Genre Approach

     Since I am situated within the curriculum and instruction department rather than the English department, I have little background knowledge about the genre approach. My experience with writing pedagogy comes from implementing writing workshop in my classroom and helping other teachers to do so. Although I had no formal knowledge of the genre approach, I feel that I implemented some of the tenets into my writing instruction. We organized units around various genres, discussed the purpose behind author’s choices, designed instruction to encompass the social nature of writing, and sometimes incorporated critical literacy skills. My point in sharing this information is to illustrate that how we label our instruction does not necessarily reflect what is actually happening in the classroom. Teachers implement writing workshop in many different ways. Some teachers may be working under a more typical process approach. Others may be going beyond process writing or may still be operating under more traditional perspectives. Discussions of which method is best may guide teachers to be more reflective and purposeful about their teaching practices, but I think what matters most is considering the individual needs of students and going forward from there. However, I think it is very challenging to teach in this way, and I have many lingering questions. For instance, how do teachers decide which method is best for their students? Surely, it begins with knowing students well, but at what point does deciding a method for the students become paternalistic or hegemonic? Should students be included in methodological decisions? Within the genre approach, how do we decide which genres to teach? How do we ensure authentic opportunities for writing? Does the teaching of writing and of specific genre traits automatically decontextualize writing and render it inauthentic?