entry 10: great work, Maddie!

When I was reading through my peers' blogs again, it was Maddie's Blog that really caught my eye! The particular blog post that stood out to me was Maddie's Entry #9: The Importance of Knowing the Author. Click the links to view her outstanding writing!

The first thing that caught my eye about this blog post was how Maddie started her post with an overarching question:

IS IT IMPORTANT TO KNOW WHO IS WRITING A TEXT?

I like the way Maddie posted this question in a different font and color at the top of her post. I think this really drew attention to this question and will make her audience stop and think about it before reading on. I led the Persuasive Writing Workshop, and through my research I learned a lot about how important it is to know exactly who is writing a text and if they have credibility, so I was very interested in reading Maddie's thoughts on the matter. Maddie made an important statement in her writing that really stood out to me:

Similar to what Marshall (2019) described, I think one of the first questions we can ask is "Who is writing this piece and how does that impact what they wrote?" As readers and writers, our identities and backgrounds impact how and what we write. It may lead us to interpret a text in one way but someone with a different experience may interpret it in another way.                 ~Maddie Moore, Blog Entry #9

"The free encyclopedia anyone can edit"

This quote stands out to me as important when discussing the importance of really knowing the author because I agree that it is important to ask critical questions when identifying if an author is credible, such as the question Maddie posed. This idea also makes me think about what we have been learning about critical literacy from Fisher and Frey (2009). It is important that we as teachers teach our students how to look at texts with a critical lens and not to believe everything at a first glance. Maddie also included this image of Wikipedia (pictured to the right) with the caption "The free encyclopedia anyone can edit" to discuss the importance of questioning author's credibility in online texts as well. I think this caption is especially powerful. I love that Maddie changed the color of the word anyone in her caption to emphasize the word. I remember as a student in middle or high school learning that Wikipedia was not a reliable source for the very reason that anyone can edit the information provided.

About Maddie

I also love that Maddie brought the initial question back to herself as an author and considered that her readers may now be questioning if she is a credible author on the subject. I think providing a little snapshot of her About Me section of her Blog alongside this section was a great addition to prove she in fact is a reliable source on the topic. I think it is a great idea to include an "About the Author" section in her persuasive writing piece for her Genre Pieces Project to give her audience a better idea of who she is and what exactly qualifies her to write about the topic of standardized testing.

This led me to think about how this could be taught to younger students. As the use of technology has increased, it has also made its way into schools, and our youngest students now have access to technology that they didn't before. What are your thoughts about how to teach our primary students about being considerate of the author(s) of a text or something they may see online?

Thank you, Maddie, for making me think even deeper about this topic and just how important it is! I am going to leave you with Maddie's finals thoughts on the topic that I feel are important thoughts to consider while reading texts and thinking about exactly who wrote them:

As you continue to read and view, continue to question! Know your author and consider whether or not you should trust them.

~Maddie Moore, Blog Entry #9

References

Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2009). Background knowledge: The missing piece of the                     comprehension puzzle. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.