How Genre Study Saved My Reading Workshop from “Grab Bag” Teaching

During my first year of teaching I had one crowning achievement—my students read independently each day and responded to a reading prompt while I led guided reading groups. This sounds simple, but it was a huge feat for me. I remember the first time I looked up from a guided reading group to see all my students reading—really, really reading. Like chuckling along with Diary of a Wimpy Kid, eyes wide over The Westing Game reading. It was a good moment.

But once our workshop routines were established I felt a bit…lost. I’d been so focused on establishing routines during the first 20 days that when day 21 rolled around I had no idea what to do next. Sure, our district standards listed strategies, skills and concepts that needed to be taught. And sure, my students had obvious needs. But where to start? What to prioritize? What order to teach it all in?

Before genre study, I felt like I was pulling mini lessons out of a grab bag.

What ensued was a kind of “grab bag teaching.” I taught a bunch of useful things that aligned with our curriculum and student needs. Still, I was dogged by this feeling that despite my elaborate lesson planner, my long hours, and my earnest efforts, my instruction was still disorganized.

Enter Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell. I was fortunate enough to attend a conference on their book Genre Study. I’d been referring to their book Guiding Readers and Writers all year long and credited them with the thriving workshop routines I enjoyed each day.

At the conference, they described year-long genre study as the missing piece to their other work. Their other books, they explained, laid out a method for developing reading workshop routines and listed reading behaviors students need to master to become successful readers. Genre study, they said, provided a year long context for teaching mini lessons. It was the solution to the “grab bag” teaching I’d been doing.

After the conference, I immediately implemented genre study. Here’s how it changed my teaching:

The next year I was able to implement genre study from day one, and it made a huge difference. Now I could teach directly to my students’ needs within a predictable and logical lesson framework. Fountas and Pinnell were right—genre study was the missing piece.

These are some lessons from my **historical fiction unit**. The first set of lessons teach generic reading skills, the next lessons pertain to reading fiction, and the last are specific to historical fiction. It’s so easy to plug lessons in based on student needs, without randomizing your curriculum in the process.

If you’re interested in genre study, follow this blog series, or check out my free genre study catalogue. It includes infographics and other resources for implementing genre study in your own classroom.