Book Genre Posters

As part of my Readers Workshop, I focus on the different genres of books that students can read.  Each month, they are required to read a book from a different genre and give a book talk about that book (see yesterday’s post about these here)

Before we start reading in the different genres, I start the year with a look at each of the different genres we will study.  I show several examples of each genre and then we take notes on the genres’ characteristics as part of the Reader’s Notebook.  These note pages provide the kids with a way to check which genre a book belongs to throughout the year.  In addition to the notes, I have posters about each genre displayed on our Reading wall.  I add the posters as we discuss the genres to help the kids visualize the genres a little better.  Each poster has the characteristics of the genre listed and has images specific to that genre as well.

I have these posters available in my TpT store (link to product), but as a special blog offer, I will email you the pages I use for genre notes if you email me or comment asking for them below.  The notes pages are simple, but they’re already created, and why reinvent the wheel, right?!

Book Talks (and a Freebie!)

Last year, I transformed my reading program and I absolutely loved the Readers’ Workshop structure that I was able to create in my classroom.  One part of the program that I enjoyed was the book talks I had the kids do.  Each month, the students in my room were required to read at least one book from a specific genre.  After reading that book, they had to give a book talk on the book.

Book talks (or book commercials) are simpler than the traditional book report, and the kids seemed to enjoy both giving and listening to them.  

So what is a book talk?  A book talk is like a commercial for a book that the students have read.  They are not long (only about two minutes in length).  During the book talk, students were asked to share:

* the book’s title and author

* the cover (or a picture of the cover)

* a little information about the characters and the problem in the story

* some interesting information from the book.

I created a handout with the basics of a book talk and a monthly genre calendar to give to the kids to include in their reading binder.  The handout is available in my TPT store for FREE! (link to product)

If you use Book Talks leave me a comment to let me know what they look like in your classroom!