Week 7B: Narrative Writing and Poetry Writing

Though I enjoyed reading both of the assigned chapters in Tompkins it was a little more difficult to find how this may apply to my teaching in upper school social studies.  I routinely have students read narrative primary sources and even read poetry (China Tang/Song dynasty) however I do not have my student write in this genre.  That is not to say that writing in this genre can not be done in a social studies class but I see the application more in a humanities course or done at the primary or middle school level.  A poetry writing assignment or a narrative writing assignment is difficult to squeeze into only a year long survey course.  A poetry writing assignment or a historical narrative assignment end up being more enrichment than an integral part of the curriculum. 

Students in college are often not writing poetry in their history courses they are writing non-fiction expository.  Because a language arts course is tasked with teaching all of the genres I have found that students have only had a handful of opportunities to write non-fiction expository.  Most of the writing I assign is therefore non-fiction since this is the dominant genre of the field and the genre many students have had little repeated practice with prior to high school.  This is also why I am looking forward to next weeks discussion on expository writing!