“Big Red’s” – Personal Writing
I chose this piece for inclusion in my writing portfolio because it was the sacred writing I felt most like crafting into a longer, more substantial work. During the creation of this piece, I learned you can’t just take any old thing and turn it into a poem through force of will. Maybe some pieces lend themselves naturally to a certain style. Or maybe I just need to flex my poetry muscles a little more. I also learned that it’s not the end of the world if a writing experiment doesn’t pan out. When I finished my first draft, I was frustrated. But the next morning, I realized I at least had a fascinating mistake for my e-portfolio.
“Why Didn’t I Think of That?” – Professional Writing
I chose this piece for inclusion because it focused on probably my greatest professional epiphany during Writing Project. Like my personal writing, the creation of this piece also gave me an opportunity to focus on deep revision since I began with a loose hodgepodge of ideas blurted out during sacred writing time and took the piece through several drafts as I carved it into the “finished” product presented here.
Effective Research Writing with the Multigenre Approach Demonstration
This is the piece with which I feel I most effectively used our peer response groups. Feeling a little overwhelmed at trying to tackle my demo, I started with a free writing describing my goals and questions. I then presented this free write to my writing group. Their insights helped me to revise my ideas and finalize my demo plans. Kathy’s knowledge of Bloom’s taxonomy prevented me from including a horrible misinterpretation of his ideas in my demonstration. I was able to take my refined ideas from writing group to Amy who provided even more advice and guidance as I refined and prepared my presentation.
Action Research Plan: Multigenre Research Writing
The development of this plan made me realize how much I have yet to learn about teaching. I don’t know that the multigenre approach is necessarily the best way to tackle research writing, but I think it can be a powerful tool. I look forward to reading more about multigenre papers and researched-based explanations about how and why they can be effectively used in the research curriculum.
Revision
The three pieces in this section show how I took my personal piece from free writing to final draft. Each section begins with an explanation in bold text about what conditions preceded each draft and why I made the changes I did for each version of the piece.
Reflective Practice
This section contains informal writings from a variety of sources. The first four are blog entry responses to our third space experiences. The fifth piece is a reaction to Joseph’s demo on using film in the classroom. Item six is my ethnography. The final five pieces are writings pulled from my journal and represent various writing activities we performed during Summer Institute.
