7 Ways to Introduce Writing Genres

How to Teach Genre in Upper Elementary

1. Introduce your students to a wide range of genres.
2. Give your students practice identifying the genre of texts they read.
3. Help your students understand the genres they read.
4. Challenge students to read a variety of genres.
5. Remind students to explore different genres all year long.

For writers, using the patterns of a genre accepted by readers for accomplishing their purposes allows them to establish a working relationship with readers. For readers, genres help organize information so that they can more easily make sense of what they are about to read.

1. Brainstorm books or stories that fit a genre.
2. Visit the library and discover how books are categorized.
3. Study a particular genre each month.
4. Send your child on a scavenger hunt through your home or library bookshelves and have her make lists.

The Importance of Using Genres. Genres give writers a specific type of literature to work within. They allow writers to specialize in one genre or to dabble in others. Students in creative writing may focus in a variety of genres from poetry to prose to nonfiction to playwriting.

By exposing yourself to this new genre, you may find that the story in your head works better in a different literary category. Reading from different genres will give you a deeper and richer appreciation for the genres that you’re familiar with.

Start by teaching your young readers the difference between fiction and non-fiction. Avoid telling them that fiction is make believe and non-fiction is real. Instead define fiction as “a story with characters and events that have been made up in the author’s mind.” Explain that non-fiction books are informative.

Children’s literature

Literature is a group of works of art made up of words. Most are written, but some are passed on by word of mouth. Literature usually means works of poetry and prose that are especially well written. There are many different kinds of literature, such as poetry, plays, or novels.

John Newbery

Children’s literature is important because it provides students with opportunities to respond to literature; it gives students appreciation about their own cultural heritage as well as those of others; it helps students develop emotional intelligence and creativity; it nurtures growth and development of the student’s …

Literature allows a person to step back in time and learn about life on Earth from the ones who walked before us. We can gather a better understanding of culture and have a greater appreciation of them. We learn through the ways history is recorded, in the forms of manuscripts and through speech itself….

Literature is important in everyday life because it connects individuals with larger truths and ideas in a society. Literature creates a way for people to record their thoughts and experiences in a way that is accessible to others, through fictionalized accounts of the experience.