This year, I have especially noticed that my students struggle identifying genre related to literature. They can identify fiction or nonfiction, but they have been unable to identify specific genres within each. I decided to develop an interactive way for them to begin to explore different types of genre.
I decided to begin with five main genre types: realistic fiction, science fiction, mystery, fantasy, and historical fiction. In addition to the board I created, I also found a descriptive chart that students can read through to find the genre type. I made sure that I put picture examples of genre under each heading so that students could have a visual image that would help them decide what genre a book fits into.
Whenever a student finishes a book that they rate a 9 or 10, they can fill out the pieces of paper that you see on the board for extra credit (5 points). This serves as an advertisement for other students and a way for them to figure out genre. The information that they place on the paper are: title, author, reviewer (their name), rating, and location (where someone else can find the book).
I have found that students enjoy sharing their favorite books in this way. They also use the pictures to help them figure out the genre.
I plan on adding other genres over the course of the year.
I have been incredibly pleased with these results. My students are really starting to use these tools to help place books into different genres.
November 15, 2008
ellclassroom2
Ellclassroom 
1 responses to “Genre Wall”
Jamie Bledsoe
November 29th, 2008 at 14:47
Great thinking! In fact, I began doing something similar to your idea of having the students rate the the book (and still practice working with genre) after they have completed the book.
In a middle school setting with 6th graders, I have students complete monthly “Baseball Cards.” Depending on the month, I assign a set number of cards that are due on the last Friday of the month. For example, throughout the month of December, there is only ONE “Baseball Card” due. For the assignment, students may only begin working on this when they have COMPLETED a book. The FRONT of the card includes the book title, author, illustration (to represent SOME part of the book as long as it isn’t on the cover), the student’s name, and a “genre sticker” (which is how I label the books in my classroom library; example, yellow dot is realistic fiction). The BACK of the card includes, a brief summary of the book, a “base rating” (which is how they rate the book according to their liking; first base, second base, etc.), and answering a “Reader Response” question based on the current reading strategy that we are learning about (e.g. inferencing, schema, visualization, etc.). After they complete the card, I send them off to be laminated, add them to a ring to be hung on the wall. Students not only love seeing their work laminated and posted, yet also, other kids use this as a reference for CHECKING OUT books based on what is popular by their peers. If you are interested in trying this, I could send you pictures of the actual product. Feel free to shoot me an E-Mail (QT9678@aol.com) and we can exchange ideas!