Genre Project - Help I teach language arts, and at my school we cannot use novels during the first quarter (departmental thing). I already have a writing project planned near the beginning of the quarter, but I also want to do a project near the end of the quarter as well. I’m thinking about doing a genre project. Students would be put into groups. Each group would be assigned a genre. They would have to research it and then create a product about the genre. (I figure this will be a good way to introduce students to different genres before we read and interact with them later on in the year.) Does this sound like a good idea? How can I improve upon it? How could I differentiate the project? Could compacting work? I’m really trying to rack my brain on this one, but not having much luck! :unsure: Thank you!
I saw thought it this project on Pinterest, yes I said it, and thought it would be a great way to review or share projects so that everyone could view them. The original project was for math, but I think it could work for your topic as well. I'm planning to use this with my 8th LA before TCAP. Hope that helps. http://working4theclassroom.blogspot.com/2012/04/open-house-pizzazz-project-1.html
Oh and I think you should have each group do a venn diagram where they compare and contrast their genre to another genre. (fiction/nonfiction, short story/ novel)
Thank you! I really like your idea of having students compare/contrast the different genres. How could I differentiate this project for a mixed ability class?
If students are in groups, you could assign different roles to each student. I would think about a semantic feature analysis. You could write each genre on the left and the key features of different genres on the top. This way students could see this at a glance. Maybe have each group post what they are finding to a blog so that all groups could use this to fill out their semantic feature analysis.
Thanks! I like the idea of assigning students roles during the project. I plan to do literature circles at the beginning of the 2nd quarter, and using roles during this project would help students prepare for the lit circles! Also, I think I might have students use the semantic feature analysis at the end of the project when it is all done!