Project Reflection
From this genre study, I have gained a lot of knowledge about the science fiction genre. In addition to expanding my library of possible science fiction books to use in my future classroom, I have learned a lot about what makes for a high-quality science fiction piece of literature and how they can be useful for our students.
My favorite part of this project was figuring out the blog format. I thought its newness was an advantage and nice change from the slideshow presentations we had been doing earlier in the semester, and it forced creativity into the project. My least favorite part was searching for websites that were actually free to use and not merely free to sign up for.
A genre study can benefit children that are learning to read by opening them up to a broader range of books. For example, if a student were to do a genre study on nonfiction, they would be more likely to appreciate the genre and find something within the genre that peaks their interest. Often many genres get pushed to the side because they are thought to be boring in the student’s eyes, and a genre study could change this perspective.
A genre study could be worked into an already-packed curriculum from the first day the class starts reading. The teacher could separate students into groups based on strengths and assign each a genre. The groups could then analyze the books in other ways; slowly building their knowledge of the genre to which they were assigned. Finally, at the end of the year, they could combine all of the knowledge they got from these books into a short genre presentation. This approach would easily bring genre awareness into reading with little extra work and time.
The value in doing an in-depth analysis of a genre is finding a subcategory of any genre that fits one’s interests. This is important because it can expose readers to different styles of text and increase their learning.
The project worked well in a group setting because it allowed for a combination of strengths and weaknesses, illustrated differences in what books each group member was interested in, and divided up the work into a manageable format.
Finding a blog that fit all of our abilities was a challenge. Many blogs either cost money or were difficult to use in groups.
We all contributed to topic one and had similar thoughts in that area. Then, we did topic two independently to introduce our books. Finally, topic three was done separately to adequately illustrate our different points of view.
Perspective was gained from working in a group on this genre study. It was a great way to see how others structured their writing and ideas and widened my knowledge of other books in the genre that I might not have thought of reading.