Kelly Rudh

The Multigenre Experience: A Reflection

My first response to the concept of multigenre papers was one of awe and wonderment. Was it possible? Would I be able to use such a personalized and flexible form of writing with my future students? I read through Tom Romano’s book Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers as if it were a holy scripture; I took highlighter and post-it flags in hand and sat in utter fascination as I received the revelation that is multigenre writing.

Throughout the program we have explored the expanding definition of literacy. We no longer consider reading and writing to be the only legitimate literacies; the term has evolved to include visual, musical, technological, and critical just to name a few (Dornan et al. 12). The multigenre paper embraces the expanded definition of literacy by giving students the opportunity to practice multiple literacies through the use of different genres. Students are asked not only to use different genres, but also to reflect on the affordances of those forms and how they work together to explore a common theme (Romano, 20).

One of the most noteworthy literacies that emerges from teaching multigenre papers is narrative literacy. Traditionally, students are asked to write essays or research papers, and although students are asked to read narratives, they are rarely given the opportunity to express their knowledge through narrative forms (Romano 18). Multigenre papers encourage students to think in nuanced ways about topics. In a multigenre paper for example, there is room for perspective taking and multiple viewpoints, this is a characteristic that is much harder to achieve with more formal kinds of academic writing.

I wrote a multigenre paper in response to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for my final project. I am planning on using the multigenre paper as my summative assessment for my literature units during student teaching and took the final project as an opportunity to do what I am asking of my students. I now have a better idea of the rewards and challenges that this paper presents after completing it and have learned much from observing the processes of my fellow friends in the cohort.

Many members of the cohort who tried the multigenre paper in response to literature had a difficult time and switched to writing about a more personal topic. I do believe that multigenre papers are most successful when the topic is something of personal interest to the author. I know that I would have written a lot more and have been more invested in the paper if I had chosen a topic that was more personal; however, I did gain a lot of insight into the lives of the characters and themes in the book through this assignment. I want my students to have a positive experience with this assignment, and I believe that how I teach the novel will have a great impact on their motivation and engagement with their paper writing. I need to help my students interact with the novel in such a way that they are invested in their papers. I think that my use of critical literacy in the novel will help focus their writing and give them opportunities to link the themes in the book with aspects of their personal lives; I hope that this will fuel their writing.

I wrote three pieces in my multigenre paper: A song, a poem, and a letter. All of the forms are very different and reflect different levels of literacy and interaction with the text. My favorite of all of the pieces was the poem I wrote title “Family”. Although the poem took the least time to compose, I felt that it allowed me to express the novel’s theme of family in an abstract yet meaningful way.

The song in many ways is shallow, but had a meaningful side-effect. While recording Darcy’s vocals, I had the opportunity to hear my voice, with the help of my vocal-processor, register low like a man’s. It was a strange and eye-opening experience- my posture singing even changed. I was able to, with the help of technology, take on some characteristics of a different gender. This project was very time consuming, but I know that many of my students have an interest in music which would motivate them to come up with a quality and original product.

Lastly, I wrote a letter from one of the most interesting character’s of Austen’s novel, Charlotte. I wanted to explore Charlotte’s decision in marrying Mr. Collins, and decided that a letter to her friend would be the best way for her to express her motivations. The product reveals that I was using elements of critical literacy and analyzing the text from a feminist lens.

My excitement about the multigenre paper has not diminished, but I now understand that merely assigning multigenre projects is not enough to ensure that students will have meaningful and engaging experiences with them. Teachers of multigenre papers need to understand how overwhelming the element of choice can be and also how frustrating it is to write in forms that students have little experience with. I am still thinking about using multigenre papers during my student teaching, but I am looking to find ways to make multigenre writing more appropriate as a response to literature.

Resources:

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Boston MA: McDougal Little, 1998.

Dornan, Rosen, Marilyn Wilson. Within and Beyond the Writing Process in theSecondary

English Classroom. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Group Inc, 2003.

Romano, Tom. Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers. Portsmouth, NH:

Boynton/Cook Publishers, 2000.

Kelly!

2009-03-15