Genre for young learners

1. THE GENRE APPROACH TO LITERACY

2. WHAT IS GENRE?
 Type of text
 Specific Purpose
 Specific Stages
 Specific Language patterns

3. GENERAL PURPOSES OF GENRES
 To engage or entertain
 Stories
 Recounts
 News stories
 To inform
 Information texts – explanations, descriptions,
procedures
 To evaluate
 Arguments

4. MOST COMMON GENRES USED IN LOWER
PRIMARY
 Narrative
 Stories
 Recounts
 News
 Descriptive reports
 Social and Natural Science
 Procedures
 Maths

5. Genre Purpose Stages
Stories
Narrative Resolving a conflict in a story Orientation
Complication
Resolution
Recount Recounting events Orientation
Record of
events
FactualTexts
Procedure How to do experiments and
observations
Purpose
Equipment
Steps
Description Classifying and describing a
phenomenon
Classification
Description

6. NARRATIVE
 ENGAGE AND ENTERTAIN .
 ORIENTATION
 who?
 where?
 when?
 what is happening?
 COMPLICATION
 RESOLUTION
 When writing a story, keep these stages in mind. They do not
need to be made explicit to the children at this stage.

7. LAZY MANDLA
Mandla was a very lazy boy. He did not like to
work.
He liked to sleep all day and all night.

8. Mandla’s mouth said “This boy is lazy. I will
stop working!”
Mandla’s arms said, “This boy is lazy. We will
stop working!”
Mandla’s legs said “This boy is lazy. We will
stop working!”

9. One day there was a fire. Mandla’s brother
and sister were in the house!
Mandla tried to shout for help. But his mouth
would not work!
Mandla tried to wave for help, but his arms
would not work!
Mandla tried to run for help but his legs would
not work!

10. Mandla spoke to his body. He said to his
mouth, “Please help me.”
He said to his arms “Please help me.”
He said to his legs “Please help me.”
“Shall we help Mandla?” asked his mouth and
arms and legs.
“Yes!” they said, “We will help him!”

11. Mandla’s mouth started working. Mandla
quickly shouted for help. People heard him.
Mandla’s arms started working. Mandla
quickly waved for help. People saw him.
Mandla’s legs started working. Mandla quickly
ran for help. People came to help him.

12. The firemen came. They brought special
hoses and put out the fire.
Mandla’s brother and sister were saved.
Mandla said, “Thank you mouth. Thank you
arms. Thank you legs. I will never be lazy
again.”

13. LANGUAGE PATTERNS IN A NARRATIVE
 Action verbs
 Descriptive words – adjectives and adverbs
 Past or present tense
 Direct speech

14. RECOUNT
 Something that happened.
 ORIENTATION - answers the “wh”
questions.
 RECORD - chronological or biographical.
 Daily news is often a type of recount.

15. A VISIT TO THE ZOO
On Monday, our class went to the zoo. We
travelled in a bus. When we got to the zoo our
teacher paid for the tickets.
Inside we saw elephants, monkeys and
antelope.

16. Then our teacher took us to see the birds.
The birds were in a big cage called an aviary.
Some of the birds were very colourful.
They made a lot of noise.

17. Next we went to see the lions being fed.
The lions roared and we were frightened.
Lions eat raw meat. The keepers throw the
meat into the lion pit.

18. Lastly we went to see the red panda baby.
It is very small and stays in a dark room. We
had to be very quiet.
We enjoyed our trip to the zoo and we sang in
the bus as we went home.

19. LANGUAGE PATTERNS IN A RECOUNT
 Written in past tense
 Formal or informal tone
 Descriptive language
 Time words like “first”, “next”, “then”

20. DESCRIPTIVE REPORTS
 Themes in the curriculum - descriptive
reports.
 CLASSIFY the phenomenon
 DESCRIPTION – different aspects of the
phenomenon

21. LIONS
Lions are mammals. They are warm blooded
animals.
Lions are called carnivores. This means that
they eat meat. Wild lions hunt other animals to
eat.
Lions live in families called prides. The mother
lions look after the babies. They also hunt.
Lions have fur. The male lions have a mane
around their necks.

22. LANGUAGE PATTERNS IN A REPORT
 Formal language
 Technical terms

23. PROCEDURES
 Recipes, experiments, rules
 PURPOSE
 EQUIPMENT
 METHOD

24. HOW TO MAKE A CUP OF TEA
What do you need:
 Boiling water
 Cup
 Teabag
 Milk
 Sugar

25. What to do
1. Boil the water in a kettle
2. Put a tea bag in the cup
3. Pour boiling water into the cup
4. Let the teabag stay in the water for 3
minutes
5. Take the teabag out of the water
6. Add milk and sugar
7. Stir and drink

26. LANGUAGE PATTERNS IN A PROCEDURE
 Phrases instead of sentences
 Numbered steps
 Action verbs - imperatives