Exploring Genre - Monday

What is genre?

Genre is a French word which you may have heard mentioned a lot during your journey through school. It means a type or style of literature.

Last week you were looking at the science fiction genre which had supernatural and futuristic elements.

Task: How many other genres can you name? (without cheating!)

There are lots of different types of genre and this week we shall try to explore some the more popular ones. Some books can have elements from more than one genre in them!

Let’s begin!

1. Action and Adventure

These stories usually show an event or a series of events that happen outside the course of the characters’ ordinary lives. The plot is mostly accompanied by danger and physical action. These stories almost always move quickly.

Task: Can you think of any stories in this genre?

2. Fantasy

A Book under this genre contains a story set in a fantasy world – a world that is not real and often includes magic, magical creatures, and supernatural events.

Task: How many fantasy books have you read recently? How do you know they are fantasy books?

3. Horror

Horror is a genre that is intended to or has the ability to create the feeling of fear, repulsion, fright or terror in the readers. In other words, it creates a frightening and horrific atmosphere.

Task: Can you think of any famous creatures/characters that have appeared in horror literature?

Sketch and label at least two of them

4. Romance

The primary focus of romance fiction is on the relationship and romantic love between people. These books usually have an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.

Task: How many fairy tales or Disney films can you think of that end with a romantic happy ending?

5. Humour

Humour fiction is usually full of fun and excitement. It is meant to entertain and sometimes cause intended laughter in readers. Sometimes these books may contain elements of every-day life that the reader can relate to e.g. school.

Task: Write down a funny situation from a book or film that you can remember.

6. Crime and mystery

This genre deals with crime, criminal motives and the investigation and detection of the crime and criminals. Mystery books have a suspenseful plot that often involves a mysterious crime. Suspects and motives are considered and clues throughout the story lead to a solution to the problem.

Task: Can you think of a story that you have read that contains a mystery? Write down what the mystery was and how it was solved.

(If you are stuck, we read a story with a mystery in it earlier this year…)

Experimenting with genre -Tuesday and Wednesday

Time to get creative!For today’s and tomorrow’s lessons you are going to play a little game that will test your creativity and your understanding of different genres.

You will need a dice

The Rules:You must roll the dice. Whatever number it lands on corresponds to the type of genre you must write in below:

1 = Action and adventure

2 = Fantasy

3 = Horror

4 = Romance

5 = Humour

6 = Crime and mystery.

On the next slide are six images. Roll the dice again, but this time your number corresponds to which image you must use in your story.

Using your genre and image you must write a quick extract from a story (No more than 3 paragraphs) in which you follow the themes of the genre but use the image as the basis for what you write. There is an example on slide 14.

You have two days to experiment with as many different combinations of genre and image as you like. You may want to combine more than one genre for each image.

If you are finding this really tricky, you can use your own image and a genre of your choice.

1

2

3

4

5

6

Example:

Genre

6 = Mystery (with elements of horror)

Picture

5 =

At 9am on September 10th 2012, Mrs. Howell’s seventy two year old husband Ronald stood up out of his chair, kissed his wife of fifty years on the cheek, put on his thick, sheepskin coat and left the house. He shuffled away without a word and did not look back.

A milkman later told the police that he saw a man matching Ronald’s description walking across the fields on the edge of town towards the woods at around 9.30am.

Ronald has not been seen since. He was confirmed as missing and presumed dead several years ago. They even held a funeral for him.

Every morning for the last 5 years, Mrs. Howell has stood at her window gazing down the road and waiting for her husband to return. The local children wave to her on their way to school. She is fondly known as ‘The Lady in the Window.’ In truth, she does not really notice them any more. Her mind is elsewhere. The dreams that she has been having recently have left her restless. She knows that Ronald will come back to her, because he whispers to her when she is asleep. He told her last night that he is on his way.

So she waits for her husband, by the window.

On this particular morning, ten year old Ryan Bullock waves to Mrs. Howell as he normally does every morning on the way to school. But this time something feels wrong. As the old lady stares at him, he feels a ringing in his ears and the tiny hairs on his arms stand up on end. Goose pimples cover his flesh as a strange, warm breeze blows across his face. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices a dark shadow appear across the road.

In the window, the old lady smiles.

Thursday: Writing a book review

Your task:Today you are going to write a book review for a book that you have read recently. You are going to focus on genre, using the information at the beginning of this PowerPoint to help you. On the next slide are a list of subheadings that you need to include. Try to be as detailed as you can and include as much evidence as possible. Try to make your review look attractive and well-presented.

If you can’t think of a book to use, you could use Holes! Although it would be nice to use something different.

Things to include:

• Book title

• Author’s name

• Main characters

• Setting

• Description of the plot

• Main genre (with evidence as to why you think this)

• Evidence of additional genres in the book

• Favourite part

• How could the story be better?

• Illustration of your favouritepart