Chapter+7


 * __Chapter Seven: What's Your Genre?__**
 * 1) 1. Many of us as readers have our favorite genre, like Kathy, that we feel most comfortable with. Thinking of our classrooms, what do **you** do to make sure most genres are offered to your students? How do you plan for their instruction? How could you fit this into a reading club cycle?


 * Respond Here:**
 * As I build my Reading Clubs I can see having genre studies as a way of preparing my child for the three focus Clubs I want this year. There are six units in our Basal. As I reflect I know I have covered most of the genres. Lucy's writing is where I make the poetry connection. As we have read this summer, I want this study not to be "oh today we will". I want the to be connections, that can be linked.**


 * Margaret Fox**
 * My classroom library is filled with many different genre based books and I am responsible for teaching several genres under the core curriculum. Our basal reader also offers several genres in the books as well. Mostly I plan for their instruction through either Lucy Calkins (poetry and fictional stories) and non-fiction, realistic fiction come from the basal. We do a large unit on third grade for fables, folk tales and tall tales. I think that it would be fun to have a reading cycle with poetry and one with folk tales/fables/tall tales this year. Basically all the genres that I am suppose to teach can fit very nicely into a reading club cycle. SLG**

Chapter 7 Question #1 from Bobbi Friend – Genre-based reading will be a very important part of my instruction in sixth grade. I will be responsible for teaching many specific types of genre and will develop a unit of instruction for each genre. I plan to use these units at various times of the year. I will need to have my students engage in a reading club about poetry, nonfiction, historical fiction, biography, and science fiction. I will need to determine the skills and strategies needed to comprehend different genres and teach these during the mini-lessons of reading club time. I am planning to have a week- long genre study every month for reading clubs during the school year. In order to know what to teach in the mini-lessons, I need to notice any special qualities, text structures, or other characteristics of the genre, and include those in my list of items to consider teaching during mini-lessons, conferences, and small-group instruction. As a teacher, I was very careful to explore a variety of genres with my 2nd graders. Each month I would either buy new books from the Goodwill or Scholastic or find some forgotten great book on my shelf and play a round of Musical Books. The children would circle up their chairs around the room and I would pass out a book to each student. They were taught to look though the book, check out the pictures, read some words, look at the ending and get an overall quick peek at the book. Then I would start the music and they would all march around the chairs until the music stopped and they were at a different seat to look at the new book they found at the new seat. This previewing would last anywhere from 15-25 minutes (until they started to lose interest) and then we would all gather on the floor and I would have the entire stack of books. As a final piece we would go through the stack quickly and assign our best guess at the genre each book belonged to and then put the books on the white board tray for the children to chose for their reading bags. We explored genres regularly and this was a great way to show kids that all books belong to a genre group. They were very familiar with a variety of genres by the end of the year. Adding genre book clubs to my classroom would have been a blast for me! I love this concept! Carol Dawson

When I was teaching first grade, I tried my best to offer different genres to my students but I have to admit that I think I tried squeezing this part of reading into the last parts of the school year. I always taught non-fiction reading the last month of school. Even though non-fiction was talked about at different times during the year, the spotlight was always on it the last month of the school year for an in-depth study. I know that it is important to select texts throughout the school year for interactive read-aloud time and shared reading time, but it seems like it always ends up last. I have never taught a poetry reading club but in reading this chapter I can see how it would be something to consider having in the curriculum as an exposure to different reading skills and strategies.J. Baker

I do not have a classroom, but I do envision either having a Reading Group with the students I work with or assisting a classroom teacher. If I do one with my students I would ask the teacher what she is addressing in her interactive read alouds and follow her / his lead. The best scenario if we collaborated and fill out the work Reading Club Planning Guide together. - Fran Olesen

One of the good things about teaching for a long time is building a big classroom library with books in several genres. My library is now mostly organized by level and genre. (It was quite an eye-opener how many books for 1st/2nd/3rd graders are fantasy.) Now when I buy books I try to find books in the genres that don't have as many books. I begin each year with a genre overview and some specific genre instruction, but I am excited to have everyone immersed in the same genre for a bit. Since I have the same students for three years I think I will rotate the genre I focus on each year. To help encourage student's willingness to try different genres I am also reworking something I tried in the past. I am making a genre passport. When a student reads a book in a new genre I'll have a short discussion about it with him/her and then the student can record and stamp it in his/her own passport. Krista Raffenaud


 * I personally tend to read mostly nonfiction, so this is an area I have to be careful with my kids. I could really push this genre a lot and take the focus on other things if I don't pay attention to it. I just really love all that can be learned and all the information that can be pulled from nonfiction. I know its good that my enthusiasm for this probably shows with my kids, but I have to try and find this same enthusiasm for other genres. This is probably why I am planning to start with a nonfiction reading club first, because its what I am most comfortable with. But then I'll be branching out into other areas and exposing kids to new kids of reading. To help with this, I usually go to a lot of book stores and thrift stores, looking for books that are unique and new. Just like most teachers, I'm constantly trying to build up my classroom library, both with some of the tried and true books, but also with some new stuff. So this year I'll continue doing all these things to help expose my kids to more types of books. **
 * --Kristy Weberg-- **

This is an area I could work on. What I do is have a large and varied library. I need to better monitor they are reading all the genres. I do make sure each student has a basal from a different series—the basal contain many different genres.

I think the reading club will assist in bring planned diversity to the genre read in the classroom. I am looking forward to assisting in the reading club on genres that are not always touched. KDN Comment on the book suggestions for preparing them and add your own thoughts. I have to be completey honest, I have not done a genre study with reading partnerships up to this point. After reading the section "Surrounding Ourselves in the Genre" on pages 110-113 I started to think about how I might prepare my first graders for their first reading club partnership. On page 24 back in chapter 2 Kathy has an example of genres and when scheduled the cycle in the year. I like the idea of using ABC books in my first cycle. I have an extensive collection of ABC books and I think most students will have had prior experience with them. Since most (hopefully all) of my students will know their alphabet by October, it will provide me with the opportunity to focus on teaching the mini-lessons for partnerships in reading clubs while maybe not having to spend as much time preparing them for the genre. Then during later cycles in the year I will be able to hopefully dig into exposing them to genres they may have had little exposure to in the past while the procedures of reading club partnerships will have been taught previously and just need a little review. I am very excited about getting into my room, getting my baskets labeled, and book sorted! --Jodee Tuttle Chapter 7 Question #2 from Bobbi Friend – In 6th grade I will not need to do as much preparation for genre units because they will be aware of the genres from their reading experience and prior knowledge. The first point, surrounding students in the genre, will be simply done through a trip to the library prior to the study. I will have students all check out books based on that genre. I will also have them bring in their own books to help build up the library. The second step, reconfiguring the classroom library, will be developing baskets of that genre for the study will occur when we have brought in books and gone to the school library. Finally, getting books into students’ hands, will occur right after we have collected our books. Students have so much prior knowledge and are ready to read, so I don’t want to extend the unit so much that they become tired of the genre before we actually begin the reading club.
 * 1) 2.As you get your class ready for a genre-based reading club, there are three things they suggest:
 * surrounding them in the genre
 * reconfiguring the classroom library to support the genre
 * getting that genre type into the kids' hands
 * getting that genre type into the kids' hands
 * Respond Here:**
 * I have a bin of books that I use as a kick off to new units of study. I said I. As I get to know the needs and likes of my students, I will create minilessons to give my children a taste of their genre club to come. It will be one at a time for an indepth Club. I am also taking them to the Media Center to watch them use the strategies I have used in the classroom. From there they will take home a particular genre to share and write thoughts in their journals. In the beginning it will be my connection to have them reflect on what they did the night before. At first they will share with me, moving to partner, then to a club format.**
 * Margaret Fox**
 * I like the idea that she stated of surrounding them with the genre and dividing the books up more into smaller genres as well. I have never done that before, so I want my kids to help me divide up the books further into smaller genre baskets. Kids naturally are drawn to their favorite genre; some love poetry, others eat up non-fiction, many like tall tales and fiction, etc... it is not hard to get a variety of books into their hands. I have also never done a genre book study except the fables unit and the poetry so I will have to follow closely the suggestions that Kathy makes. We do work a lot with our non-fiction when we do our Michigan animal research reports in the spring. I am really just trying to think about what genre I will start with first and like I said I will use Kathy's suggestions completely until I get my feet wet and feel more comfortable doing this on my own once I get to know the kids and can get a handle on everything. Again, time will tell! SLG**

Surrounding students in the genre and getting the genre into their hands seems doable I think. The part that makes me think "yikes" is reconfiguring the library to support the genre. This seems daunting to me for two reasons: the time it will take and space. I've put so much time into reconfiguring the library in a way that I think will be logical to the students and also fit the space I have. I fear any reconfiguring could turn into a domino reaction and then I'll have to spend a lot of time again. Right now all the books in the same level are together in the same general area. Within that area they are separated into different genres. My room already seems like it has every inch filled. So I don't know where I would put all the same genre baskets together without rearranging the whole library. (Something I already spent one and a half days on this summer.) I guess this is one of those times when I need to pull the kids in on the problem and give it a go and see where it takes us. Maybe it isn't as big a deal as I'm making it. Krista Raffenaud

I am interested in do this in different grade levels at the same time to evaluate the difference. Maybe use posters of books in that genre if possible. Or maybe use book jackets. Make highlighted baskets of the genre focus. Ask for volunteers so that genre that was picked will be a favorite and therefore the students in that group will be excited. KDN
 * 1) 3. Kathy takes us through a three-week cycle of a poetry reading club. She explains the rhythm of each week and then goes into exact detail for each week. The poetry club cycle seems intriguing. Comment on the cycle. What would be challenging? Which week appears to be easiest to model?
 * 1) 3. Kathy takes us through a three-week cycle of a poetry reading club. She explains the rhythm of each week and then goes into exact detail for each week. The poetry club cycle seems intriguing. Comment on the cycle. What would be challenging? Which week appears to be easiest to model?


 * Helping kids feel this rhythm would be what I would need to focus on in the first couple of reading clubs we do. It think it could be helpful for any unit, poetry included, to have some sort of simple pacing guide displayed in the class to help us know where we are at. I picture it as sort of a timeline on a poster, first showing the first couple of days as getting familiar with the books/topic/genre. This could be shown with words and or graphics on the timeline. Then continuing through the reading club cycle, there could be a stage where students are gleaning new information, examining characters thoughts and feelings, the author's purposes, etc, depending on the reading club. Then there could be several more days focusing on doing deeper with this new thinking, or coming at it from new angles. Then the timeline would show the end of the reading club, with days to work on the final project/presentation, etc. I think for me and the kids, having this displayed in front of us and quickly pointing out where we are on the timeline at the beginning of reading clubs each day would help us feel this rhythm and stay on task. **
 * --Kristy Weberg-- **


 * Respond Here: I think getting the books ready and implementing week one would not be that hard, as I have many poetry books and could also go to the library. Weeks 2 and 3 seemed harder to me, especially getting the kids to extend their thinking across poems and grow new ideas. Some children need more time, modeling, and practice than others so I think for some kids the exposure to poetry and a new genre might be all that they get. It is hard for some kids to grow new ideas and extend ideas across texts when they are not ready or have not had enough time to "float around" in reading or in a new genre, so to speak !! SLG**
 * Collins definitely has the rhythm doesn't she? Wow! She makes it seem so doable. I think - for the poetry genre - having the library ready would take the most work for me. I would definitely have to hit the library for more poetry books. I also was thinking about **
 * I have never tried a poetry reading club nor spent much time with poetry with Kindergarteners/first graders when I have taught that class. To me I think that would be a challenging one for me as a teacher. We are constantly reciting rhymes/fingerplays, talking about rhyming patterns in stories, but I would struggle coming up with an entire poetry reading club. Obviously I would have to talk with other grade level teachers and definately use the library resources to enhance my teaching. I think poetry reading is so different for children and even adults that it would be challengin to teach to children and provide enough support for them.JillB ﻿ **
 * I agree with Jill in that Kathy makes this process seem so doable! It is simple and well planned. I think the most challenging part is always to get students to talk deeply about their reading when they are done and can feel like such a waste of time when they aren't able to discuss the way I envision it. However, Kathy uses week 1 to teach kids how to read and TALK about poetry...this is so important and by using the week to read together and guide the conversation...it would provide a lot of support for children as they move into more independence in the next weeks. I love poetry and the way kids really get into the free style of poetry and how when they read poetry they grow excited to write their own. The scaffolding Kathy provides in this 3 week lesson structure is a great way to keep the poetry reading clubs organized and productive! Carol Dawson **