(unfamiliar) GENRE PROJECT

Driving Question

How do I write (eg. College essays, menus, short fiction, cover letters, sonnets, resumes, etc), and how can I find out? (Can I?)

Enduring Understanding

Writing is a process that involves production and procrastination, finding the right relationship between form and content, reading and thinking, choice and rationale. I can do it. It can be fun, and I can feel smart and/or creative.

Essential Concepts

  • Genre

  • Form (features) and content

  • Summary vs. evaluation

  • Metacognition

  • Rationale

  • Writing as a social process linked to various identities (e.g. sportswriter, community activist, fundraiser, stand-up comedian, poet)


Essential Skills

Develop endurance for academic literacy practices and integrate intellectualism into your sense of self.

    • Identify examples of a genre.

    • Describe distinctive features of a genre.

    • Analyze the effectiveness of several examples within one genre.

    • Imitate features/examples of a genre.

    • Solicit and use feedback for revision and editing.

    • Metacognitive narration of research, reading, thinking, and writing process

    • Accurate, comfortable use of academic language related to writing products and processes

    • Self-evaluation

Summative Assessment

Think about an adult in your life who would be most impressed with your work, and write a dedication to them at the top of your final draft.

Then, take the time to reread your research journal and reflect on your experience over these past few weeks. Now read your final draft again, thinking about what you have learned about yourself as a reader, writer, and researcher. With all this in mind, write a reflective letter to your dedicated honoree explaining what you’ve learned and how your best draft demonstrates your newfound knowledge.

I think it’s important for you to share your work, so I encourage you to share it with your dedicated honoree and ask them to write a letter to you in response to your work. Requesting a letter is optional and ungraded, but if you complete it, I think you’ll find it valuable.

Formative Assessments

1. Chosen genre rationale

2. 15 metacognitive Research Journal entries

3. Example Analysis (5)

4. Original writing in chosen genre

5. Conference summaries (3 – with me, with peer, with another adult)

6. Revision and editing and rationale for choices


More on Formative Assessments

Research Journal

Although research includes many steps, the order of these steps may vary, as in writing. To some extent, this project is intended to allow you to discover your research process. You may want to jump right into a draft. You may prefer to begin by reading (and collecting) samples of your genre. Maybe you will begin by journaling: you might first deal with your fears by putting them to paper. Whatever your process, metacognition, thinking about your thinking, is an important part of this research project. Throughout this study, keep a journal of your experiences. Use this journal to keep track of your research strategy as well as your feelings about each stage of the work.

You must write in this journal at least 15 times. Each entry should be at least 1 full page handwritten or ½ page 12-pt font. After some time for “presearch,” your first Research Journal entry should be a rationale for why you chose the genre you did.

Example Analysis

One part of your research in this genre study is simply to read within the genre. Please limit yourself to published works (no student samples), and keep in mind that at least three of the samples you select should have authors who are not from the United States. As you are reading, collect the best five to ten samples you can find and analyze how they were crafted.

Experimental Drafts and the Now Familiar Genre Final Draft

The centerpiece of this project, of course, will be a finished piece in your chosen (unfamiliar) genre. You must take this piece through multiple drafts using feedback from peer, teacher, and other adult conferences (See below.) Before you actually get to your final piece, it’s likely that you’ll experiment with the genre – you may have several starts before you write the piece you will finish for your final project.

Feedback Session Notes

You’re expected to share your drafts with a peer, with me, and with another adult (parent, coach, another teacher, etc.). We’ll prepare for these conferences in class, so you’ll have a better idea of what kinds of questions to ask, what kinds of feedback to give, etc. During these conferences, take notes. Then, write up a summary of each conference.