[CALIBK12] 6th grade Lang Arts-genre

[ladewig]

For Katie and others:

 

One year I made up a list of all the California Young Reader Medal nominees
that we had copies of in the library, in small print on a paper in three
columns. I had a copy prepared for each student to keep. I collected about
15 of the most recent books. I printed up a definition of the word genre,
with the pronunciation symbols, on an overhead, so I reviewed that and
reminded them that they would hear this term pronounced in many different
ways over the years - the pronunciation variations are not important - what
is important is the definition/concept. I also had a list of (fiction
category) genre with the definitions from the CDE website, which I put on
the overhead next, and reviewed briefly. Then, I reminded the students that
books with jackets have a "book blurb" on the inside front cover, and
paperbacks often have one on the back cover. 

 

I started with the most recent book, read the title, and the jacket info (or
a brief summary of it), and asked the class which genre would it be? - You
might also comment about the pictures on the cover if that helps. (Raise
hands to answer or call on students). Of course, it's possible that some
books fall into more than one category, so you can discuss what evidence or
"clue" influenced their answer. On the overhead, I had assigned each genre
an abbreviation (HF for Historical Fiction, M for Mystery, etc.) alongside
its definition. For each book we evaluated, they were to mark their paper
with the abbreviation(s) appropriate for each book next to its title. And,
they were to put a dot next to any title that seemed like one they might
like to read.

 

We did about 10 - 15 books (max) and then we stopped. I asked them to look
over the dots and see if there were any patterns as to what genre they
selected. Many of them noticed that they specifically liked mysteries, or
animal fiction, or whatever. Many of them had not realized they had a
preference before.

 

I encouraged them to keep their sheets (I had printed them on blue paper)
and refer to them for future library selections. I also posted a copy in the
library. Many of them did use their sheets (or the one in the library) to
locate the books they were interested in, and that worked well, since we
often had multiple copies of the CYRM books from years past.

 

Each teacher (5th & 6th grades) thought this was a worthwhile exercise. I
will be using it again this year with my 4th grade classes. If your class
has individual white boards, you could have them mark the white boards, hold
them up, and see what genres they're thinking, instead of hand raising, but
it might make marking the paper also a bit like juggling. Perhaps they could
keep pencil and paper on their desk, and slide the boards into their laps
temporarily. (I always like to think these things through and have a plan in
mind). 

 

Joanne Ladewig  (A.K.A. "Library Lady")

Library Media Tech

Lawrence Elementary, GGUSD

Garden Grove, California

shatz at verizon.net

 

Comments are my own and may not represent the views of GGUSD

 

  _____  

From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu
[mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of Katie Irwin
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 4:09 PM
To: calibk12 at listproc.sjsu.edu
Subject: [CALIBK12] 6th grade Lang Arts-genre

 

I would love suggestions and ideas for teaching genre-

 

in addition to the bookmark contest our teacher librarian is holding, we're
doing a scavenger hunt in the library, using a bingo-type worksheet with the
genres listed.  Our Holt Lang Arts lists 7 genres, the CDE website has
several more but CDE doesn't list adventure-

 

Any ideas and applications would be appreciated. Thanks.

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