Letisia, a fifth grader, stands beforean audience of parents, teachers,university students, and class-mates and reads the followingpiece from her multigenre paperon Rosa Parks:

The Ride of FreedomAs she walks in, she slides her change

into the machine.Glancing out the window, she sees

patient people waiting at the bus stop.She is surrounded by rows of empty seats.

Bright sunlight beams through thewindow and bothers her tired eyes.

She sees shadows on people’s facesoutside the bus.

The sun reflects off the black, shinyleather seats.

Multigenre Research: The Power of Choice and Interpretation

Supporting students in selecting topics and organizing

information for planning is key to writing with purpose

and passion in multigenre research.

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Camille A. Allen Laurie Swistak

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As the bus moves, she hears theengine roar.

About to stop, she hears thesqueaky brakes.

The door slowly opens and she hearsbus riders’ footsteps.

Are people still mad about integration?Are people scared to sit next to her?Is she proud of what she did?How far will the bus go?

She is glad about the change.She finally got her freedom.She sits uncomfortably, yet still

feels proud.

She has changed the world!I am proud!She has changed the world!We are proud!

The audience claps and Letisiabeams with pride. At the same time,other fifth graders are spread out inadjoining university classroomsmaking their presentations aboutfamous people and events such asBill Gates, D-Day, and Anne Frank.Parents snap photos and tote theirvideo cameras to capture themoment when their child makes themuch-awaited oral presentation.

The initial euphoria achieved whena multigenre research project issuccessfully completed can’t bematched. For five years, my univer-sity preservice teachers and I havecollaborated with Laurie Swistakand her fifth graders to write multi-genre research papers and give oralpresentations. My students serve asmentors during our weekly meetingsand teach minilessons on genre, li-brary skills, and organization skills.We celebrate our semester-longeffort with an evening called Multi-genre Madness. This culminatingactivity takes place at the universitywhere the fifth graders give oralpresentations on their research.Accompanied by their universitymentors, the fifth graders dress incostume, carry props, and readmany of their genres to an audience

of parents, teachers, and friends. AsChaney and Burk (1998) state, “Thequality of life is enriched whenindividuals choose to engage inethical, constructive, self-awarecommunication with their families,friends, coworkers, neighbors, andfellow community members” (p. 7).

MULTIGENRE RESEARCHPROJECTS

I began my exploration of multi-genre when I read Tom Romano’sWriting with Passion (1995). I wasintrigued by the prospect of engag-ing preservice teachers in a long-term project involving them in thevery things we want for our ele-mentary children. They needed tolearn how to read and write withpurpose and passion. What betterway for university and elementarychildren to collaborate than to writeand share multigenre papers?

A multigenre research paper in-volves students in conducting re-search, and instead of writing in atraditional research paper format,they write in a range of genres. Each

genre reveals one facet of the topic,and it can stand alone to make itsown point. There are no traditionaltransitions like in a regular researchpaper, and the pieces are not neces-sarily in chronological order. Thepaper is a collage of writing, oftenpunctuated with artistic sketches,paintings, or graphics.

Multigenre research has been docu-mented at the secondary and collegelevel (Davis & Shadle, 2000; Elbow,1997–1998; Grierson, 1999; Moul-

ton, 1999; Romano 1995, 2000), aswell as in middle school (Grierson,Anson, & Baird, 2002). Many ele-mentary teachers have spoken withme or written to me about their ex-periments with multigenre. Some askquestions, some tell tales of success,and some even send copies of theirstudents’ final papers. Most arehappy with the results of their ef-forts. They are amazed by the sus-tained interest and creativity theirstudents, even the most difficult,have exhibited. Once teachers havetried multigenre research papers theywant to continue with the process.

THE NUTS AND BOLTSOF THE MULTIGENRERESEARCH PROJECT

When Laurie and I first tried writingmultigenre research papers with ourstudents, we were faced with ques-tions such as: How can we integratethis project into our existing cur-riculum? Will it meet national andlocal standards? How should we or-ganize our time? How do we ap-proach the logistics of such aproject? What will our studentslearn? We simply began having ourstudents write multigenre papersand give oral presentations, andthen we evaluated and revised theproject each year. We now find thatwe can easily mesh it with our cur-riculum, meet both national andlocal standards (NCTE/IRA, 1996; RIState Literacy Frameworks, 1996),and figure out the nuts and bolts.

Laurie and I begin our project eachspring by helping students tochoose topics from the categoriesof important events or people whohave influenced them. We ask ourstudents to buy a notebook anddivide it into sections. In the firstsection, we provide them with sam-ples of the different genres that theycan choose to use. The second sec-tion is for drafts of their pieces of

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The paper is a collageof writing, oftenpunctuated withartistic sketches,

paintings, or graphics.

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writing. The third section is a folderwith pockets in which they place allthe printouts from the Internet andany note cards they have writtenfrom their research.The fifth graders keep journalswhere they write about theirprogress and experiences with myuniversity students. Laurie asks themto answer these questions weekly:What did you accomplish today?How do you feel about it? Whatquestions do you have at this time?We create a timeline so that over aperiod of 14 weeks, I travel with uni-versity students to the elementaryschool 10 times. The university stu-dents and fifth graders begin by se-lecting topics. The following week,fifth graders come to the universityto borrow books and to use individ-ual computers to access the Internet.They also stay for lunch at the uni-versity cafeteria. Each Tuesdaymorning throughout the semester,my students spend 75 minutes teach-ing minilessons to small groups ofpeers and fifth graders, followed bywriters’ workshop time in which eachfifth grader gets to conference indi-vidually with his or her mentor(Graves, 1994; Calkins, 1994). Topicsinclude how to use the library, con-duct research, write in multiplegenres, and make strong oral presen-tations. Outside of the weekly timewe spend together, all of the studentsare responsible for continuing ontheir own with their multigenre re-search. Laurie and I are also busyteaching the rest of our curriculum.For Laurie, this includes a poetryunit and a newspaper unit where thechildren learn about the 31 types ofgenre within a newspaper.

Laurie sets a schedule so that fifthgraders have equal access to thecomputers in her room or in the li-brary. Those who do not have com-puters at home get first preference.All drafts must be written by hand,checked by my students, turned in

to Laurie to review, and then re-turned to be typed on the computer.

Laurie sends notes home to parentswhere she explains the project,shares students’ topics, and asks forany resources that can be sharedwith students. She updates students’progress weekly and informs parentswith a quick note. My preserviceteachers also write their own multi-genre papers and they share theirweekly progress with fifth graders.

The last time Laurie and I workedtogether, I included two sections ofmy language arts course and Laurieinvited another fifth grade teacherand her class to participate. We were86 strong. This provided us with awide variety of topics, writing, andfeedback from our students. (For amore in-depth description of ourprocedures, see Allen, 2001.)

STUDENTS EMPHASIZE THEIMPORTANCE OF TOPIC CHOICE

Each year Laurie and I ask for writ-ten feedback from all the universitystudents and fifth graders through-out our work together. We alsoenlist parent feedback and often

conduct interviews with many ofour students. We even get unso-licited responses from former stu-dents. One of Laurie’s studentsstopped by after two years just toreminisce about her multigenreproject. She thought it was the bestthing she ever did in school, andshe hadn’t had the opportunity todo anything like it since. We agreewith Hansen (1998) when she says,

Evaluation starts with the learners.When we start to ask for our stu-

dents’ evaluations, they often sur-prise us, and we realize how far wemight have gone astray without theirinsights. Their thoughts beget ourteaching and then we have to askthem, again, what they think. Theyevaluate. We revise what we do, and,eventually, we find ourselves in ateaching situation that can’t existwithout the frequent evaluations ofstudents. We thirst for their insights.(pp. 1–2)

Among our interviews were Amyand Caroline, two of Laurie’s fifthgraders, because their papers andpresentations were particularly suc-cessful. We wanted to know whythey thought their projects weresuccessful and how they thought wecould help future students improvetheir multigenre projects.

Through our conversation, we foundthat the girls placed more importanceupon the university oral presentationthan upon the writing of the multi-genre paper because of the chance topresent before their peers. They gotto dress up and expand upon theirresearch through creative interpreta-tion. As Sylwester (1998) says, “Thearts are a win-win situation. The

doers and the observers both dis-cover something about the furtherreaches of being human” (p. 34).

Amy and Caroline commented onhow certain fifth-grade presenta-tions were better than others andfelt the outstanding ones were thosewhere their peers really connectedwith their topics. Both felt they hadconnected with their topics.

Amy, who was born in Argentinaand can speak Spanish, chose EvitaPeron. She had heard many stories

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After talking with Amy and Caroline, we were more convinced than ever that initial topic

choice is critical to deeper thinking, richer writing, and more powerful performances.

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about Evita from her father. WhenLaurie introduced the multigenreproject and asked students to thinkabout a possible topic, Amy knewimmediately she wanted to chooseEvita. When I asked, “Now that yourproject is done and you know moreabout Evita, would you still havechosen her?” she responded, “Yes, Imost definitely would. In fact, I stillpay attention to news about Evitawhen I see it on TV or read about iton the Internet.” Amy’s engagementwith her project reminds me of astatement Howard Gardner made inan interview with Goleman (1995).

We should use kids’ positive states todraw them into learning in the do-mains where they can develop com-petencies. Flow is an internal statethat signifies that a kid is engaged ina task that’s right . . . you learn bestwhen you have something you careabout and you can get pleasure frombeing engaged in. (p. 94)

Likewise, Caroline had a strong at-tachment to her topic. She choseEdward Donnall Thomas, winner ofthe Nobel Prize in 1990 for the firstsuccessful bone marrow transplant.Caroline’s two-year-old cousin wasdiagnosed with leukemia, and Caro-line wanted to know more about thetopic. Caroline loves her little cousinand even included photos of her inher multigenre paper. Sylwester(1994) explains the role emotionplays in learning. “We know emotionis important in education—it drivesattention, which in turn drives learn-ing, and memory” (p. 60).

At the university level, I have no-ticed that students whose papersand presentations made an impactupon their peers were the ones whowrote about topics that had personalsignificance. As Cameron (1998)states, “When we write about some-thing we care about, something inwhich we have an emotional stake,our writing automatically acquires

‘voice’” (p. 160). Jaime, a universitystudent, wrote a very compellingpaper about lung cancer. Her grand-father had died the year before oflung cancer caused by secondarysmoke. Another university student,Karen, wrote about the power ofblack women throughout history.She showed their accomplishmentsin the space program, in politics,and in sports. Both Jaime’s andKaren’s presentations were powerfulbecause they believed in their topicsand wanted their peers to hear theirmessage. They expressed their pas-sion and it made a difference.

After talking with Amy and Caroline,we were more convinced than everthat initial topic choice is critical todeeper thinking, richer writing, andmore powerful performances. We de-cided that we needed to spend moretime on getting to know our stu-dents and guiding them to a topicselection that was personally impor-tant to them.

Before we begin the project, Laurieand I share an ever-growing list oftopics chosen by former students.

Our list now includes over 200topics. Laurie also shares a list ofthe top 100 events of the century.Figure 1 offers a sampling of somesuccessful topics.

In addition, we also help our stu-dents to select topics by askingthem the following questions:

• Is there someone you really admireand would like to know more about?

• Can you think of someone doing ajob that you might like to do whenyou grow up?

• What famous person have you seenin the news?

• Is there a certain period in historythat you would like to explore?

• What kinds of music do you like?

• Have you asked your friends whatthey are researching?

• Does anyone in your family havesuggestions?

• When you think about your favoritesubject in school, is there someoneconnected to that subject whom youmight want to learn more about?

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Historical Events The Arts Sports Historical Figures

Apollo 13 The Beatles Muhammad Ali Princess Diana

Hiroshima Beethoven Larry Bird Amelia Earhart

Berlin Wall Elton John Lou Gehrig Ben Franklin

Declaration of Steven Spielberg Michael Jordan Jackie KennedyIndependence

Great Depression Leonardo da Vinci Tara Lipinski John Kennedy

Hindenburg Walt Disney Mickey Mantle Martin Luther King

Holocaust Norman Rockwell Michelle Kwan Mother Teresa

Pearl Harbor Vincent van Gogh Mary Lou Retton Harriet Tubman

Titanic Anne Geddes Babe Ruth Wright Brothers

Underground Michelangelo Ted Williams Helen KellerRailroad

Figure 1. Samples of successful topics

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• When you look at the list of topicswritten by former students, is thereany particular one that you might beinterested in?

This general set of questions has ledstudents to believe that any of sev-eral topics would be fine as long asthey had a vague interest andthought they might like to knowmore about it. We didn’t lead themto believe otherwise.

Laurie also tries to help students re-alize that although everyone’s lifehas a purpose, there are certainpeople who have made outstandingcontributions in history. UsingMichelangelo as an example, Lauriefound that her students knew hepainted the Sistine Chapel and thathe was a famous person of the Re-naissance. Probing further, Laurieasked, “What would happen ifMichelangelo were never born?” Oneboy said, “Somebody else wouldhave done those things.” How couldwe get him to understand that westudy this person or any famousperson because of their incrediblecontributions to the world? If thisboy chose Michelangelo, would hebe committed to his topic?

We realized that we were not pro-viding enough guidance towardstopic selection when we noticedchildren were selecting their topicswith only scant knowledge andeven less interest. This made it diffi-cult for the children to maintain en-thusiasm over the four months ofour project. We remember thatEmily, who chose Queen Isabella asher topic, ended up sobbing threemonths into the project because shethought her topic was boring.

ACCOUNTABLE TALK

To ensure that children really con-nect with their topics, Laurie and Ihave developed a new procedure.We place responsibility upon ouruniversity and fifth-grade students

to defend their topic choice to theirpeers and to us before making afinal selection. We refer to this pro-cess as accountable talk.

We still begin by sharing our list oftopics and holding a general discus-sion focused around the bulletedquestions. We ask students to selecttwo topics that they think theymight choose for their multigenreresearch papers and have them listfive facts that they already knowabout each. Next we place them in

small groups of university and fifth-grade students where they sharetheir topic and the five facts thatthey know about it. Others in thegroup act as detectives and “Probefor Proof” in an effort to help eachother analyze why they selectedtheir topics. We suggest that the de-tectives ask the following questions:

• How did that person impact theworld?

• How would the world be different ifthis person had never been born?

• How did the person triumph?

• Why do we still study their workstoday?

• What is your need to study thisperson?

• How do you personally connect tothis person?

• Why did you choose this topic?

We suggest the following questionsif a student selects an event for histopic:

• How did that event impact the world?

• How has this event changedthe world?

• How would the world be different ifthat event had never happened?

• Why do we study this event in history?

• What is your need to study thisevent?

• How do you personally connect tothis event?

• Why did you choose this topic?

To help students finally decidewhich of the two topics they shouldselect, members of the small groupask each other:

• Of your two topic choices, whichone do you think you will find themost information about?

• Of your two topic choices, whichone do you really like the best?

Michelle chose the Titanic and theKu Klux Klan as possible choices.When Sarah, her mentor, asked herfor five facts, she was easily able tolist them about both topics. How-ever, when she had to answer theprobing questions, it was obvious toSarah that Michelle’s real interestwas in the Titanic.

Sarah: How did the sinking of theTitanic impact the world?

Michelle: You hear about it and peopletalk about it and I saw ascientist go and try to raisethe Titanic. That’s when Ibecame so interested in it. Ieven read a book Mrs. Swis-tak has in the classroom.She lets us pick books forindependent reading.

Sarah: What is your need to studythis event?

Michelle: Because so many people diedand I wanted to know why ithappened, and I don’t thinkit needed to. I’m wonderingif it could have been pre-vented? What do you think?

Michelle raises questions that havemeaning to her. These will help

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Children were selectingtheir topics with onlyscant knowledge and

even less interest.

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her to sustain her curiosity and interest in the Titanic over thislong-range project.

If a student is still having a toughtime selecting a topic, his universitymentor will help him or her to com-plete a K-W-L for both topics andlist five facts. Then the student isasked to come up with five thingshe or she wants to learn. If the stu-dent is not curious enough to beable to generate five things, thattopic is probably not a good choice.

If the student is still having diffi-culty, the university mentor or Lauriewill ask about books the student likesto read and why. They talk about ex-periences the child has had such astravel, personal tragedy, or difficulty.Even a discussion of places wherethe child has lived, sports of interest,or special relationships with ex-tended family might uncover a topic.One of Laurie’s students livedthrough the devastation of HurricaneHugo and through discussion de-cided she would choose that topic.Finally, it might prove fruitful to ex-plore the child’s ancestry as a way totap into a topic where students coulddo personal research with relatives asa means to connect with some his-toric event. Questions flow naturallyas my students and Laurie’s talk andtease out a good topic from even themost reluctant students.

BREAKING WITH THETRADITIONAL RESEARCH PAPER

After topic choice, the next mostimportant part of a multigenre re-search paper is a solid researchpiece. When Laurie and I first beganthe multigenre project, we had thechildren complete their research andwrite a brief report before writingtheir other genres. As our experi-ence with multigenre grew, the re-search piece also grew and was atleast 2–4 pages long. We requiredthat the children complete the writ-ing of the research piece before they

wrote in any other genres. We feltthey needed a firm foundation ofknowledge to be able to select thegenres that would follow.

Through our summer discussionwith Amy and Caroline, Laurie’sfifth graders, we came upon anotherdiscovery that caused us to changeour expectations for students’ re-search pieces. When we asked Amyand Caroline, “Now that you’vecompleted your papers, what fivefacts would you list about the livesof Evita Peron and Edward DonnallThomas,” we did not hear what weexpected. Amy told us:

• Evita was born in Argentina

• She became an actress in 1935

• Her family was very poor and herparents were not married

• Her mom was her dad’s cook

• Evita was married first in a civil thena religious ceremony

She didn’t list many of the impor-tant facts she had included in herresearch paper. Instead, she talkedof the more personal aspects ofEvita’s life. We realized that oftenthe small events in a person’s lifemight be the most interesting to theresearcher. We asked why Amychose to talk to us about these fiveevents since she placed little or noemphasis upon them in her paper orwhen writing her genres. She toldus she didn’t include some of themin her research piece because shedidn’t think they would be worthyof mention. This caused us to thinkthat maybe we were limiting ourstudents’ writing by forcing them toconform to the traditional percep-tion of a research paper. We wantedto encourage them instead to writeabout the smaller events and toquestion how or why these eventsmight have impacted the futurecourse of this person’s life.

During our discussion with Amy,Laurie asked, “What role do you

think poverty might have played inEvita’s life?”

Amy: I think that because Evita wasso poor she wanted to gain power.She had a series of boyfriends, eachone more powerful than the last. Shefinally met and married Juan Peronto become the wife of the President ofArgentina. Maybe because Evita wasso poor early in life it caused her towant to help the poor by giving themmoney. This led to the eventualdownfall of the government becauseEvita gave away Argentina’s fortune.

Amy was very perceptive during ourconversation, but this deeper analy-sis didn’t emerge in her paper.Laurie and I had never asked ourstudents to delve deeper and to in-terpret events in a person’s life. Wesimply asked for the facts. Seeinghow Amy’s speculation led to herinterpretation showed us that whatwe wanted our students to do whenthey planned and wrote their multi-genre papers was to engage in thisdeeper thought.

THE FQIWe decided to use Amy’s paper on Evita Peron to develop a newstrategy, the Facts—Questions—Interpretations (FQI), which we useas a model to show students howto move from dry facts to rich in-terpretation. We selected the majorfacts from Amy’s paper and listedthem in a bulleted chronologicalorder under the column titledFacts. (See Figure 2).

We ask students, “When we readthese facts, what questions naturallycome to mind?” “What are we curi-ous to find out?” Together, we gen-erate possible questions, which welist under the column headed Ques-tions. As an example, Evita’s father,who had earlier abandoned her andher family, was killed in a car crash.Evita, her mother, and siblings, werenot allowed to go to the funeral

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EVITA PERON

FACTS QUESTIONS INTERPRETATIONS

• Born May 17, 1919 What was her family life like? Birth announcement

• Parents not married and father Why did her father abandon the family? Note left to family telling why he Juan Duarte abandoned her How did the family survive? had to leavefamily shortly after her birth.

• Father killed in car crash and Evita How did she and her family feel when Evita’s diary entry explaining her feelings and family not allowed at funeral they were not allowed to go to the Eulogybecause not his legal family. funeral? How did she feel that she

was not considered his family?

• At 15, Evita moved to Buenos Aires, Why did she choose to become an Ad for one of her plays joined the Argentine Comedy actress? What were some of her Six-room poem Company and became an actress. accomplishments and how did she Movie review

feel about them?

• Had many boyfriends, each one What made her search for more Dialogue on a datemore powerful than the previous powerful boyfriends? one until she met Juan Peron.

• Juan Peron became the Secretary Why is this important? Notice of Juan’s appointment to Secretaryof Labor and Welfare under Pedro of Labor and WelfareRamirez, President of Argentina.

• January 15, 1944, earthquake hit What was it like to work side by side News broadcast of earthquake and request San Juan and killed 7,000 people. with Juan Peron in the earthquake for volunteers Peron organized a national relief situation? What kinds of things did Newspaper articleeffort and invited important and they try to accomplish? What did they famous people to help. That’s talk about? How did they get to know where he met Evita. each other?

• Juan and Evita married in civil How were the two ceremonies different? Wedding announcementceremony on Oct. 22, 1945, Who came to the wedding? How did followed by religious marriage Evita feel about her marriage to Juan? on Dec. 19, 1945.

• Most of the time she represents If she is the wife of the President Speech to people of ArgentinaEvita Peron but uses nickname Evita. of Argentina, why does she use a

nickname? How did she lead the people?

• Evita took money from the How did she take the money and why Bank statement aristocrats and gave to the poor did she care about giving money to Bank checkthe “descamisados” (shirtless ones the poor? or laborers).

• Evita didn’t pay for what she took, Why didn’t she give jobs to the people? Workers posters for jobsgave money not jobs to poor. Why did she just give money?

• Argentina today is a very What are the conditions in Argentina TV news analystpoor country. today? Did Evita’s actions really cause

these problems?

• Evita helped pass a law in Argentina Did Evita vote? Did she lead others in Evita’s conversation with some so women could vote. campaign? What was her role? local women

• Evita used Argentina’s federal Did the country go bankrupt while she Juan’s note to Evitareserves to pay the poor and the was alive? How did Juan Peron feel country ended up bankrupt. about Evita giving all the money

to the poor?

• Evita died on July 26, 1952 at 33 How was the end of her life? How did Eulogy by Juan diagnosed with cancer of the uterus. she feel about what she had done Obituary

for Argentina?

Figure 2. FQI on Evita Peron

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because her parents had never mar-ried. They were not considered hislegal family. We wondered howEvita felt about not being able toattend the funeral. We also won-dered how she felt about not beingconsidered his real family.

We realize that some of the ques-tions we generate with studentsmight not be answerable throughthe children’s research. Unless a de-tailed biography or autobiographyis available that students can readand analyze, the answers to somequestions will come from the imag-inations and interpretations of stu-dents. When writing multigenrepapers, writers are allowed and en-couraged to meld fact with fiction.

In the past, we focused on makingstudents complete the research andwrite about the major facts at theexpense of investigating and inter-preting the less well-known factsthat might have more relevance tothe writer. We now encourage ourstudents to place more emphasisupon those parts of the person’slife that have more meaning tothem as writers.

Using Amy’s FQI model with stu-dents, we spend time helping themselect appropriate genres by asking,“Which genres could we use to ex-press our interpretation of the ques-tions we proposed in column two?”We list their suggestions in columnthree of the FQI chart. We try togenerate a good number of possiblegenres so we can later select fromamong them to be sure our papershave balance and do not containtoo many of the same genre. Weemphasize that all of the facts stu-dents write about in their researchpieces do not need to be questionedor translated into a genre. Theyneed to ask themselves, “Whichquestions mean more to me as thewriter of this multigenre paper?”“Which genres would I like to learnabout and include in my paper?”

This process engages students incritical thinking.

As we create the third column to-gether with our students, the FQI

evolves as a blueprint for the entiremultigenre paper. Students begin tosee the value of completing a chartsuch as this for their chosen topic.They must think through theirtopics and select the most appropri-ate genres. It also helps us as teach-ers to plan minilessons on the mostpopular genres selected. In the past,we designed minilessons on thegenres we thought students shouldlearn about. When students choosetheir genres, the minilessons aremore relevant because they have aneed to know.

One final benefit from our inclusionof the FQI occurs when planning amultigenre project. In the past, stu-dents wrote their research piece firstand then wrote their additionalgenres, creating a dichotomy be-tween the research and the rest ofthe genres. In order to get a flowwithin a student’s project, we triedsuch things as putting genres inchronological order; placing stanzasfrom poems or lyrics from songs be-tween individual pieces of writing;even interspersing the papers withdiary entries, interviews, and artisticpieces. Some of these attempts weresuccessful. Others seemed like after-thoughts once the projects were fin-ished. And they were.

Now we encourage students to taketheir FQI blueprint and to considerbreaking their research piece intosections that are punctuated by

their various genres. We explain tostudents that if Amy were trying toshow that Evita’s father abandonedhis family, she could insert a notewithin her research piece from thefather explaining why he decidedto leave. When he was killed in acar crash, Amy could include aeulogy that Evita might have writ-ten for her father. It would makesense to the reader to be able to see the “evidence” or “fictitious artifact” at this point. It wouldmake Amy’s paper more interestingand realistic. It would also be beneficial at this point to includesketches, graphics, or photos to enhance the project.

Laurie and I came to the conclu-sion that a multigenre researchpaper really is a break with tradi-tional research, so we had to askourselves why were we holding onto the research paper format. Weencourage students to integratetheir genres and artwork within theresearch paper. We also give themthe liberty to make comments oradd critiques, much as an unautho-rized biographer might. With theirmodification of the traditional re-search report, students add to theessence of what made this personso special.

Romano (2000) writes, “Multigenrepapers require a great deal of read-ers. So much is implicit, so little ex-plicit that multigenre papers can bequite a cognitive load (Romano,2000, p. 149). Laurie and I continu-ously try to help students write theirpapers in ways that satisfy them aswriters, but also make their messageclear to their readers. The FQI blue-print aids them in their clarity ofpurpose and expression.

CONCLUSION

Working together as a communityfor the past five years has helpedLaurie, my university students, andme become better teachers of lan-

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In the past, wedesigned minilessons

on the genres wethought students

should learn about.

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guage arts. Likewise, the project hasmade us all, including the elemen-tary children, better writers, re-searchers, and learners. From thefirst day that Laurie’s students enterher classroom in September, theyare anxious to know when theproject will begin. My students feelthe same way. The multigenre re-search project has earned a strongand positive reputation.

Laurie feels there are many signifi-cant “teaching moments” as shewatches her children go from ner-vous and tentative 10-year-olds toconfident presenters of researchand writing. Their sense of prideand accomplishment is written intheir journal entries and also ex-pressed in their smiles. The individ-ual help and encouragement thateach mentor provides has longlasting rewards.

I find that my university studentsgain a rich understanding of whatit means to be a writer and hownecessary it is for teachers tomodel the writing process for theirstudents. The preservice teachersalso enrich their background infor-mation through researching a topicin depth and through learningabout a wealth of other topicswhen their peers share their writ-ing. Above all, they realize how ef-fective it is to act as guides and tofacilitate learning rather thandirect it. They see how this processempowers children. One of my stu-dents commented,

It made me realize that reading, writ-ing, and research can be made intosomething that kids actually want todo. They loved it, and it worked. Iwas so impressed by what the kidsdid. They picked their topics, picked

how to write, and picked how to putit together—it was great.

This year in our multigenre project,Laurie and I focused on the impor-tance of topic selection and mod-eled how to organize researchinformation into the FQI as a blue-print for planning. This helped ourstudents to connect their researchwith the variety of genres theycould use to express themselves.They also looked deeper into aperson’s life or an historical eventand truly appreciated how theirchosen topic affected so manyothers. This is such an importantpart of a child’s entire educationalprocess that we felt compelled tohelp them begin this journey.

Each year as Laurie and I revise ourexpectations for our future students,we ask ourselves what we want

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Romano, T. (1995). Writing with Passion: Life Stories,Multiple Genres. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.

• The term “multigenre research paper” was coinedby Tom Romano in this book, written for secondaryteachers, but also relevant for elementary teachers.Romano outlines his students’ processes for writingbiographies using multiple genres and provides solu-tions for problems that might arise, such as docu-mentation and grading.

Romano, T. (2000). Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writ-ing Multigenre Papers. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.

• Romano focuses on writing multigenre papers, offer-ing advice in the form of lesson plans, helpfulsources, examples of multigenre papers, and sug-gestions for discussing genres.

Grierson, S. T., Anson, A., & Baird, J. (2002). Exploringthe Past through Multigenre Writing. Language Arts,80(1), 51–59.

• This month-long study of sixth graders showed thatmultigenre writing helped most students grow as re-searchers, thinkers, and writers while they devel-oped a fundamental understanding of the differentpurposes for which text can be used.

Moulton, M. R. (1999). The Multigenre Paper: Increasing Interest, Motivation, and Functionality in Research. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 42(7), 528–539.

• Moulton found that having preservice English educa-tion students write a multigenre research paper in-corporated practical skills and creative thinking, andwas a feasible option to the typical research paper.Students enjoyed the process of research and tookownership of their products.

—Karen Smith

Theory and Research on Multigenre Writing Projects

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them to learn from this multigenreproject. We now know that we wantthem to become passionate about atopic, to develop the research skillsto be able to satisfy their curiosity,and most of all to be free to thinkand write in ways that let themconnect and relate to their topics.

Scollon and Scollon (1986) capturethe essence of the expectations wehave for ourselves:

Planning is our most frequent defenseagainst the unknown future. . . . Witha plan we seek to control outcomes,to eliminate change, to eliminate therandom and the wild. . . . Preparingis different. In preparing we alwaysexpect diversity of outcomes. Inpreparing we enlarge the future inour imagination . . . [and] we work tomake ourselves ready. (p. 94)

Each year Laurie and I seek to betterprepare our students with theknowledge and skills they will needto be successful in the future. Wewill continue to listen to our stu-dents and we know that they willhelp us make multigenre research amore powerful tool for those stu-dents who follow.

References

Allen, C. (2001). The multigenre researchpaper: Voice, passion, and discovery ingrades 4–6. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Calkins, L. M. (1994). The art of teachingwriting. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Cameron, J. (1998). The right to write: An in-vitation and initiation into the writing life.New York: Tarcher/Putnam.

Chaney, A., & Burk, T. (1998). Teaching oralcommunication in grades K–8. NeedhamHeights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Davis, R., & Shadle, M. (2000). Building amystery: Alternate research writing andthe academic act of seeking. CollegeComposition and Communication, 51,417–446.

Elbow, P. (1997–1998). Collage: Your cheatin’art. Writing on the Edge, 9, 26–40.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence.New York: Bantam.

Graves, D. (1994). A fresh look at writing(2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Grierson, S. (1999). Circling through text:Teaching research through multigenrewriting. English Journal, 89, 51–55.

Grierson, S., with Anson, A., & Baird, J.(2002). Exploring the past through multi-genre writing. Language Arts, 80, 51–59.

Hansen, J. (1998). When learners evaluate.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Moulton, M. R. (1999). The multigenre paper:Increasing interest, motivation, and func-tionality in research. Journal of Adoles-cent and Adult Literacy, 42, 528–539.

National Council of Teachers of English(NCTE) & the International Reading As-sociation (IRA). (1996). Standards for theEnglish language arts. Urbana, IL/Newark,DE: Authors.

Rhode Island Department of Elementaryand Secondary Education. (1996). Liter-

acy for all students. The Rhode Island En-glish Language Arts Framework. Provi-dence, RI: Author.

Romano, T. (1995). Writing with passion: Lifestories, multiple genres. Portsmouth, NH:Boynton/Cook.

Romano, T. (2000). Blending genre, alteringstyle: Writing multigenre papers. Ports-mouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.

Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. (1986). The axehandle academy: A proposal for a biore-gional, thematic, humanities education(Commissioned Paper). Juneau, AK:Sealaska Heritage Foundation.

Sylwester, R. (1994). How emotions affectlearning. Educational Leadership 52(2):60–65.

Sylwester, R. (1998). Art for the brain’s sake.Educational Leadership 56(3) 31–35.

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Language Arts, Vol. 81 No. 3, January 2004

Camille Allen is a professor in the Educa-tion Department at Salve Regina Univer-sity, Newport, RI. Laurie Swistak is afifth-grade teacher at the CranstonCalvert Elementary School in Newport, RI.

Author Biographies

NCTE is seeking educators with the time and the talent towrite lesson plans for K–12 English language arts educa-tors. All of the lessons must be of top quality and basedon NCTE and IRA Standards for the English Language Arts.Subjects to be covered include, among others, readingand writing workshop, drama, children’s and young adult

literature, and critical literacy. Please visit the Read-WriteThink site at http://www.readwritethink.org/ to seethe most recent lesson plans. For detailed submissionguidelines, please visit the NCTE Web site at http://readwritethink.ncte.org/mpauthors/.

CALL FOR READWRITETHINK LESSON PLANS

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