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| Overview |
 At their most basic, multigenre works are texts comprised of a variety
of genres (poems, diary entries, letters, and so forth). At the same
time, these works
are highly sophisticated by the relationships among the sections of the
text. To understand multigenre texts, students need an awareness of
both their basic and sophisticated features. In this lesson plan, students
develop a definition of multigenre texts by exploring a multigenre picture
book, short chapter books, and, if desired,
multigenre novels. Students will brainstorm alone and together what they will
need as readers to read and understand multigenre texts successfully.
The students will share findings and discuss strategies needed to comprehend,
and by extension to write, these texts.
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| From Theory to Practice |
Multigenre papers are at once simple and complex. At their most basic, multigenre
papers are a simple collection of texts which rely on a variety of
genres. Katie Wood Ray explains in Wondrous Words:
These texts are structured in sections written in different genres. In a single text, writers may combine sections written as letters, journal entries, interview transcripts, memoirs, phone conversations, transcripts, homework assignments, encyclopedia entries, newspaper articles, refrigerator notes, poems, short stories, etc., etc. These texts read like a menagerie of writing, but together the various genres tell a single story or build a single idea. (158)
For students reading these texts, the challenge is to navigate among the different
genres, understanding them individually as well as exploring the ways that
they are connected and interrelated. “Becoming a reader is a gradual process—we
grow in our ability to comprehend and interpret a wide range of reading materials
by making appropriate choices from among the extensive range of skills and strategies
that we develop over time,” according to the NCTE
Position Statement on Reading. Students need the opportunity to explore
multigenre texts as a part of the process of their reading development
to learn and explore the strategies that weave the many different kinds of
texts into a single story or idea—especially before they attempt to write
multigenre texts of their own. As explained in What
We Know About Writing, Grades 6–8, “Writing development
is . . . inextricably tied to reading development; writers grow in their ability
to craft a particular genre . . . through being immersed in opportunities to read, write, and to look closely at [texts of that genre].” For both reading and writing development, then, students benefit from the opportunity that this lesson provides to explore the structure and characteristics of multigenre texts.
Further Reading
Romano, Tom. Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers. Portsmouth,
NH: Heinemann, 2000.
Ray, Katie Wood. Wondrous Words: Writers and Writing
in the Elementary Classroom.
Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1999.
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| Student Objectives |
Students will
- Read and analyze multigenre texts in order to form a working definition of
the form.
- Identify the genres represented in a multigenre text.
- Discuss the connections among genres in a multigenre text.
- Analyze the reading strategies necessary to comprehend multigenre texts.
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| Instructional Plan |
Resources
Preparation
Instruction and Activities
Session One
- Share David Macaulay’s Black and White with your class. Allow
students to explore the nontraditional text on their own, reading it in small
groups.
- To structure the exploration, complete the Postmodern
Picture Books in the Middle School lesson plan, which includes suggestions
to structure small-group analysis of the book.
- Once students have had a chance to read and talk about Macaulay’s book, share
this quotation from his Caldecott
Award Acceptance Speech, which is available from this page: Black and White “is
designed to be viewed in its entirety, having its surface ‘read all over.’ It
is a book of and about connections—between pictures and between words
and pictures.”
- Ask students to consider how the book fulfills the role that Macaulay identifies
in this quotation: How is the book about connections? How is it connected?
- Be sure that students see the joke in the quotation: What’s black and white
and red all over? How does the joke connect to the quotation?
Session Two
- Once students are comfortable with Macaulay’s book and have analyzed the
words and pictures completely, explain the Macaulay’s book is a multigenre
text.
- Begin your definition of the term by breaking the word into its two roots
multi plus genre and discussing what the roots tell us about
the word.
- Share a basic definition of a multigenre text with students: “Multigenre
papers are made up of a collection of texts which rely on a variety of
genres which are woven together and connected in a way which creates an overall
impression or message.” Invite students to customize the definition based on their reading.
- With a definition established, ask students to identify the genres that Macaulay
uses.
- Pass out
Possible
Genres Handout or point to a list of genres online, chosen from those listed in the Web Resources below. Invite students to add genres or details to the list based on their class explorations of genres.
- Divide students into small groups and ask the groups to identify the genres
represented in the text using the Multigenre Text Analysis Chart or Interactive
Multigenre Text Analysis Chart to record their observations. Encourage
students to consider the role of the images as well as the words in the text
as they identify the genres.
- Circulate among students as they work, offering feedback, support, and suggestions.
- Once students have had time to collect their ideas, gather the class and
ask them to share their findings. List the information on the board or on chart
paper,
indicating
both
the genre
and
where
it is represented
in the text (e.g., jokes—the title of the book and the color the ink
used to print it; pun—the
title of the “Udder Chaos” story).
- Ask students to draw conclusions about multigenre texts, adjusting the class’s
definition of multigenre texts to fit new observations.
Session Three
- Divide students into small groups, giving each group at least one additional
multigenre text to explore.
- Instruct students to read the books and identify the genres included, recording
their findings on the Multigenre
Text Analysis Chart or Interactive
Multigenre Text Analysis Chart.
- Once students have had a chance to explore the books, ask them to consider
how these new texts compare to Macaulay’s Black and White. If desired
students can use the Venn
Diagram Student Interactive to record the observations on the two texts.
- Circulate among students as they work, offering feedback, support, and
suggestions.
- Bring students together and ask them to share basic details about their
texts, including the genres represented in their text and the story or overall
idea that the genres combine to establish.
- Revisit the class definition of multigenre texts and make revisions and
additions to fit the new texts that students have explored.
Session Four
- Explain that during this class session, students will discuss the reading
strategies that work well with multigenre texts.
- Divide students into small groups and ask groups to consider the following
scenario:
Imagine that someone who has never read a multigenre text
asks you for advice on how to read a multigenre book? What advice would you
give the person? What tips could you provide to help the person understand
the text?
If students have difficulty imagining the scenario, you might
suggest that they imagine the strategies that they would use if they were
to read a new multigenre text. Ask students to consider where they’d start,
what they’d look for, and so forth.
- Ask students to compile their list of strategies on chart paper so that
they can be shared easily with the class.
- Circulate among students as they work, offering feedback, support, and
suggestions.
- After students have compiled their lists,
ask them to post their list of tips.
- Once all groups have posted their ideas, bring students together and and
discuss their advice. Highlight places where similar advice appears on more
than one list, and encourage students to provide examples from the texts
that they have read that support how their tips are effective.
- Conclude the lesson, by creating a shared class list of strategies, based
on the ideas in all of the group lists. See the extensions below for additional
options.
Extensions
- Students can create posters or bookmarks for the library which share
strategies for reading multigenre texts. Bookmarks can be tucked in the pocket
of multigenre books or placed in the books, near the beginning of the text.
- Students can apply the strategies that they’ve gathered to longer multigenre
works, such as Avi’s Nothing But the Truth. As students read the novel,
extend the activities from this lesson, asking students to chart the genres
in the text, to revisit and revise their definition of multigenre texts, and
to sharpen and extend their list of tips.
- If students will be writing their own multigenre texts, ask them
to discuss what makes a multigenre text successful.
Based on their list of
reading strategies, ask students to consider what advice they’d give an author
who was about to write a multigenre text, compiling their tips as a list
for class reference. As students move to writing their own texts, they can
return to this list. Consider the Weaving
the Multigenre Web lesson plan as a structured option for writing multigenre texts in small
groups.
Web Resources
- Descriptions of Various Genres
http://www.sheboyganfalls.k12.wi.us/cyberenglish9/multi_genre/genre_types.htm
- This list of over two dozen genres from Dawn Hogue’s CyberEnglish resources
includes brief annotations that explain the basic characteristics of each.
- Genres for Report Writing
http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/Literacy/programs/writerwk12.html
- This excerpt from Nancie Atwell’s Coming to Know: Writing to Learning
in the Intermediate Grades outlines thirty genres with brief explanations and examples. The list is written for teachers but could be adapted for use with students.
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| Student Assessment/Reflections |
Frame your response to students’ work according to the following chart. Assessment
of students’ work should focus on the reading strategies that students demonstrate
and can be rather informal, based on anecdotal notetaking and kidwatching. Use
the observations in concert with the suggestions below to continue instruction
until students are ready to proceed to the next activity—whether creating
bookmarks, reading additional multigenre texts, or writing original multigenre
works of their own.
| CATEGORY |
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3
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2
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1
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Identification
of Genres
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Accurately identifies each of the genres in the text.
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Accurately identifies most of the genres represented in
the text.
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Identifies some of the genres in the text but
identification is incomplete or not fully detailed.
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Has difficulty identifying the genres in the text.
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If students are unable to identify the genres, determine
whether the challenge lies in the fact that they are unfamiliar with the
particular genre. If your students have not explored the characteristics of
a genre, they will naturally have difficulty identifying the genre in the
multigenre text. Take the opportunity to explore the genre independent of the
multigenre text so that students will be able to identify it in the future.
Additionally,
you might ask students to consider strategies they can use when they are
unable to determine the genre of a particular text. Perhaps your class can
construct a sort of flowchart, for instance, that helps them narrow the
choices.
If students cannot see the switch from one genre to the
next, spend time reading the text aloud or in small groups, using think-aloud
protocols to help students see the thought process behind identifying the
change from one genre to another.
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Connections
Among Genres
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Accurately explains how each section and its genre is
related to the overall story or idea of the multigenre text.
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Accurately explains how most sections are related to the
overall story or idea of the multigenre text but cannot identify each genre’s
relationship to the text.
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Accurately explains how some sections and their genres are
related to the overall story or idea of the multigenre text.
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Has difficulty relating sections and genres to the overall
story or idea of the multigenre text.
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If students have difficulty relating the sections and
genres to the overarching idea of the text, help students relate new
information and genres in these texts to what they have already read through
active reading strategies. Encourage students to ask questions as they read,
including questions about how the sections that they read relate to those
that they have already read. Just as important, ask students to predict what
will happen next, to look for emerging patterns. Use think-aloud protocols to
demonstrate the process of making connections. Additionally, charting the
sections of the story as a class can help students see the various pieces
more clearly—with a map of the sections and their characteristics available,
the connections among the parts of the story may be more obvious.
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2 - Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
3 - Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
6 - Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
11 - Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
12 - Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
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