Blog # 9: Raising Some Questions

Is there a type of genre writing a teacher should focus on? 

I have thought about this question for most of the semester now, and I cannot help but wonder if some genres should be seen as more important. Each presentation given about the genres has been very informative and has given me so many different ideas for how to teach the genres. That being said, the presentation have not been able to bring closure to my question. Thinking back to when I was in elementary school I cannot help but remember reading expository texts and narrative texts the most. Mainly because the expository texts were the ones we would be tested on and the narrative texts were fun to read and were most often found in our literature books. Maybe the answer to my question lays within the grade being taught. Perhaps a teacher should start with narrative texts and should talk about all the fiction types of texts and then work into the expository texts and the other non fiction types of texts there are. This might be able to create a balance between how to teach the genres and how to show each of their importance. I think it is all about working in stages with students, working from a starting point and waiting until that is understood before moving on. 

Is it necessary to master the genres? 

I believe that a student should not need to master all the genres of writing and reading, however they will need to have some familiarity with each of the genres discussed in school.  Having said that, how can a teacher ensure each student has some baseline knowledge on each of the genres. This idea could be fulfilled easily by exposure. If the teacher continues to expose students to all the different genres of writing and reading they will become more familiar with them. I feel it is important to have pieces from each genre represented in the classroom library. When the students are exposed to each of the genres they might be able to remember certain things about each of them and they might be more comfortable using each of the different genres. 

Should teachers be able to pick and choose what they teach?

Thinking about this question from the stance of teaching genres, I wonder if teacher pick and choose which genres they teach. I know that I am able to teach certain genres better than others and because of that I might be guilty of picking and choosing how I teach my students. I wonder if this is something I can change  in my future teaching experiences. How can I do this? Perhaps it all lays in education of each of the genres and familiarizing myself with fun and exciting ways to teach her of them. I am glad I have had the opportunity to learn how to teach each genre in this course!