What did I learn?
Multigenre research projects take a lot of time to plan out! Not only do you need to pick a book(s) or author to study, you then need to compile a list of possible projects that students could choose to do, and come up with grading criteria that would allow for fair grading across all the different types of projects. This isn't something that could be come up with on a whim and assigned. Planning and coming up with something that the students will understand, be able to do, and not find inaccuracies in how one thing is graded compared to another are all things that take time to come up with and not something that be figured out in a split second for a quick project to assign.
What do I think of multigenre research projects?
All in all, I really enjoy multigenre projects. I have previously used them in high school Spanish courses and always thought they were a nice and unique alternative to simply writing an essay to show my teacher what I learned. For English purposes, if I ever used this type of assessment, I would make an essay (around 2 pages) a required artifact simply because I need to ensure that my students can write a well-constructed essay. But doing things such as letters, drawings, videos, etc. are definitely beneficial to students in that they get to showcase talents they have which is especially good if a student does not have an knack for essay writing which, in my opinion, is a talent in and of itself. So I would say that I definitely see the benefits of multigenre research projects and will incorporate them into my course when I get my own classroom.