We like what we like.

I will ALWAYS order the same chicken dish at my favorite Indian restaurant.  It's delicious and it's not worth the risk to order something different and end up not liking it.

Are you like that, too? It's human nature to gravitate toward what we know we will like.  But, if I'm being honest, every time I order take-out from said restaurant, I wonder what I'm missing. 

So…why am I talking about Indian food on a podcast for teachers? Am I closet foodie? (Well, yes, but that’s a topic for another day)

Here’s where I make the awkward segway into what I really want to talk about. What I’m trying to tell you is that sometimes, we just gotta trying something new. In the case for today, I’m talking about trying a new reading genre.

We all have those students that will ONLY read Magic Tree House books, or a mystery book, or… fill in the blank.  They like what they like, and rarely deviate from it.

But - WHAT IF there was an amazing reading genre just waiting for them that they would actually love if they would just give it a chance!

It's our job as teachers to expose our students to a variety of genres throughout the year to turn our students into well-rounded readers. So, in today’s episode I’m sharing my favorite teacher hack for helping you to do just that with a super simple strategy.

You’ll Learn

(Timestamps Shown)

• Our job as teachers when it comes to reading a variety of genres (2:06)

• A few perks to having genre savvy students (3:31)

  • Different genres will expose students to different set of vocabulary terms (3:42)

  • Students will be exposed to different story and text structures (4:00)

  • Reading different genres will help develop social and emotional growth (4:54)

• What a Reading Genre Wheel is and how you can start using it right away in your reading instruction (5:30)

• A quick tip on using a class Reading Genre Wheel (7:32)

• How to get access to my FREE Reading Genre Wheel (8:17)

LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE

Grab a FREE reading genre wheel below:

Episode 52: Strategies to Help Students Generate New Writing Ideas

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TRANSCRIPT