We’ve been experimenting with ways to make Writelike more fun.
When we first started making the platform, we were interested in helping students learn to mimic genre and writer-specific voices. For inexperienced writers that’s challenging; they need help unpacking language patterns and mechanics and then applying them, which is a lot of effort even with ample scaffolding.
So we wanted to create a lesson type that was more fun and accessible, with more immediate payoff, but still constructive, which has led us to Genre Mixes.
The Genre Mix lesson format
In each Genre Mix lesson we provide a single inspiration image. For example, in Genre Mix 01 (Middle Years) we have this image from Pieter Bruegel, Hunters in the Snow (Winter):
We then provide five snippets in distinctive styles, such as:
- Newspaper report
- Lyric poem
- Friendly troll texting
- Australian convict letter
- Game review
Each snippet comes with instructions that highlight key patterns.
We provide a worked example applying the pattern to the inspiration image.
Finally, students write their own version, which appears in a group feed so everyone in the class can read and react.
What we’ve heard from pilot students
Feedback so far has been that these lessons are fun and encourage friendly competition, and the quality of work in our test sessions has been very high.
There’s also a clear benefit in writing multiple text types using the same source image. Students have observed they learn more about each text type from the contrast between them.
How to use Genre Mixes in class
Each Genre Mix lesson is short and sweet, with five activities.
Depending on how much effort students put in, each activity takes 10-20 minutes, with a whole lesson taking 45-90 minutes to complete. However, we’ve found that asking students to write at home and then using class time to review entries in the feed as a group works very well.
What Genre Mix lessons have we published so far?
We've published 5 lessons aimed at Middle Years students, and one so far for older students (with more on the way):
- Genre Mix 01 (Middle Years)
- Genre Mix 02 (Middle Years)
- Genre Mix 03 (Middle Years)
- Genre Mix 04 (Middle Years)
- Genre Mix 05 (Middle Years)
- Genre Mix 01 (General)
The middle years lessons have been grouped into a Genre Mixes (Middle Years) course.
