Narrative Knowing

Romano uses the term "narrative knowing" in his text about creating multi-genre presentations. I thought that this brought up an interesting point, and helped frame the argument for the use of multi-genre in the English Language Arts classroom.

Although expository writing is a necessary skill, and a very useful tool, it does not say everything for everyone. I think that this is where narrative knowing comes in. There are students who can read and understand an encyclopedia entry about a topic. And then there are the students for whom there must be a personal story or connection in order for the information to have meaning for them. In this situation, these students need some other way to obtain the information. A multi-genre project can fill a void that previously existed in the classroom for these students. Also, it can help the lovers of the straight-forward to stretch and try on a few new things. I am very interested in the idea of narrative knowing, and how that can help students, and teacher, in the classroom.

One resource I have come across this week is the homework helper at the Minneapolis Public Library's website. The address is www.mplib.org/homeworkhelper.asp. This site is a great resource for students to use when they are doing homework. However, it also has a lot of information that could be useful to teachers. First, it offers teachers a few areas that students often struggle with. When teaching something for the first time, teachers may not anticipate what students will get and what they will have trouble with. This site shows teachers some common problem areas. Also, it provides teachers with another way of looking at the information. Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with a way of presenting information so students will grasp the material. This site offers one more way of thinking about the information.

Response to Williams

While reading Williams "Preparing to Teach Writing," I was very interested in the tone he used. Williams did not use a tone of questioning or wondering as he wrote. Rather, he seemed certain of the assertions he posited. There were times I found myself wondering what students he had used these methods with, and how he knew that the methods worked. Williams was a very concrete writer, who did not allow a range of ideas or attempts, rather is was more like a formula for teaching. If a teacher did these three things, students would write and workshop well in class. However, I am not buying the formula. The classroom is an environment that is always changing. To say that one thing will work all the time with all students is impossible.

Williams writes of the need for the classroom to be a community in order for students to be comfortable when workshopping their writing. He states that the students should have some time to get acquainted with each other in the beginning of the term. Williams also states that students should learn how to form feedback based on the teacher's modeling. Although I agree that the teacher must model the desired behavior, I do not think that this is enough to teach students how to give feedback to each other in the workshop setting.

One resource I found when looking through information for my student teaching is teacherweb.com. This is a website that has lesson plans that can be used for class. They are broken down by age group and subject area. There are lesson plans for writing, literature, speaking and much more that would be very useful in the English Language Arts classroom.