Entry #9

This week I'd like to reflect on my presentation on descriptive writing because it really forced me to think about how essential these skills are for all types of writing. It's funny because I felt that I had a solid knowledge base on descriptive writing techniques before I began my presentation, but my research and thought process really developed on a deeper level as I completed my genre presentation. I now find myself thinking about descriptive writing all the time. While, I would consider myself someone who is pretty conscious of text when I read and write I have been noticing more and more how descriptive writing impacts both processes. Even when we were peer conferencing about our genre pieces project I found myself talking about descriptive language. It really does strike a chord with a reader/writer by "painting a picture with words" as Tompkins (2008) describes. I feel that I am now much more aware of descriptive writing and more prepared to teach it in accordance with all the other writing genres we have studied thus far.

I found that it was kind of challenging to find research on descriptive writing. It's hard because sometimes it may be associated with vocabulary, even though they are different in a sense. I wonder do they have to be different? Essentially, both descriptive writing and vocabulary deal with words. Wouldn't it be best for these two sub categories to be taught in an integrated fashion, possibly with spelling too?

For this week's readings in LTED 609 we read Baumann et al. (2007), which was titled "'Bumping Into Spicy, Tasty Words That Catch Your Tongue': A Formative Experiment on Vocabulary Instruction." Although I did not come across this article in time for my genre presentation, I almost liked it better that way. After just finishing examining descriptive writing I read this article and walked away feeling such a strong sense of understanding and excitement that made me feel anxious to put some of these methods into my own teaching as soon as possible. Baumann et al. (2007) offers ways to incorporate vocabulary/descriptive writing in such a practical sense that I can see myself implementing them tomorrow. It really made me think that the foundation for reading and writing has to be words. One of the goals of instruction should be "Word consciousness [which] involves 'an awareness of and interest in words and their meanings'" (Baumann et al., 2007, p. 116). Words of all types should be emphasized as we connect them with the world around us. There are so many quick activities that can be done at the word level that will make students more aware of words. Most importantly, it is essential to stress that word play can be fun! I think spelling and vocabulary have this reputation of being boring, drill, test-based activities, but I do not want children to think of words this way in my classroom. I want them to bring in words that they encounter to trigger discussion and to develop structural and context analysis strategies. I truly feel that I have adopted a new philosophy about word choice that will be reflected through the way that I implement instruction in vocabulary, spelling, reading and writing. It amazes me to think that you can change an entire classroom environment by having fun with words!! :)

Something that I did not fully mention in my presentation was this connection between descriptive writing and poetry. Sophia outlined all of the various types of poetry out there and as we learned there are many unique forms of poetry. Poems are often associated with descriptive writing because they typically are shorter so they require the use of more descriptive language to spark imagery within the reader. I think that some people even confuse descriptive writing and poetry as one in the same. Although we determined that descriptive writing is more of a trait than a genre it still plays an essential role in poetry as well as in all genres of writing, whether it is in the form a word, sentence, paragraph or a whole written piece. This is what makes descriptive writing unique compared to the other genres, but I must admit that poetry and descriptive writing do make a compatible pair. I think that descriptive writing should be taught as an entity in itself, but it should also be emphasized in all writing. Maybe pairing descriptive writing and poetry instruction would provide an ideal opportunity to re-emphasize these particular techniques.

Lastly, I just want to thank Sophia for asking us to write a two voices poem in class. I did not really know much about this type of poetry and it was an interesting task to attempt a short version of this type of poem. It really illustrated how powerful a poem with two voices can be because it inspires an aesthetic reaction to what is read. Personally, I do not consider myself much of a poet and I do not dabble in writing poetry often, probably due to my own fears of it. I feel myself wanting to try it more after Sophia's presentation, which is why I will attempting to write a poem for my genre pieces project. Wish me luck! ;)