Organizing by Genre, Part 2

The following is a way to organize your writing instruction by genre, based on suggestions from Ken Hyland's article in the Journal of Second Language Writing 16 (2007) 148-164.

The possible stages involved in designing a genre-based course from a text-focus perspective have been outlined by Burns and Joyce (1997) as follows:

1. Identify the overall contexts in which the language will be used.
2. Develop course goals based on this context of use.
3. Note the sequence of language events within the context.
4. List the genres used in this sequence.
5. Outline the sociocognitive knowledge students need to participate in this context.
6. Gather and analyse samples of texts.
7. Develop units of work related to these genres and develop learning objectives to be achieved.

My First Grade Writing Program, using the above framework

1. Contexts: Classroom (Reading, Science), Home (Letters), Future Schooling (Reports, Essays), Personal Expression (Poems, Journals)
2. Goals: Students will write in appropriate forms to communicate to their intended audience. Their writing will be legible and will make sense.
3. Sequence of language events?
4. Genres: a. Book Recommendations
   b. Lab Reports
   c. Friendly Letters
   d. Thank You Notes
   e. Report
   f. Recounts (personal narratives)
   g. Poetry
   h. Journals
5. Sociocognitive knowledge (as related to above genres):
   a. We can recommend books to our friends that we enjoy, and learn of interesting books from them as well
   b. Scientists keep track of their learning by writing about their experiments (This also enables them to recreate their experiment later.)
   c. We can communicate with others by writing letters
   d. We can show our appreciation through thank-you notes
   e. We can summarize what we have learned and give information to others through a report
   f. We can explain how an event happened through a recount/narrative
   g. We can express ourselves creatively through poetry
   h. We can express ourselves creatively and explore our thoughts and feelings through journals
6. Samples of texts (use previous students’ work, my own personal writing and correspondence, and published work)
7. Units of work & Learning objectives
   a. Book Recommendations – Students recommend books to their friends using a “white board” chart during independent reading centers
   b. Lab Reports – Taught during Science, written together after every Science lesson (In first grade, we copied the day’s learning objective in question form, then the students had to answer it in their own words and illustrate their answer with a picture of the experiment, labeled of course!)
   c. Friendly Letters – Taught initially in the Fall: students write letters to their parents telling them what they are learning in school (parents read during Curriculum Night). Review in Spring: students exchange letters with students in another class
   d. Thank You Notes – Written periodically through the year as we appreciate the volunteers in our classroom
   e. Report – Taught in Winter along with unit on penguins: shared writing, students offer facts they’ve learned and class puts them together into a logical sequence, then students illustrate facts in pairs. All students receive a photocopy of the penguin “report” book.
   f. Recounts – Taught Fall, Winter, and Spring (this skill is assessed in first grade and is an important reading and oral language skill as well): students retell stories as well as personal experiences (Field Day, family traditions, losing and finding an object, what they ate for breakfast, Kite Day)
   g. Poetry – Taught in Spring: students are introduced to many forms using mentor texts and keep a working poetry portfolio. At end of unit, teacher and student collaborate to choose best pieces to put into a student poetry anthology
   h. Journals – Taught in Fall, Winter, and Spring: students write in journals as entry task after learning spelling strategies, where to find ideas, different forms of writing, etc.