Benefits of Multigenre Folklore Research Projects
Multigenre folklore research projects can: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Affirm home and community cultures. Incorporate interviews, oral history, folklore, and academic research. Present multiple, conflicting perspectives of one event or topic. Stimulate critical analysis and higher-level thinking. Engage writers in a meaningful communication experience. Require a personal investment of time and effort. Allow meaning to dictate form, rather than vice versa. Demonstrate a sophisticated knowledge of diverse genres and uses of language. Create a rich context for an event or topic. Implicate ethical choices and affective learning. Promote awareness of audience needs and interests. Employ strategic planning and thematic transitions. Integrate factual information into a meaningful text, verses copying or simple recall. Develop research skills and the academic use of quotation and documentation. View language diversity as an asset. Make coherence and unity a rhetorical problem to be solved. Foster creativity and risk taking. Permit the author to highlight personal interests and special expertise. Encourage full use of new media literacies and multimodal formats. Result in aesthetically attractive projects for sharing at school and home. Offer an opportunity to take pride in what writers have accomplished. Demand careful reading and response.
Dr. Nancy Mack Multigenre Research Projects: Multifaceted, Multipurpose Writing Assignments Teachers College Press