I love the idea of tossing out (or at least revising) the traditional research paper. The idea of using a multigenre paper makes more sense. Research is important and students should certainly know how to write a paper but a multigenre paper incorporates so much more. Research has shown, according to the article, that a multigenre paper is much more like personal writing to a student. As a result, students take more time and effort to write for their own personal writing than on school assignments. Why in the world not make a research paper something fun and enjoyable (and it seems more of a learning experience) for students.
Vocabulary instruction has a bad reputation, at least in my opinion. It always seems to be boring and uninteresting. It now seems that people are catching on that vocabulary instruction is important and really the foundation to good reading comprehension. Rich representation of word meanings is a powerful tool in which students have the chance to learn vocabulary in multiple layers, including visually and verbally as well as making multiple connections. All in all, if students do not understand the vocabulary they can’t fully understand the text. Learning how words work is part of understanding vocabulary and is really the foundation for future readers.
June 4, 2008 at 3:52 am |
Katie
I too like the idea of saying good-bye to the old research paper!! It’s such a dull way to get information on a given topic. Students will gain much more from doing work using some of these ideas
Rodney Pyatte
June 4, 2008 at 5:38 pm |
Katie…I agree with you and Rodney…multigenre projects would be great for middle grades students.
I think there are a lot of creative ideas for vocab instruction…just can’t fall into the same old “rut”.
…Chris.
June 4, 2008 at 7:16 pm |
Thanks Katie.
Woody Trathen
June 5, 2008 at 1:20 pm |
I agree that vocabulary instruction has a bad reputation. I hated it in school but it is important and I think that some of these strategies could actually provoke intrest in students and make it more enjoyable. I also agree that the multigenre paper is a much more effective and enjoyable way of teaching students to do research.
Erin Mcintosh
June 6, 2008 at 3:38 am |
Katie,
Trying to think back, I can’t really remember most of the vocabulary words that I studied in school. In elementary school, I remember having spelling words, but in most cases we were not required to do anything with them other than learn how to spell them. I remember having some vocabulary in high school, but most of it was focused around the books that we were reading in classes. I really like what this article has to say in that it suggest different ways of teaching vocabulary than what I was taught. Maybe that will help these students retain information that I seem to have forgotten years ago.
Mandy Jennings
June 7, 2008 at 7:25 pm |
Katie,
I do agree with you on the multigenre papers. They seem to be more worthwhile and fun for all ages. I use to hate writing those boring research papers.
Rachel Eisenhower