Genre Theory

Thwaite, Anne. Australian Journal of Language & Literacy. Jun2006, Vol. 29 Issue 2, p95-114. 20p.

This article is about genre writing in primary schools.  The research conducted was on a third grade classroom in an economically and socially disadvantaged Western Australian primary school.  There were 21 students in the class, all from a variety of different backgrounds.  The study took approximately ten weeks, which included weekly three hour long visits from the researcher.  Most of the schools in Western Australia follow a literacy program called First Steps, which includes a version of the genre theory.  “The Australian version of genre theory derives from work commenced in Sydney in the 1980’s.  Reacting to the ‘personal growth’ model of writing… it aimed to specify the linguistic features of particular types of writing in order that students could be specifically apprenticed into the writing styles they would need to master for success at school and beyond.”  The six genres most commonly used in primary and secondary schools all follow a single method and curriculum cycle.  First you prepare; decide which genres are most appropriate for each of the units you are working on and determine the student’s previous genre knowledge.  The second step is modeling; show the students models of each of the different writing styles and their schematic structures and discuss the social situations in which the text will be used.  The third step is joint construction; in either groups, partners, or the entire class, come together and write an example for that specific type of genre.  Finally is the independent construction of texts, students should be prepared to model the different types of writing on their own.  Teachers implement this curriculum cycle in many different ways.  During this case study the teacher described how she does not teach the genres separately; instead, she goes according to the theme.  She described how she teaches recount first because she believes that it is an important foundation for writing and she puts a huge emphasis on narrative writing because it allows them to explore their imagination and it gives them the opportunity to gain confidence in their writing.  The schematic structures of the genres are being implemented in the form of frameworks and plans, commonly displayed in classrooms.  According to this case study the schematic structures of the genre was the main emphasis compared to the social functions or the language feature. “Procedural aspects of writing seemed very important in this case, especially to the students. ‘Filling in the boxes’ seemed to sometimes become a goal in itself.” This article showed me that there are different ways to translate and implement the genre theory into your classroom.  After the students have mastered the schematic structure of the genre it is important for them to explore and get creative with the genre in different social contexts, etc.