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So, my hopes for great reading and inspirational material were realized. From Stenhouse Publishing, I purchased two books, Thinking Through Genre and Beyond the Five Paragraph Essay. From the title, the second book may be misleading as it seemed to imply, to me, that it explored the depth and use of the five-paragraph essay format. Personally, my professional opinion of the five-paragraph essay is that it is belittling, nonsensical, and useless. According to the summary of this book, the authors seem to agree, but they put it in a much more professional way than I just did. As such, they then explore other methods of writing and how to teach writing. While I have not even read beyond the back cover, I trust that this will be an excellent resource. 

I have, however, read through much of Thinking Through Genre, by Heather Lattimer, enough so that it has driven my passion for facilitating education even further. It inspired me to shamelessly adopt many of the tools and techniques from one unit, the one regarding fairy tales, for my Weird Fiction writing unit. Starting on page 199, we start by 'thinking through fairy tales'. Lattimer uses a similar breakdown for each section, starting with a reading unit that is then supported by a writing unit that follows in quick succession. The reading and writing lessons are intended to work together, where the learning goals of the reading unit are immediately followed by the goals of the writing unit. The unit regarding fairy tales goes a step further by incorporating learning events that are intended to develop meaning making. This part of the book centers around a class of tenth graders who are, as Lattimer explains, "struggling" (201). These are not upper-level English class students, and some have even been involved with gangs in the area. While working through this unit, however, Lattimer provides evidence of some the most thoughtful and intellectual students that I have ever seen, especially considering their age. One student from the class stated, "fairy tales were helpful for getting us to think about messages and find ways to see them, but now that we know how to interpret stories, we can do it with anything" (220). This is the impact on the ability and confidence on the students from this type of learning event. So, of course, I wanted to steal it. 

My intent for the 'borrowing' was for student success. Understanding meaning and then writing your own story with meaning is not easy, at first. And it isn't pretty, either. The techniques, tools, and lesson plans that Lattimer develops with Cheryl Hibbeln, the teacher from that class, prove to be impactful and direct. The students demonstrate immense growth as a result. As such, I detail much of my first lesson plan by following the model that they have presented from theirs. Of course, I deviate in plenty of areas, the genre being the most obvious. This is a link to the lesson plan where I use the graphic organizer from Thinking Through Genre, found on page 223. This will be invaluable for my students as they learn how to tweak and alter stories to create their own. 

Campbell, Kimberly Hill & Latimer, Kristi. Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay. Stenhouse Publishers, 2012.

Lattimer, Heather. Thinking Through Genre. Stenhouse Publishers, 2003.