Margaret Moulton’s article, “The Multigenre Paper: Increasing Interest, Motivation, and Functionality in Research” describes a creative alternative to the traditonal research paper: the multigenre paper. Multigenre papers give students the opportunity to research a topic without having to write the traditional impersonal research paper. Rather, they create a paper composed of many different genres. Whether is be a newspaper article, a poem, a letter, a poster, or any other type of text, the multigenre paper allows students to research and be creative at the same time.
I have had some experience with multigenre papers in the past and I loved them. In my opinion they are so much fun to make and much more interesting than writing a typical research paper. The article said that the traditional five paragraph essay and research paper are geared toward academics only, and I agree with this. In the real world the texts we are exposed to are magazines, letters, newspapers, greeting cards, etc. Multigenre papers utilize these “real world” texts.
This article was really interesting because it showed how a multigenre paper can be great to use but also really confusing. I believe that the main reason a lot of teachers do not use multigenre papers is because they do not know how or because they simply do not know what they are at all. The class in the article created the papers as an experiment, and while the process needed some work, they all agreed that the project itself was outstanding.
I think a great example of the use of a different genre is the link that shows the WANTED posters for the Great Depression. This activity is so much more enjoyable for students than simply writing a research paper about the Great Depression.
My thinking questions for this article were:
- How can I make clear guidelines for a multigenre paper in my classroom to eliminate confusion?
- What would be my method of evaluation for a multigenre paper?
- How could I use multigenre papers to incorporate other subject areas into my ELA lesson plan?
I liked your questions. I think, in my own opinion, that the guidelines could or would be different on a per class basis. I like how the author of the article established guidelines with her students while assigning it. The author did not really realize this topic of agreeing on guidelines with the students, but did it anyway for lack of better options, which was probably the best option. Worth a thought.
Kevin Webster
Comment by Kevin Webster — April 18, 2009 @ 11:02 pm
Maybe if you had input from your students while creating your rubric then you could see what they feel is important and incorporate with what you think is important.
Comment by Sarah Horne — April 19, 2009 @ 7:29 pm
I agree, I think that with an activity that is so flexible you have to make the guidelines flexible for your different classes as well. I liked how the article was a learning experience for both the teacher and the students.
Joni Russell
Comment by jonirussell — April 19, 2009 @ 10:24 pm