A Prototype for Teaching Genre Study in the Reading and Writing Workshop
Immersion through Interactive Read Aloud and the Reading Workshop
Interactive Read-aloud
Share some articles or books in IRA that are strong examples of the genre you are studying.
These common shared readings will provide whole class mentor texts to enjoy and to study
together. If you have are articles you might want to copy them for students so that they can
see the layout, graphics and illustrations. In order to copy any published material you will
need to attain copyright permission. You will most likely have different discussion points
particular to each text and the genre you are studying. As you create a text set of the genre
you are studying, and read different examples, here are some things you might discuss to
build genre knowledge:
 What genre do you think this is? Why?
 What are you noticing about this genre?
 What similarities between these IRAs do you see? What differences?
 What are you noticing about the way this is written?
 How has the author helped to interest us in the topic?
 What do you think the author wants us as readers to know or understand?
 What are the big ideas, themes, author’s message?
 Why do you think the author wrote this text? (purpose)
 What did you enjoy about this text?
 Do you think this was written for a particular audience? Why?
 Did the photographs, illustrations, maps, graphics, diagrams, make the text more
interesting or give you, as a reader, more information? (nonfiction)
 How did we learn about the author’s thinking or feelings? (personal narrative)
 Was the author effective in setting forth and supporting his/her opinion or presenting
an angle on the topic? (editorial, essay, persuasive piece, feature article)
Reading Workshop
In a genre study, a central goal for students is to build knowledge about the genre through
their work in the reading workshop. As you develop goals for your readers in a genre study
and create minilessons, here are three things to consider:
Learning About The Genre As A Reader
What will be important to teach the students to develop their understandings of this genre and
how to read it effectively? Example: When readers identify the author’s angle in a feature
article it provides a deeper understanding of the piece.
Making The Learning Generative
How can this learning be generative to students, so it is useful to them in their future reading?
Example: When we studied memoir we asked ourselves as readers, “What does the author
want us to know or understand about the memory being described? How is the writing
crafted so that the author goes beyond the actual story to communicate thoughts and
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feelings?” Through minilessons we identified point of view, and learned how that influenced
what information was included and what information was left out because of the perspective
from which the memoir was told. This work can be revisited and deepened as we read other
narrative texts.
In feature articles, identifying the angle or author’s purpose is a way to understand the deeper
meaning of expository text. In all sorts of reading that we do, editorials, essays, different kinds
of fiction, nonfiction and biography it is helpful for us to think about what is the author’s
purpose for writing the piece, what meaning does the author want to communicate. This not
only allows us to gain a deeper meaning of the text, but also to examine how the author
crafted the piece. We can also critique the author’s effectiveness in conveying the message.
Strategies, Skills and Literary Analysis Not Directly Connected To The Genre
What other strategies, skills or literary analysis should be address because they are needs of
the students even if they don’t directly relate to this genre study? Example: Readers use
context clues surrounding a word as a way to understand the word’s meaning.
Building Genre Knowledge Through Inquiry
Building genre knowledge through inquiry is powerful because it allows students to make
their own observations and discoveries. It can start with interactive read-aloud and continue
in the reading workshop through students’ independent reading, guided reading or literature
study. As students hear IRAs and read widely within the genre, have them create a chart with
the name of the genre at the top that reflects their noticings. As the list grows you can begin to
distinguish between craft moves and genre characteristics so that students can think about
what noticings build genre knowledge and what are craft elements that might be found in
different genre. It is helpful to wait a while before starting to create the chart so that they
have a variety of examples to draw from. Students can keep their own charts of genre
characteristics to help them with further reading and writing within the genre.
Examples of lists of Noticings: Study Driven, Commentary- p.5, Feature Articles – 30,31
Developing a Working Definition of the Genre
After students have done a lot of reading in that genre and spent time building the chart have
them write a working definition of that genre and post it. This is something that can be
modified at any time.
Goals and Minilessons for the Readers’ Workshop
There are different ways to decide on some underlying goals or minileesons you might teach in
the readers’ workshop in a genre study. Here are some possibilities:
1. Look at the charts your students are developing around features of the genre and see what
might lend itself to more in depth inquiry or a series of minilessons. Example: In the hybrid
chart you might find, “organized with questions and answers”. You might think that as
readers if they understood that hybrid/literary nonfiction texts are organized in lots of
different ways it would help them adjust their reading and find it easier to know what to
anticipate. From the observation students made you might decide a goal for reading
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workshop would be to have students become knowledgeable about different ways hybrid texts
are structured. You could start to develop understanding with an umbrella minilesson:
“Readers notice how authors organize hybrid so that they can use this understanding of the
underlying structure to support their reading.” This would be a helpful readers minilesson
statement in studying feature articles as well.
For the workshop you could then have a more directed inquiry in which you ask students to
go back to some of the hybrid texts they have read to look at how they have been organized
and to be ready to share what they have noticed. Students could also think about the
organization of hybrid as they continue to read new ones. During the share you could chart
the different structures and also hypothesize why an author chose a certain structure and its
effectiveness. This kind of share helps to underscore the idea that writers make purposeful
decisions about how they organize their narratives and information. Carryover into the
writing workshop will be powerful as students can take these understandings and apply them
as they make intentional decisions as to how to structure their own hybrid writing projects. In
the share you could also discuss why it is helpful for readers to figure out how hybrid texts are
organized. You may decide to teach about other organizational structures in subsequent
minilessons. This study of the underlying structure of a text is generative in that it could be
used in thinking about any expository text: feature articles, editorials, essays or by thinking
about different temporal structures in narratives.
2. Think about the different challenges and opportunities reading that genre might pose for
the reader. Example: When reading hybrid texts it is helpful for readers to have a system for
looking at everything on the page. Sometimes the layout is confusing. By studying everything
on the page you ensure that you are gathering all of the information. Again you might have
au umbrellas statement and some further minilessons. “ In order to gather all of the
information an author is sharing about a topic, readers make sure to look at everything that is
on the page beyond the main text.” You could ask students what challenges they have
encountered in the layout of the hybrid texts they have read and chart the information. A
share might be something they learned that was not part of the main text but provided
important information, or students might share how they made sure they saw everything on
the page. In time students might critique the author’s choices of what was included and the
layout. This again could be a minilesson. Example: Readers think about how effective the
author has been in the choice and layout of text features, pictures and graphics for conveying
information or a point of view? Again this series of minilessons could be done for other genre
like feature articles and informational text.
3. For each genre study a goal can always be to help students read more deeply in that genre.
These are the kinds of questions readers can ask themselves:
What is the author trying to say?
What is this reading leaving me thinking about?
What is the author’s perspective?
Why was the experience meaningful to the author? What did the author learn? (memoir)
What new ideas am I learning about this topic?
How has the author helped me to think about this topic differently?
What is the author’s angle on this topic?
Has the author been persuasive?
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What am I noticing about text features or the way this text was crafted that helped the author
get his point across?
Did this text grab my attention? How did the author do that?
Were the sources for the information presented believable? Why or why not?
How did the author craft this piece so I experienced his/her voice through the writing?
You may develop unique questions for a particular genre. For instance for feature articles
Heather Lattimer’s work implies a few questions like:
What is the story behind the facts?
What are the ideas, the understandings presented within the topic?
How has the author made these ideas unforgettable, something I will continue to think about
after I have finished reading?
What are the ideas the author wants me to think about?
This last question helps students think about the author’s angle. Other possible goals for
readers of nonfiction might include the following:
How can a variety of features beyond the body of the text itself build understanding?
Reading to get the main idea in the article.
Understanding ways titles or headings have been used including double or triple meanings.
Learning how to think about the reliability of the information.
Helping students become more equipped to answer these questions can be done by building
minilessons around the ideas supported by mentor texts, through your teaching and
discussions within IRA, GR or Literature Study as well as through dialogue in reading
response letters and conferences.
Under Selecting Genre and Purpose in the writing section of The Continuum of Literacy
Learning you can reference Understanding the Genre and Writing in the Genre to support
your own understandings of the genre and develop ideas for minilessons in the reading and
writing workshop.
Planning A Genre Study in the Writing Workshop
Transition into the Writing Workshop
Writers participating in a genre study learn how to make purposeful decisions as they write in
that genre. They do this by being immersed in the genre as readers and transferring what they
have learned in the reading workshop about the characteristics of that genre and what
effective writing in that genre looks like.
Purpose
Thinking about the different purposes for writing within a genre gives students authentic
reasons for engaging in that genre of writing. This helps motivate writers as they are able to
identify reasons for their writing beyond simply doing an assignment. As part of your
planning for writing workshop it is important to think about ways you can help students write
for authentic purposes. Will the writing be submitted to a magazine, become part of the
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library collection, be shared with parents, another class or someone who could benefit from
the information or have particular interest in the piece?
Audience
Thinking about, “Who am I doing this writing for?” helps develop a sense of audience for the
writer. Avi has said, “Writers don’t write writing, they write reading.” Thinking about who
the audience might be, can help the writer make purposeful decisions about how information
is presented, as well as the style and tone of the writing. One would write very differently to a
friend, for instance, than a principal. It is also motivational to be writing for someone or a
group of people, instead of simply completing an assignment.
Writer’s Notebook
Think about what those who writes within that genre might have in their notebook. Use your
ideas to develop the seeds that students could plant in their notebooks, and continue to use the
notebook all the way through the writing process. Aimee Buckner’s book Notebook Know-How
is a powerful resource. Here are some writer’s notebook ideas for nonfiction:
List topics that interest you and that you have some expertise in or want to learn more about.
Take a topic and think of all the different kinds of things you could write about. What
interests you most about the topic?
Write an entry in which you describe what about your topic would interest a reader?
Describe your purpose in writing this piece.
What is it you want the reader to experience or reflect on from reading your piece?
Make a list of the people who would read your piece. That will be your audience. It will be
helpful to keep them in mind as you do your writing.
Describe your angle, insight, perspective that will make the piece uniquely yours.
Brainstorm what you already know about the topic.
Make a list of possible information you could gather? What else do you want to know?
List where you will look for resources, and who you might interview.
Use your notebook to create interview questions.
List some things you want to try that you have learned from a mentor text.
Write down text features, graphics you will include in your piece for it to be effective.
Try out different text structures or points of view
Try out different possible leads, endings, headings or sub-headings.
Collect facts, statistics, testimonials, stories etc.
Choosing Mentor texts
For your work in the writing workshop you might want to choose one or two mentor texts that
you refer to multiple times during minilessons, guided writing and conferences. You might
also want your students to choose their own mentor text(s) that they use throughout the
writing process so that they can borrow from writers or as Katie Wood Ray says stand on the
shoulders of other writers. These can be texts that they have studied in the reading workshop.
The broad understanding that you want your students to gain is that writers inform their own
writing by reading and learning from authors who have written in the same genre. Any time
you are asked to do a certain kind of writing, it is helpful to read broadly in that writing to
inform craft decisions.
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Goals and Minilessons for the Writer’s Workshop
As we think about underlying goals for the genre study, we will want to think about how we
might balance some purposeful teaching with a stance of inquiry. When students construct
their own knowledge, the depth of their understanding is greater.
Transferring Understandings as a Reader to Writing in that Genre
From the chart and definition students have created about the genre you may be able to shape
goals for writing. Example: We can think that a broad goal of nonfiction is to present factual
information in interesting, engaging ways. In a nonfiction genre study therefore, we can do
some inquiry using some of our favorite mentor texts to ask ourselves how the author(s)
accomplish this goal. As we discover how the author writes with voice to engage us as readers,
we can use our understandings as a basis for developing minilessons around how we can do
this as writers.
Doing anchor charts for genre is one way you can shape minilessons in the reading and
writing workshops and build reciprocity between reading and writing. Statements you have
developed the first column, (What I can expect as a reader) that you have taught, can then be
reintroduce it in the writing workshop and charted under the third column, (How that helps
me as a writer…) Example: In the reading workshop you might have the statement, “ In
order to gather all of the information an author is sharing about a topic, readers make sure to
look at everything that is on the page that is beyond the main text.” We might reintroduced
that minilesson to remind students how helpful it is as readers to look at all of the other
information beyond the main text. We can then think about this same concept as writers. On
your chart under the right column, How this helps me as a writer… develop a aminilesson
statement that correlates to the reading minilesson statement.
Notebook Know-How (p78), Non-fiction Feature Anchor Chart, Pictures and diagrams
Choose one or two characteristics from what students noticed about the genre and use those to
develop goals for your writers. For instance they might have noticed that literary narratives
in hybrid texts are usually told from the first person point of view but not always. Your
umbrella minilesson might be “A writers choose what point of view to tell his/her story to best
communicate meaning..” Over several days you could share books written from different
points of view, have them think about how these points of view effect them as readers and try
out several points of view in their writer’s notebook to tell their story so that they can be
intentional about picking one.
In The Revision Toolbox Georgia Heard suggests students make purposeful decisions about
choosing a voice. They might ask themselves: Who am I when I write? In which voice should
I speak? How do I view my world and reflect it in my writing?
Different points of view in literary nonfiction examples:
- The first person, using an “I” narrator – “I am the Atlantic Ocean.” Atlantic
- The second person, using “you” – “When you see the early goldenrod blooming, look to the
north. Wolf pups are bonding. Look to the North: A Wolf Pup Diary
- The third person, describing everyone as “he” or “she” - “The turtle is still hungry and
crawls toward the grapevines. Suddenly he stops.” Box Turtle at Long Pond
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Making the Learning Generative
If you had worked on point of views in your teaching of a hybrid/literary nonfiction you could
extend the learning that students have done to think about making purposeful choices in
writing different kinds of fiction, biography or memoir. With many of the lessons that you do
directly connected to one genre, you will be able to make the learning generative. Example: In
a new genre study you can ask students how they can apply the learning they have done about
point of view in one genre to their writing in the new genre.
Lessons on Craft and Conventions Not Directly Related to the Genre
By reading your students writing, and working with them while conferring and during guided
writing and minilessons you will continue to identify ways you want your writers to improve
and grow. In a genre study as with other writing your students are doing, you will want to be
able to incorporate these writing goals into your writing curriculum. You may also have state
standards and preparation for test taking considerations to incorporate in your writing
curriculum as well.
Example: In reading your students’ work you are finding that they are not making effective
decisions in choosing nouns and verbs for their writing. You therefore decide that a writing
goal focus for your nonfiction genre will be around specific nouns and powerful verbs. You
want your writers to think about how selecting specific nouns and strong verbs help convey
information to the reader. For this kind of lesson giving a point – counterpoint example can
be powerful. Here is an example of the difference between the use of vague and specific
nouns:
“There is something that can help stuff in your body from eating bad things change into better other
stuff.”
“The swine bacteria changes vein-clogging cholesterol--caused by ingesting too many French fries,
potato chips and other greasy food--into a harmless substance that passes out of the body.”
The Grossest Things You Can Think of May One Day Save Your Life by Charles Downey, Boy’s
Life 12/98
Excerpts from Brian Heinz or other powerfully written nonfiction can shape minilessons
about powerful verbs.
The mountains ache with a deep chill, and their rugged shoulders huddle over the valley below. A
gray cloud creeps over the peaks and rolls slowly, hugging the ground, down the slopes.
Heinz, Brian (1996) The Wolves, p. 1 Dial Books for young Readers, NY, NY
An arctic wind whistled across the vast expanse of ice dusted with snow. Sculpted and polished by
wind and wave, the massive, jagged chunks spilled over each other as Nanuk padded quietly toward
open water, miles beyond. He was hungry.
Heinz, Brian. Nanuk, Lord of the Ice, p.1 Dial Books for Young Readers, NY, NY
In choosing reading or writing goals it is helpful to pick just one or two for a genre study like
learning about structure or writing with voice. The learning is accumulative. Going deeper
instead of wider helps to solidify understandings.
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Assessment
Assessment is powerful when it is tailored to your teaching goals and students are aware of
your criteria for assessment. Example for Reading Workshop: a goal for your work in
Feature Articles is to be able to identify the ideas presented in an article and the author’s
angle or point of view about the topic. If a student presents an article to others he would
know it is important to include this analysis in his presentation and it would be evaluated.
Example for Writing Workshop: Goal is to learn about possible points of view from which a
hybrid text can be told so that as a writer you can be intentional in choosing point of view for
your piece. The assessment could be that students explain the point of view of their piece and
why they chose it so that you could evaluate their understanding.
Study Driven, Evaluating Student Work During a Study, p. 7, 160-162
Thinking Through Genre, Assessing and Evaluating Student Work, p. 18-19
Notebook Know-How, Assessing the Notebooks, Chapter 7
Assessing Writers
Revisiting the Genre Definition
In concluding the unit you might have students think about the definition that they have
created for the genre to consider if they would modify it in any way.
Generative Learning
Throughout and at the end of the unit students can reflect on what they learned as readers
and writers. As they do this thinking you may ask them to reflect upon how these
understandings will be powerful in their future work not only with that same genre but in
other genre as well. You might want to have students reflect about what they learned writing
in the genre in their writer’s notebook or in their writing folder, What I Learned about Being
a Writer.
Developing a Schedule
Plan out the genre study so that it doesn’t get too protracted. The writing process is recursive.
Deciding on only one or two goals and keeping the genre study paced with specific deadlines
and a planned culminating celebration will help to keep students focused and energized
around their work. You may want to revisit a genre to solidify and deepen students’
learning.
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