Week+8

__**Week 8**__ We started class this week with a Four-Corners Debate. Several statements were made about the five-paragraph essay and mixing genres, and students moved to the appropriate corner (Agree, Strongly Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree) to show their position on the statement. We then discussed the three readings for this week (Dean, Roessing, and Wesley) before experimenting with "muddying the boundaries" as we wrote an essay in response to one of the essay choices for the PA Standard Teaching Application. We then stepped back from this activity to determine our thoughts on Dean's suggestions for practice.

__**Article Discussion**__
 * Several students shared how they felt their hands were tied to teach the five-paragraph essay (due to the curriculum, the policy context, and the expectations of other teachers) and voiced a concern that it might be difficult to "muddy the boundaries" in a five-paragraph essay.
 * Several students thought that Dean's idea to "muddy the boundaries" was neat, but that it would not work for certain types of writing (PSSAs, SATs, AP exam) and would require modeling and careful scaffolding in order for students to be able to successfully mix genres. Other students mentioned that mixing genres could only be attempted once students had a solid writing base.
 * Several students made comparisions to the teaching of the five-paragraph essay and the teaching of Standard English in the classroom. One student mentioned the idea of "code switching" in order to help students understand when a particular mode and genre of writing are more appropriate.
 * Several students mentioned the need to make the five-paragraph essay more sophisticated, pushing students to write more complex thesis statements, to avoid cliche transitions, and to have more than three body paragraphs in an essay. The class discussed the need to help prepare students for the type of writing that will be expected of them in college.

__**"Muddying the Boundaries" Writing Activity -- Step Back**__ After spending 40 minutes writing in class, experimenting with Dean's suggestions for mixing genres, we discussed what we thought about her idea in respect to our own writing and in respect to teaching writing to our students. The following comments summarize our thoughts.
 * Mixing genres has the potential of serving as a good activity to make students (and all writers) more aware of their purpose and their audience when writing.
 * Mixing genres may be more appropriate for creative writing or other genres of writing rather than the five-paragraph essay because it is challenging to smoothly transition into a new genre of writing while simultaneously creating an effective argument.
 * Several students saw similiarities between the "Cracking Open" exercise described by Roorbach and the writing activity we did today.
 * By completing this activity, some students realized how painful it is to write in a rigid five-paragraph essay structure. Other students mentioned that how the activity was designed (first writing the five-paragraph essay and then mixing in a different genre) was a difficult task because it required them to first write to a particular formula and then try to add creative writing.