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Genres and library skills: a topical approach.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Children must be introduced to a variety of genres and writing styles to help develop their own interest in reading and writing. They must also develop skills in using the library and selecting appropriate materials. Through the use of topical units, the school library media specialist is able to introduce, in an interesting yet informative manner, the variety of materials that are available to students and how a particular topic can be depicted across a variety of genres.

Introduction

As part of the library media program in the elementary school, children must be introduced to a variety of genres and writing styles to help develop their own interest in reading and writing. To teach literature to children, the library media specialist must provide guidance in how to enjoy, interpret, and evaluate the different writings they encounter (Huck, Kiefer, Hepler, and Hickman, 2004, p. 5-13). According to Dr. George Kamberelis (1999), a researcher in educational anthropology, if children are exposed to various genres they will gain "a much greater general awareness of these genres, their shapes, their meaning potentials, and their functions than children who do not" (p. 453). An interesting topic can easily be used as a focal point to help children explore different genres by organizing literature into "units of study" that teachers can use to "enrich the read-aloud experience, heighten student interest, and increase the likelihood of independent reading" in previously reluctant readers (Moss, 1995, p. 124). By combining both researchers' ideas, a teacher can juxtapose nonfiction books with books from other genres that share a specific topic in order to connect the various genres used to help "children explore the relationships between different literary forms" (Moss, p. 124).

In their work on teaching genre and content literacy, Fountas and Pinnell (2001) outlined specific goals for looking at various kinds of written texts and determining what we want our students to understand about them. Among these objectives are developing an appreciation for and an understanding of a wide range of fiction and nonfiction texts while broadening students' world experience and increasing their knowledge. Students must also develop library skills like becoming critical of what they read, learning how to select texts for themselves, and learning to read differently for different purposes (for example, reading fiction from cover to cover but skimming nonfiction texts to find the desired information).

Through the use of topical units, the library media specialist is able to introduce, in an interesting yet informative manner, the variety of materials that are available to students and how a particular topic is depicted across a variety of genres. It also provides an excellent opportunity for a basic introduction to how a library is organized through...

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