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Goal

To provide students in Grades 2-5 with an in depth study of the many genres/sub-genres in reading in order to improve reading comprehension.

The biggest predictor of a child’s ability to comprehend a text is the background knowledge that the child brings to the text. That being said, children from poverty are often limited in the amount of exposure they have had to the types of activities that increase background knowledge; such as available books in the home, family trips and vacations, academic conversations, and so on.
As a Reading Coach, one of the biggest surprises I have noticed when working with students at my school is that there is lack of knowledge in even knowing the different genres of writing/reading. A couple years ago, I was filling in for one of my teachers in the after-school reading program. I decided to do an activity with a group of fifth grade students where I asked the students to sort dozens of books into different genres. I know that when I, myself, pick up a book, the genre of the book provokes the thoughts that begin flowing through my mind, so I knew that just knowing the different genres and differences between them was important for students. One of my struggling student placed a book titled "Forest Fires" in the biography pile! I could not even begin to understand how anyone would confuse Forest Fires with a biography. Even though Forest Fires and biographies are both from the Non-fiction genre, they are two very different sub-genres, and they are going to unfold very differently. That event prompted me to spend the next year assembling a Genre Study Characteristics mini-curriculum for my students at Lely Elementary.

After a year of assembling the characteristics of each genre and sub-genre in a child-friendly format, I too have added to my knowledge base. Through this endeavor, I feel I have become an even better Reading Coach. This idea of having student become experts on the genres/ sub-genres will not only impact the students at Lely Elementary, but also it will impact the teachers that are teaching. Teachers will not be able to teach the characteristics of each genre/sub-genre without learning them themselves.
Sets of books in some sub-genres are still needed in order for this Genre Study to be implemented on a school-wide scale.  

What will be done with my students

Each week, students will study one of eighteen different sub-genres (FOLKLORE: 1. Folktale, 2. Fairy Tale, 3. Fable, 4. Legend, 5. Tall Tale, 6. Myth, FICTION: 7. Realistic Fiction, 8. Fantasy, 9. Historical Fiction, 10. Science Fiction, NON-FICTION: 11. Informational, 12. Personal Narrative,13. Biography, 14. Persuasive, 15. Essay, DRAMA: 16. Comedy, 17. Tragedy, and POETRY: 18. Poems)
Student will read a minimum of three different examples/texts from each sub-genre. Students will learn the different characteristics of each sub-genre and then find examples of the characteristics from several texts that they read. At the end of each week, students will have a group discussion about the texts they have read pertaining to the sub-genre and its characteristics. 

Benefits to my students

When I pick up a book, they genre of that book is what generates the very specific thoughts that start going through my mind. For example, If I pick up a fable, the thoughts that start flowing in my mind are… this is from the genre of Folklore; which means it’s a story that has been handed down from generation to generation. The story will not have an author stated, but instead it will have “Retold by.” The story is going to be short, the characters are most likely going to be animals, some sort of trickery is going to be involved in the plot, and a character is going to learn a lesson in the end.
I truly believe that teaching my students the different characteristics of each genre and sub-genre can help create a blueprint in their mind which will enable successful reading comprehension to unfold. This blueprint will help make up for the lack of background knowledge many of our students may not have.
 

Budget Narrative

Through our district reading series, students are exposed to many of the eighteen sub-genres listed in my proposal. However, when it comes to many of the sub-genres in folklore and some in fiction like historical fiction and science fiction, those genres and sub-genres are represented sparsely, if at all. The books I am proposing to purchase would fill in the holes in the current district materials. My proposal covers buying a set of ten books of twenty different titles. Buying sets of books is vital so that all students can read independently or in pairs as well as participate in a group discussion about the same book. 

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