What is a functional approach to writing instruction?
In a functional approach to writing instruction, we view language as a system of choices to make meaning.
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Instructionally, this approach ​includes:
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Challenging tasks that require students to read, write, and discuss texts in discipline-specific ways​
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Guiding students to see how language works differently for specific purposes ​
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Supporting students to learn those discipline-specific ways of communicating AND make their own decisions
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Genre can also be thought about as “the range of ways in which things get done with language in a particular society or culture” (Gibbons, 2015).
Why Instruct with a Functional, Genre-Based Approach?
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Common Thread Throughout Content Areas
SFL genre pedagogy is an approach that you can use throughout the school day. This approach to teaching literacy can be woven through all content areas–literacy, ELD, social studies, science, and math. With a common approach to writing in all content areas, students consistently think about the purpose, organization, linguistic features, and audience when engaging with texts. When all content area instruction is operating from this approach, students' learning opportunities build off of each other cohesively, which is especially supportive to emergent bilingual students.
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Supports WIDA Standards
The WIDA Consortium broadly advocates for a functional approach to language development instruction and the WIDA 2020 Standards are informed by this approach. For example, the Can Do Descriptors and Key Uses are organized by four specific communicative purposes common in school-based learning tasks: recount, explain, argue, and discuss. Within each language function, the standards outline linguistic features teachers might see and/or intentionally teach according to grade level and language proficiency level.
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Supports Writing Development and Reading Comprehension
Amidst the current spotlight on reading instruction, many literacy curricula include very little support to help students learn to write. SFL genre pedagogy is an explicit approach to writing that teaches students how to write for the different purposes and audiences they encounter in school and life.
Not only do students become successful authors, but they also become more adept readers. As they learn about genres, they become better equipped to recognize how texts are organized and the decisions authors make, which supports deep levels of reading comprehension.
What Are Genres in a Functional Approach?
In this approach, genres are texts that share a common:
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Purpose
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Organizational structure
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Linguistic features
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​In a functional approach, genres are broken down in more specific ways than fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc based on purpose, organization, and linguistic features.
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They are more distinct and separated than the ways in which the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and many curricula organize different types of text.​
More Specific than the Common Core
The CCSS writing standards bundle writing into three categories: narrative, argument, and informational/explanatory. However, there is a huge diversity within each of these genres. For example, there are many different types of narrative writing such as fictional narratives, personal recounts, or autobiographies, each with different organizational structures and linguistic features. Teaching students the specifics of each genre gives them more tools to be successful when they write.
When we think about genres from a functional perspective, we first focus on what the purpose is of each: to tell stories, persuade, give information, or give instructions. However, the way that CCSS bundles types of writing means that the purpose could vary within each category. For example, within informational/explanatory writing, the purpose could be to tell a story through a biography, give instructions through procedural writing, or give information through a report. Without breaking down the categories of the CCSS more, we miss an opportunity to help students better understand what is required of them to be successful writers.
