How to Plan for and Teach with Genre Blocks in Grades 2-8

CraftPlus supports instruction in genres by organizing and helping you teach explicit, genre-specific Target Skills. You teach these skills in a genre block, which can be as short as one to two weeks for elementary grades and as long as a month or quarter for intermediate and middle grades.  During your first year with CraftPlus, K-5 teachers spend the most time teaching general descriptive writing skills that help you teach genres later. Middle-school teachers begin to teach genre after an initial period of teaching descriptive writing Target Skills. Note that the same descriptive Target Skills will also be applied during genre-block instruction.    

Your Grade-Level Marking Periods Pacing Chart in Section 3 works in combination with your district and states writing requirements to help plan a well-balanced writing curriculum. The specific Expository, Narrative, and Descriptive Writing Tiers in Section 3 will help you select Target Skills for each genre and plan specific lessons to teach them

The Expository, Narrative, and Descriptive Writing Tiers give you the Target Skills appropriate to the genres taught at your grade level.

Teaching with Genre Blocks. During the genre block, teach the selected Target Skills in whole- class and small-group lessons.  Have students write a practice piece to apply the skill in response to each lesson. These practice pieces are great for peer conferencing and revision. They are not formally assessed. Students can also try out the Target skill again in homework journals or in other daily writing opportunities.

When possible, match the blocks with content, literature, or the themes you are studying.  For example, an expository/informational genre block during a science or social studies theme.  Or, a personal-narrative genre block when the class reads and studies a biography together.

Once students have experienced the genre through literature models, teacher models, other student samples, etc., and have practiced the Target Skills in writing workshop or content-area pieces, they are ready to have a genre piece assessed. This piece must include the Target Skills taught during the block.  Grade the pieces for the quality of Target Skills-use and for understanding of the genre itself. See the “Student Self-Assessment Rubric”, and the rubrics for Single and multiple Target Skills in “Supporting Templates and Forms,” at the end of Section 1.     

Using the Genre Block Planning Guide. The Genre Block Planning Guide in “Supporting Templates and Forms” at the end of Section 1 includes organizational, composing, convention Target Skills; literature models, graphic organizers, and genre piece assessment plans for easy planning.

Keys to planning and implementing a genre block:

1. Select the genre and genre piece to be taught, practiced and assessed.
2. Record the quarter, date, and grade level.
3. Estimate the time you need to teach and complete the genre piece.
4. Choose grade-level Target Skills for instruction and assessment. At least one skill should review a Target Skill from previous lessons. See the Grade-level Target Skills in the Genre Tiers, and in the Quarterly Target Skills-instruction Record in Section 3.

Include:

• One or two organization Target Skills
• Two or three composing Target Skills
• One convention Target Skill

   5.   Plan explicit Target Skill mini-lessons.

• Use genre-specific literature models that illustrate the Target Skill.
• Use graphic organizers if appropriate.
• Model the genre characteristics and use of Target Skill out loud and in writing.
• Allow students time to practice individual Target Skills that you have taught in practice pieces, in picture-prompted writing, shared and interactive writing sessions, in homework journals, and during content-area instruction.
• Peer and teacher/student conferences take place over practice pieces.

   6.   Plan a genre piece for assessment.

• The genre piece could be a picture prompt, a teacher-written prompt, a self-selected topic or a content-area supported piece.
• The genre piece should only assess the Target Skills that were chosen and taught for this genre block.
• Students take the genre piece through the entire writing process.
• Peer and teacher/student conferences take place over genre pieces.
• Genre piece is graded with the Target Skills-Assessment Rubric-Multiple Target Skills in “Supporting Templates and Forms” at the end of this section.

   7.   After the genre block is completed save two or three student examples. Store them and the genre-block planning guide in your Teacher Writing Notebook for future use.

• Record the literature models you used on the CraftPlus Literature Models for Writing Craft Mini Lessons form in the “Supporting Templates and Forms,” at the end of this section. Store in your Teacher Writing Notebook.