MGRP and Van Sluys

Learning about multi-genre research papers has been quite and experience. It reminded me of eighth grade when I had to write my first research paper. I remember the instructions for that paper were to find a bunch of sources, read them all, make note cards with specific quotes and page numbers that would help our research, and then add our thoughts about each quote on the note card. We then put all the note cards together and made a paper out of them. I recall all that work being very tedious and boring. However, we never added the multi-genre aspect. I believe we made a poster board about our topics but we did not get to do anything too creative.
I still believe these papers are kind of boring and I think it is hard to allow students to write on something they are truly interested in but I think added the genres could make it a lot more fun for them. These genres are also a great way for children to expand their abilities on writing poetry, newspaper articles etc. They also are a great way for students to show their creativity. I believe many students would really get into this and it is a great way to develop their writing skills. The MGRP book has some great ideas for topics and different genres students could use. Some of the topics I would have never thought about such as chocolate. It seems like such a vague topic but there are so many things students can research about chocolate. I also really enjoyed the poetry chapter. I think the six room poems idea is brilliant. This could get students to include all their senses in their writing and really help them make their writing more detailed. I wish someone had done an activity like this with me when I was younger. I did it myself in my head just looking around my room and it really got me thinking.
The Van Sluys article discussed how to have literacy invitations. These literacy invitations remind me of the multi genre research paper without the research paper. I think it is a great idea for students to use all different aspects of literature to expand their thinking. Newspaper articles, pictures, magazines, and different types of books are great ways for students to expand their thinking when it comes to literature. Making it seem kind of like a party and having invitations could get students more excited about the actual experience. I used to love it in school when teachers would have us present certain projects in a sort of party way. It made learning more fun and I think this is a great idea. These will help students think about all the different social worlds going on around them. How do you get students to perform literacy invitations without just writing a standard research paper? I could see how many students would misunderstand the instructions and end up doing a boring paper that they are not getting much out of.