Teaching Particular Genres in the Library Classroom
Although we may not realize it, teaching particular genres is a common practice in the library classroom. An introduction to the formal aspects of a scholarly journal article or a database primer are both examples of this approach. More specifically, Devitt’s (2014)[1] composition lesson plan can be easily modified from its original focus.
| Using Devitt’s Model in the Library Classroom | |
| Devitt’s Model | Library Activity Example |
| Review a model of a genre | Review the database Academic Search Premier |
| Ask students to identify that genre’s: social function, organizational structure, and linguistic features |
Reflect on and discuss the following: (1a) Who do you think uses this database and (1b) what types of resources are contained within it?; (2) How do you think these resources organized?; (3) Review the Subject Terms page found in the database’s top ribbon. Why do you think this database assigns subject terms to its results? |
| Have students create their own example | Effectively use database |
There is no doubt introducing students to genres in this way is appropriate for the amount of time librarians typically have in a one-shot library session. Although this method can’t cover all the genres students will run into while performing research, it is a useful first step in a scaffolded process. Just keep in mind this activity may not keep the database genre in its natural, rhetorical habitat.
There are opportunities to make teaching particular genres more rhetorically aware. Composition scholar Elizabeth Wardle in 2009[2] suggested the following ideas to make this method of teaching more worthwhile.
- Whatever genre you teach must be immediately followed by a clear and direct use of that genre by the students
- Use activities that “will encourage transfer” (p. 782) including:
- Reflection
- Explicit abstraction of the genre’s principles
- Mindfulness
Practicing teaching particular genres while using Wardle’s recommendations can increase a student’s foundational knowledge of the genres of the library.
- Devitt, A. J. (2014). Genre pedagogies. In G. Tate, A. Rupiper Taggart, K. Schick, & H. B. Hessler (Eds.), A Guide to Composition Pedagogies (2nd ed., pp. 146–162). Oxford University Press. ↵
- Wardle, E. (2009). “Mutt Genres” and the goal of FYC: Can we help students write the genres of the university? College Composition and Communication, 60(4), 765–789. ↵
