Reflection 8 (Poetic Writing)

During this week much was not covered due to time but a great deal was learnt. Within this week
we learned about what is a poem and elements of a poem. Not only were we given this
information but we were also given the difference between a poem and a normal piece of
writing. Poems are known to have their own specialty and each poem has its own touch sine no
two person are going to write the same poem. We were shown two pieces of writing around the
same theme during class. One was a poem the other was a basic report of an incident. After being
shown the convention or set up of the two pieces we discussed what differences we saw and our
lecturer addressed them without finalizing why that difference was present. Following this our
lecturer read each piece one after the other, after reading each piece twice we were involved in a
whole class discussion where we pointed out the differences between the two pieces and even
their similarities. After that discussion we were asked to come up with our own definition of
what is a poem, this we find a very good way to keep us thinking since discovery learning is a
very effective method in helping with memorization and in depth understanding of concepts.
This is how the lesson was introduced, after that activity we were given the formal definition of a
poem and the elements of a poem. This information is very important because we are expected to
teach poetry when we go out into the schools. In order for us to be able to effectively administer
the necessary information to students effectively we must have a very good understanding of
what are poems and what elements they consist or in other words what is needed when
composing a poetic piece.

Reflection 7 (Narrative Writing)

Writing is an important part of a child development. For this course, we previously covered some of the different genres of writing. This week we looked at narrative writing. We learnt that narrative writing deals with story writing and we were taught ways we can use to introduce our future student to narrative writing. We were already familiar with narrative writing so this lecture went smoothly. Our lecturer read us a story as an example for a narrative piece which we thoroughly examined. upon examining the narrative piece the lecturer explained. Furthermore, we also covered the elements of story writing and how they can make a piece of writing interesting.

Each of the elements were thoroughly examined and we were further taught how to help students effectively develop each of these elements in their story. We then went on to explore some strategies we can use to teach narrative writing to student. As trainee teachers, we are now fully aware of some effective strategies that we will use to help our student when we are in the classroom.

Reflection 6 (Persuasive Writing)

We learned that integrating technology in the teaching of writing is very essential in the primary classroom because of its effectiveness in promoting a cooperative and interactive environment that supports the writing process and social perspective of learning. There are numerous software programs that can be bought to assist students in their writing which includes Microsoft word which is useful in creating and revising documents, wikis, blogs which are currently used to do our reflections.

     We all came across the word persuasive and we were aware of what it actually meant, which was swaying others to an opinion or to believe something through reasoning or the use or temptation. When our lecture introduced the topic persuasive writing, we were aware that it was like writing a letter to the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines persuading him why novice teachers should be paid. Elements of persuasive writing includes an appeal to emotions which means matters most deeply human beings by using rhetorical devices such as hyperbole.

  As a novice teacher we have a better understanding as to how we can teach our students to write persuasive writing. We can use the OREO format, expose students to form of persuasion which includes written advertisement, clippings from political speech, allow them to develop their own list of persuasive elements, teach them the elements of persuasive writing and provide them with to write a persuasive piece and use the author's chair to publish their work.