products often reflect such thoughtful consideration of their roles as teachers. I wish that as a preservice teacher, I would have reflected more deeply on the "droughts," "frosts of despair," and "cynicism" that I was to encounter in my new career. Was this reflection a result of the group work? the multigenre writing? or a combination of both?

Overall, the projects have moved me in ways unexpected. Reading through these projects reminds me once again of how we can never fully know our students, nor do we know ourselves. Rather it is our words, written, spoken, or visualized, that continually reveal to us new ways of knowing.