The Allen & Swistak article focuses on allowing students to choose a topic that is meaningful and important to them and having them write a multi-genre research paper on the topic. The students are required to defend their topic choice before making a final decision. This pushes them to think critically about their topic and why it is important. The students then complete a research paper and question their findings to push them to find out deeper information about their topic. After the paper has been completed, the students write in other genres of their choice about their topic. Once this huge project is complete, the students share their work with an audience that includes their parents and friends. This project is beneficial for several reasons. It allows students to pursue learning about a topic that is important to them, and it teaches them about writing in multiple genres at the same time. Because of how huge the project is, students are allowed to explore their topic deeply, and they are allowed to take things that have been left out of state standards in to account. Students are also given an important audience to share their work with at the end of the project. This motivates students to produce their best work while allowing them to share their work and be proud of it.
The Friese & Nixon article focuses on helping students explore World War II through poetry. The students, who were unfamiliar with poetry when beginning the unit, learned about both topics simultaneously. Writing poetry about the war helped students to engage with the material more effectively while giving their poetry more purpose. The common theme in these two pieces is that these teachers were able to help their students engage with material by integrating content areas. The students not only connected more with the pieces that they wrote, but they experimented with different forms and genres and learned much more deeply about the content areas than they would have through a traditional curriculum.In the end, students created pieces that they were proud of and excited to share with others, allowing them to receive feedback and continue to grow as writers.
