LIT102- Week1- 26th-30th October 2020 Blog by Shanice

This week’s sessions were focused on the Genres of Writing; Narrative Writing and Expository Writing. They were very interesting and formative. On our first class dated Wednesday 28th October 2020, Leonest, Azuree, and Shaniqua presented on Narrative Writing' as a genre of writing. I learned that narrative writing is also known as story writing. It can be non-fiction and imaginary. The presenters explained the different elements of story writing. These include;

a. The plot (the sequence of events that occur in a story from the beginning to middle to the ending) The plat was also broken down into parts that include the rising action (events leading up to the conflict), climax (the highest point of action, keeps the reader wanting more), falling action (solving of the conflict/problem) and resolution (the end). I learned that there are four different types of conflict; character vs nature, character vs society, character vs characters, character vs supernatural, and character vs Him/Herself.

b. Setting (The WHEN and WHERE the story occurs) this include the time, weather, location and place)

c. The theme is the main point or central idea around which the story is focused.

d. The point of view is the position or positions from which a literary work is told to the reader

3. The Character is a person, animal, being, creature, or the thing in a story.

I also learned how ways to go about teaching narrative writing. The teacher should first build on student's prior knowledge by introducing the genre of writing, then teach an element of story structure with the use of mini-lessons and use texts to highlight the element. The presenters also discussed that guided practice can be used to help students practice writing stories. Students can retell students using pictures, orally, written, classroom collaboration retelling, and the writing workshop. The group explained that teachers use rubrics to assess students and checklist to guide them through the writing process.

The session was done on Thursday 29th October 2020 on the genre Expository Writing. Exposition is a type of oral or written discourse that is used to explain, describe, give information, or inform.  In summary, the presenters stated that this type of writing is also called process writing. It is an approach to teaching writing that allows the teacher and the students to go through the process of producing a text together. In process writing, students have the chance to think about what they are going to write, produce drafts, revise, edit, and give and receive feedback on their work before coming up with the final version of the text. I also learned about the key components of Expository Essays. These include;

• Introductory /hook which grabs the reader attention and invites the reader to explore the topic.
• Thesis statement reveals the overall purpose of the writing.
• Body consists of three or more points, descriptions, or examples.
• Concluding paragraph restates the thesis and offers the reader the
opportunity to reflect further on the topic.