Reading Genres - Appalachian State University

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Reading Genres

Melissa Lange

3rd Grade

Hall-Woodward Elementary School

Background Information

Reading is such an important life skill for every learner. Reading is everywhere. Reading is thinking. Students think that reading is just a subject in school. They read because they are told to read by their teacher and that is what is expected of them. Not all of my students have the love of reading and read just for the fun of it. I was a struggling reading growing up. Of course I did not know it when I was in elementary school, but I did not comprehend what I read. I went to a special reading class called, Reading Lab. I loved going to Reading Lab. I remember that that was the only time I enjoyed reading. I was able to read any book I wanted to and sit on a beanbag chair and just read. I do not remember loving to read in the classroom, but yet I do not remember my teachers letting us students have SSR time. I want my students to want to read because they love to read. I want my students to enjoy reading. I want to increase my student’s interest in reading by exposing them to all the genres.

I am in my fifth year of teaching, so I know I am still a little wet behind the ears. There is so much I need to learn to become a better teacher and to provide more for my students. But there is one thing that has bothered me since I began, not everyone challenges their students in ways they need to be challenged. I hate when teachers say, “Well, that’s just Mary.” I have a lot of Marys in my class this year, and I am going to challenge those students just like everybody else. I would not be doing my job if I did not. I have such high standards for every single one of my students and I am going to hold every student accountable for their best. The hard part is finding what each student’s best is.

I have observed over the last four years, that most students tend to pick fantasy books. I enjoy reading fantasies, but not every book I read. I also have observed that the majority of the students read books that too easy for them. Again, I enjoy reading easy books, but not all the time. After reading a few articles, I came upon Genre development in first grade: a mutlti-task investigation (Hiles & Smith, 2000), and by reading this article I started to really think. According to the article, an important aspect of children’s literacy development is to provide social and cultural content purposes. We have to meet the diversity of all the students in our classroom (Hiles & Smith, 2000). As a teacher, am I doing this by allowing my students to read only fantasies and not exposing them to all different genres of books? Do I always set purposes for reading? And I decided that I am not and I knew that I had to do something different for my students. If I do not change, how can I expect my students to change? I need to expose my students to a variety of text. I have to give my students the experiences through books that they will not have in real life. How else are they going to create background knowledge as they grow and become successful learners?

I took a good look at my classroom library and realized I am somewhat guilty that my students were reading fantasies. The majority of my classroom library books are fantasies. I do have some biographies, non-fiction, poetry, and fairy tales, but mostly fantasies. I guess in the past years I bought books based on what I saw them reading from our school’s library. If the students wanted to read a book from my library, they had no choice but to read a fantasy. Our school library has a large selection of book of all different genres, but all the students go towards the books in the middle (fantasies.) Maybe if I would have had a bigger selection of genres in my library or encouraged and showed the students where the different genres were at in the school library, they might choose a variety of books to read.

Future reading articles brought me to an article entitled Reading motivation and reading comprehension growth in the later elementary years (Guthrie, Hoa, Wigfield, Tonks, Humernick & Littles, 2006). The authors stated, “little is known about the characteristics of children’s reading interest” (Guthrie, Hoa, Wigfield, Tonks, Humernick & Littles). Students who are highly motivated and want to read like to chose their own books, while students who are not motivated would prefer to do other activities. Students process knowledge if they are interested in what they are reading (Guthrie, Hoa, Wigfield, Tonks, Humenick, Littles, 2006). Reading this article made me think of me when I was in elementary school. I do not want my students to read something they are not interested in. I want all my students to read what they want to read and enjoy it. I truly believe that every child can be motivated if they just find that special thing or the genre that is just right for them.

Another article I found interesting was The non-fiction reading habits of young successful boy readers: forming connections between masculinity and reading (Smith, 2004). Most boys prefer reading non-fiction. They have a better connection with sports, animals, space, etc. This can be influenced by their father’s choices in reading materials. (Smith). But I do not know if this is the case with some my student because most of my students do not see their fathers reading at home. Some of the student’s fathers are working two or three jobs, on the streets with gangs, or not even in the picture. The research also says in Reading all types of writing: the importance of genre and register for reading development (Littlefair, 1991) that children’s problems with reading various texts are often caused by the form and structure of the text rather than the content. Vocabulary causes reading to be harder in information and non-fiction books (Littlefair, 1991). Wow, I totally agree with this. With more than half of my students being English Language Learners, vocabulary is a big roadblock for them. As a teacher, I have to expose all my students to as much vocabulary as I can. This might be a little harder than teaching English speaking students, but that is what I have to do. Even though the information and non-fiction books are hard for the students to read, I have to expose the students to those genres and teach them how to read them.

Research Question

How are the student’s choices of books during SSR affected by the introduction of different genres?

Participates

I teach 3rd grade at Hall-Woodward Elementary School in Winston-Salem. I have nineteen students in my class: four African American and fifteen Hispanic. Our school is Title 1 and Equity Plus with about 95% free and reduced lunch. I decided to study only six students, but taught the lessons to my whole class. Three of the students are reading at grade level (one Hispanic male, one Hispanic female, and one African American male) and three students are reading below grade level (one Hispanic male, one Hispanic female, and one African American female.)

Interventions/Instruction

As soon as I decided to teach the different genres, I gave each student a reading interest inventory to see what the students liked to read, why or why not they liked to read, and how much time they spent on reading. This gave me a good idea of where the students were.

[pic]Reading Interest Inventory[pic]

1. Do you like to read? Why?_________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

2. How much time do you spend reading?_______________________________

3. What are some of the books you have read lately?______________________

________________________________________________________________

4. Do you like getting books from the school library and why?________________

________________________________________________________________

5. About how many books do you own?_________________________________

6. What are some books you would like to own?__________________________

________________________________________________________________

7. Put a check mark next to the kind of reading you like best and topics you might like to read about.

_____history _____travel _____plays _____sports

_____adventure _____war stories _____poetry _____car stories

_____chapter books_____biography _____astrology(stars and space) _____humor _____folktales _____how-to-do-it books

_____art _____science fiction _____mysteries

_____cook books _____historical fiction ______fantasy ______fairy tales

9. How much time do you spend watching television?______________________

10. Would you rather watch television or read?___________________________

11. Why do you read?

A. Because my teacher makes me

B. Because I love to read

C. To go to the AR sleepover

D. To become a better reader

E. other ____________________

To introduce the genres we had the “Genre of the Day.” I introduced a new genre four times a week. We started this by me providing a description of the genre of the day. I gave them the definition of the genre and characteristics of the genre. Then we had a whole group discussion about the genre of day. I then read aloud a book from each genre. Each genre was read aloud in a different way to get their attention. For example, when I introduced mysteries I only read half of the book and if they wanted to find out who stole the golden chicken they had to finish the book or when I introduced drama I read all the parts but changed my placement in the classroom with each character, I introduced wordless books during the week I was taught visualization, and when I introduced fairy tales I read a Cinderella version that the main character was a boy playing football so I could get the boys attention. After reading aloud from the genre, I provided examples of the genre. I checked out books from the school library as well as the public library. Then I constructed reading centers around the classroom that consisted of books from various genres. I had books everywhere. Each day we would talk about previous day’s genres and I gave the students the opportunity to share and discuss a new book/genre they enjoyed with a friend.

The students then had to complete a self-assessment of the stories that they read. Each student wrote their name, date, title of the book, and genre of the book on a post-it note. They also determined if they loved the book, liked the book, or didn’t enjoy the book. Each post-it note was placed on a poster board that was created for the study. Each student was responsible to put one post-it note on the poster board each day.

Data Collection

Data collected for research:

( Pre and Post Reading Interest Inventory

( AR test records

( Observational Notes during SSR time (3-5 times a week)

( Student Interviews

Data Analysis Procedures

I gave all the students a pre reading interest inventory one the first day of the study and then gave each student the same reading interest inventory at the end of the study. I compared the pre and post reading interest inventories of each participate to see if there were any changes in their answers.

I also looked at the students AR scores at the beginning of the project and then at the end of the project to see if there was significant growth from the beginning of the school year. Throughout the five weeks I checked the AR scores weekly for my personal interest.

During SSR time, I recorded on a table what I saw the students reading. At the end of each week, I recorded the genres the students read during SSR time on a list and tallied them. Each student had his or her own list. I then put the finding in a pie graph.

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|Jacqueline |Time on Task |Engagement |

|Genre | | |

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|Kahiem |Time on Task |Engagement |

|Genre | | |

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|Axel |Time on Task |Engagement |

|Genre | | |

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|Africa |Time on Task |Engagement |

|Genre | | |

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|Fred |Time on Task |Engagement |

|Genre | | |

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|Michelle |Time on Task |Engagement |

|Genre | | |

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On the last day of the study, I did one on one interviews with each participate. I asked them all the same three questions: What is your favorite genre and why? What are your favorite things about your favorite genre? What did you like and dislike about learning about the different genres? After I sat down with each student, I reflected on their answers and why they answered the way they did.

I organized the data by creating a file folder for each student. Since I was not comparing one student to another, this was the easiest way for me to analyze each individual student’s results.

Results

After analyzing the pre and post reading interest inventory, I found that all students like to read except one below grade level student. She said no because it is hard for her to read. All six students said they liked to get books from the school library because there are a lot of books to choose from and they are interesting to read. The students were asked to put a check mark next to the kinds of book they like to read. I averaged the student’s choices on both the pre and post reading interest inventory. The pre reading interest inventory’s average was seven while the post reading interest inventory’s average was twelve. There choices almost double. One thing that I found interesting was that one student, who is below reading level and read the least variety of genres, picked the most on both the pre and post reading interest inventory. I am guessing that he would like to read those genres of books but at this time they are too hard for him to read or was putting checks down to please me. The last question on the reading interest inventory was: Why do you read? I was disappointed in the students answer. All of the students picked as one of their answers to go to the AR sleepover. Students in 3rd grade who read and one hundred fifty AR test will have the opportunity to have a sleepover in the school library with the librarian and other teachers who volunteer. It is great fun for the kids, but it is disappointing that that is a reason why they read. I was happy to see that some of the students also picked they read because they love to read and to become a better reader. Overall, the reading interest inventories gave me a lot of useful information.

After comparing the student’s AR scores from the beginning of the study to the end of the study, I found that the students had a significant difference from the beginning of the school year. All students made significant growth. I started my study on the fourth week of school. On the fourth week of school: Fred had past two test, Michelle eight tests, Africa three tests, Axel eight tests, Kahiem ten tests, and Jacqueline had past nine tests. As of the ninth week of school, after five weeks of research: Fred had past fourteen book passing twelve test during the study, Michelle had past thirty seven books passing twenty nine test during the study, Africa had past fourteen books, Axel had past thirty books passing twenty two during the study, Kahiem had past thirty three books passing twenty three books during the study, and Jacqueline had past thirty eight books passing twenty nine during the study. Michelle and Jacqueline made the biggest growth.

I found that once I put my observation note in a pie graph, it was the most informational and useful of all the data I collected. I was proud of my students because all six students at least tried different genres. I do not know how well they comprehended them or if they knew all of the vocabulary words in the books, but they tried to read them, and that is what I was wanted from this research project. I found that Africa tried to read different genres, but they were too hard for her. I noticed that she enjoyed looking at the pictures in the informational and how to books. She loves cookbooks. Fred made an attempt to try a few different genres, but went back to fantasies because most of the genres were too hard. I cannot get upset with that. He is reading on a first grade level and there are not a lot of books that he can read besides fantasy. Michelle enjoyed reading different genres and I believe she was able to comprehend most of them. Axel enjoyed learning about and reading the different genres. He tried all the genres that I taught, even fairy tales that he said he would not like because fairy tales are for girls. Just like Michelle, Kahiem read a variety of genres. He made an attempt at most. I did have to add an additional category to his pie graph, which was other. I had several notes that he was playing during SSR time. The student who took the biggest advantage of this research project was Jacqueline. Jacqueline loved reading the different genres. She was always excited when a new genre was introduced and not afraid to read those genres on her own. She was the most motivated student. I am excited that my students tried the genres even though the biggest pie piece was fantasy.

When I sat down with students one on one, I was surprised by some of their answers. I was pleased to see that only two students chose fantasy as their favorite genre. Two other students chose fairy tales while one student chose mysteries and another chose science fiction. Axel hit it on the nail when he said fantasy was his favorite genre because almost all of the books are fantasy and they are fun to read. Fred also picked fantasy because they are fun to read. Michelle and Africa both picked fairy tales because they are interesting and cute. I really liked why Jacqueline picked mysteries. She said her favorite genre was mysteries because it is an adventure through the book and she likes to figure out the mystery. Last, Kahiem picked science fiction as his favorite genre because they go to outer space and they have cool stuff in them.

The second question I asked the students was, “What are your favorite things about your favorite genre?” and they all had different answers. Axel’s favorite thing about fantasy was that they have new words that he does not know. Jacqueline said her favorite things about mysteries were that they are good to read and it will be her favorite genre for the rest of the year. Kahiem likes that things in science fiction cannot happen in real life. Fred said that he enjoyed reading Clifford and Arthur books. I do not think he understood the question. Michelle’s favorite thing about fairy tales was that the characters use magic to pretend to be other people. And lastly, Africa’s favorite thing about fairy tales was that they have fairy godmothers in the books.

My last question to the students was, “What did you like and dislike about learning about different genres?” Axel and Jacqueline answered that they learned about books they have never read before. Kahiem said that he liked that there were cool books that he wanted to read. I think Fred again did not understand the question because he said that they helped him know the answers. Michelle just enjoyed learning about the different genres and Africa though they were fun to learn about. Kaheim, Fred, Michelle, and Africa all said there was nothing they disliked about learning about the different genres. Axel and Jacqueline both said that some of the new genres were hard to read.

The majority of my class enjoyed learning about new genres. I saw an effort in all the students to try reading new genres. When my research began, I had only my homeroom for all subjects, but in the middle of the project we started team teaching. This made is difficult because in the beginning I taught the new genres during teacher directing teaching time but then I had to find a time to teach the genres to just my homeroom. I ended up taking some of their SSR time and writing time to teach the genres. I found that it was hard to find some genres written for my below grade level readers, so they got frustrated and resorted to what they were comfortable with. It was even hard to find a couple of genres written at a third grade level. I did not find any autobiographies, but we did talk about them. I found only a few science fiction books written for third grade level readers. One problem I have found with having all those library books is that I am still missing nine books and no one knows where they are. I am not sure if the students accidentally took them home or what, but it is an ongoing search for the missing books. That would be a good mystery book to write. Maybe that will be my next writing prompt.

Future Direction

I thought the research project was a success. I am going to continue to challenge my students throughout the rest of the school year and encourage them to read different genres. My next goal will be to find books written for my below grade level readers to read. I think it will be a lot of work, but I want all my students, regardless of their reading level, to experience all text. I like Dr. Koppenhavers’s idea of writing a donors choose grant to get books of different genres for lower level readers. I have a couple of resources at school who can help me with the selection of the books and the know how of writing grants.

Since I had success with teaching the different genres, I plan on doing this next year. I do plan on making some changes though. I will teach the genres at a slower pace. Maybe instead of having the genre of the day, I will have the genre of the week. I feel that the students will benefit from this even more. I will also have to have a better way of keeping track of the library books. I will have to brainstorm on that one because I am not quiet sure how right now.

References

Guthri, Hoa, Wigfield, Tonks, Humenick, Little, (2006). Reading motivation and reading comprehension growth in later elementary years. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 32(3), 282-313.

Hiles, J., & Smith, B. (2000). Genre development in first grade: a multi-task investigation. Illinois Reading Council Journal, 1592), 34-48.

Littlefair, A. (1991). Reading all types of writing: the importance of genre and register for reading development. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Smith, S. (2004). The non-fiction reading habits of young successful boy readers: forming connections between masculinity and reading. Literacy, 10-16.

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