Amanda Holley
Class/Subject: Language Arts
Materials: 2 overheads, cart or a selection of books from each genre, library (reserved if
needed)
Focus and Review: 5-10 min
Take the overhead that just has the genres fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, and science fiction on it, and tell the students: “I need everyone to come up to the overhead, one at a time, and put your name under your favorite genre. Then I need you to also write a sentence about what you think that genre means and what makes a story/novel that genre.” Then go over their choices and what they wrote about each genre. If there is a genre no one chose as their favorite, discuss that with the class and get the students to think about why that might be and come up with what they think the genre is about. Then give the students more concrete definitions for each genre. (Examples of student responses and of the concrete definitions are on the attached overhead.)
Statement of Objectives:
Tell the students, “Today we are going to learn about choosing books to read and why we select certain books over others and by the end of the lesson we will be trying out new genres of novels. This will help broaden your horizons and learn about different ideas and topics.” In other words, the students will be responding to various literary genres using interpretive and evaluative processes.
6th-8th grades: Goal 5- The learner will respond to various literary genres using interpretive and evaluative processes.
5.01- Increase fluency, comprehension, and insight through a meaningful and comprehensive reading program by using effective reading strategies to match type of text.
5.02- Study the characteristics of literary genres through analyzing what genre specific characteristics have on the meaning of the work.
National Standard
#1- Students
read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of
texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the
#2- Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of many dimensions of human experience.
Teacher Input: 20-25 min
Start off by asking: “What might cause a person to choose a certain book?” Get the students to throw out ideas and then put up the overhead that has several influences on it. Now tell the students: “I want you all to rank these influences in order with the most influential to you being 1 and the least 10.” Then pick some students to put their order on the overhead. Have the class look at them and start thinking more about their decisions in picking out a book. Tell the students: “Look at the similarities and differences. Now I want you to pick a method that you put towards the bottom of your list and use that method in choosing books for the rest of the day.” Then bring out your selection of books from each genre and introduce some new titles and books to the class. Maybe read from some of them or just give an introduction to the books. Give them enough information on the books that they don’t know the whole story, but give them enough to where they have a spark of interest in the books. (Examples of student responses are on the attached overhead.)
Independent Practice: 10-15 min
Then take the class to the library and have them explore the selves and find a book that is out of the norm for them to choose. The book cannot be from their favorite genre, which you have a list of from the beginning of the lesson.
Closure:
Tell the
students: “You all need to check the book you chose out and start to read your
book at home for homework. You should
have at least the first
Resources:
Brown, Jean and Elaine Stephens. Teaching
Young Adult Literature: Sharing the
Connection. Wadsworth Publishing Company. 1995.
Elliot, Joan and Mary Dupuis. Young
Adult Literature in the Classroom: Reading it,
Teaching it, Loving
it. International Reading Association.
2002.
Your school and public libraries