Genre

Overview

Sample learning outcomes ​​​

Students will understand that:​

• Genre has a set of parameters/rules/conventions​
• When reading/writing there needs to be certain ‘ingredients’ for each genre​
• Genre clues are embedded in visual as well as written language features​

Students will:​

• Understand action genre conventions, themes and ideas​
• Be able to create parts of their own superhero world – create superhero + annotations of their powers (e.g., Jumanji); transport; weapons; costume clothing; comics; complex back stories​

Considering the purpose of the text/s?​​​​

It is essential that students are able to use more unconstrained or dynamic knowledge and skills by year 6, when the texts and tasks of the curriculum are becoming more complex. Students at this level are expected to respond to texts in ways that relate to their purposes for reading. They are asked to think critically about the ideas and information in texts as they consider writers’ purposes, readers’ different perspectives, and the impact of texts on audiences. https://literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/Introduction/Understanding-the-Literacy-Learning-Progressions​

Key concepts

What is “genre”?​​​​​

The prefix “gen” can mean a kind or type or category of something e.g., genus, gene, gender​

“Genre” is a term used for a way of categorising different types of media texts or art forms​

What are some categories/genre of 

• • Art?​
  • Literature? ​
  • Music? ​
  • Movies?​
  • TV programmes and films?​​

Sub-genres​​​​​​

What are some sub-genres of:​

• • Hip Hop?​
  • Painting?​
  • Thriller?​

Alastair Fowler uses the following elements to define genres: ​​​​​​

• organizational features (chapters, acts, scenes, stanzas); ​
• length; ​
• mood (the Gothic novel tends to be moody and dark); ​
• style (a text can be high, low, or in-between depending on its audience); ​
• the reader’s role (readers of a mystery are expected to interpret evidence); and ​
• the author’s reason for writing ​

Genre Conventions

• These are specific to each genre – e.g., tropes, themes, topics, settings, characters, key events.​
• They help define the specific genre for the reader/viewer/listener​
• There are common conventions that apply across multiple genres​​

Tropes​
​​​​​​​

Trope: something such as an idea, phrase, or image that is often used in a particular artist’s work, in a particular type of art, in the media, etc.

• • “In storytelling, a trope is just that — a conceptual figure of speech, a storytelling shorthand for a concept that the audience will recognize and understand instantly.​
  • Above all, a trope is a convention. It can be a plot trick, a setup, a narrative structure, a character type, a linguistic idiom…” (reference)​