Blog 10: "Bless, Address, and Press"

Over the past week, I have spent some time looking at my peers' blogs to see if any of them stood out to me. During each week, I tend to look at my peers' blogs to notice which ideas from Tompkins do they address in greater detail. I love looking at my peers blogs and noticing the similarities and differences between mine. I believe that giving feedback to our peers is important especially since we are going to be providing feedback on our own student's work one day in the classroom. However, I realized that Katy's Blog #9 about argument writing stood out to me the most because I remember writing argumentative pieces in my fourth grade class all the time when I was in elementary school. I used to love writing argumentative pieces because I was able to make up my own claims and support it with evidence while taking a position.

Bless: I would like to take some time and praise Katy for speaking about the different types of persuasion that students should consider when being introduced to an argumentative piece. The three types include Ethos, Paths, and Logos. During her presentation, she did a great job explaining and giving us examples of each one that supported her understanding of this genre. I remember in fourth grade they never really named the three types, we kinda just focused on writing a position, naming claims and supporting the claims with evidence. I am glad that I am now aware of the different types of persuasion that I can teach in my own classroom. Katy also gives us great ideas on how persuasion is used throughout the world. For instance, she said that some students read magazines, texts, create commercials as well as advertisements to convince individuals to try out their businesses.

Address: I will certainty consider using some of the ideas that Katy introduced to me in her blog, as well as the presentation she gave last week. I also agree with her that you must have the ability to read and interpret arguments, but also be able to write an argumentative piece. I would like to address that persuasion can happen in the classroom or at home. For example, I remember when I was young that my mother would convince me to clean my room, or set the table for dinner as well as do my homework each night. Since she speaks about an article that she read about cell phones not being used in classrooms, I would like to know how many students thought cell phones should not be used in a classroom? Also, should you start with a book or should you start with different prompts while first introducing the persuasive genre to your students? and also In what ways could this genre support student's writing? 

Press: Overall, I really enjoyed reading Katy's blog about argumentative writing! It was very insightful and encouraged me to think more critical about argumentative writing. However, I believe it is challenging to write an argumentative piece because you have to make sure your argument is reliable for your audience. Also, a person needs to make sure their claims are convincing enough and that you have the right evidence to back up your different claims. I am writing an argumentative piece for my genre project right now and I had to think critically about the advantages and dangers to swimming, therefore I can convince parents to teach their children on how to swim when they reach four or five years old. I am enjoying writing this piece though because it allows me to become open-minded and creative. 

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process 

and product (7^th  ed.).Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.