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Thursday, August 16, 2012

Workshop Summary - Focusing on different text-types

An exposition, a recount and a procedure – three common but different text types’ structures that were mention in our readings along with many others.

In our workshop this week, we looked at different text-types and how to identify and distinguish the differences between them by looking at the features of the form of writing piece and the language used.  The readings gave a brief insight of:
·         Different types of text exist
·         Texts serve different purposes
·         Texts are typically structured in particular ways
·         Texts have characteristic grammar features

Based upon these reading, the task to bring in 3 different text-type genres to class and identify what with the group which text-type the form of text would be classified under. Some were easy to identify such as a page out of a magazine with a recipe was an example of procedural writing. Whereas some were not easy to identify as some of the texts had a combination of the same features other text-types such as journal articles and reviews. An example used in the discussion was the Natural History article about skunks. It was classified as both a report and exposition as it gave a factual account of a skunk but also had a section that aimed to prove a point that ‘stink badgers’ was a skunk leading the reader to agree with the writer.

Not much discussion was made when asked about the importance of students in schools being taught different text types as all of our views were the same as each other’s. We reached an agreement that understanding different text-type (genres) allowed student to make more sense of texts presented to them both in and outside of school. Joel mention that with the correct teacher facilitation, children can be more involved and  motivated to write at a higher level once they hold a greater understanding of the differences between these texts and how they help the child state their point.

We also looked at the writing developmental continuum which looks at how an individual gradually develops their developmental process in writing in order to become a proficient writer. There was the experimental writing stage, the developing writer and the proficient writer. The tutor gave us 4 different writing samples for use to identify which stage the student was in.

3 comments:

  1. Great job of summing up the extensive conversation we had this week Julia.
    I believe that an understanding of the importance of teaching students the different text types and more so, how to appreciate them is an integral part to our own development as future teachers.
    The refresher course has been great for my own development as an English student and as such, I look forward to completing this weeks task of writing a narrative and seeing the rest of the groups efforts.

    Blackie.

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  2. Awesome Julia! Just building on Joel’s point; as future educators we must start to distinguish these varying text types now, as it is vital in successfully educating students about each one. Knowing the structure, characteristics and purpose of each text type and when to apply them into the curriculum is also important as choosing the topic to focus the text on. In the coming PAR placement and in future teaching opportunities i look forward to developing and experimenting with the implementation of my own varying writing activities.

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  3. You have done a fantastic job at summarising this week’s group discussion Julia! I believe this week’s readings and discussion contained vital information that I believe is important to be known as future teachers. Being able to explain to students how to distinguish the different types of texts from one another will play an important part in their learning as they will encounter these different text types in their everyday lives. As different texts serve different types of purposes, therefore meaning they have different structures and use different language so that is another reason why they need to be able to distinguish the different texts so they don’t get confused and can be creative with their writing.

    Kris Batsiokis

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