Genrefying the Library: How I did it and reintroduced students to the 'new' library (Part 2)

Part 2: Sharing our new genre system with the students

The Basics

Because my students have not been exposed to genres in depth before, I decided to start with the basics. I introduced what genrefication is, why it is important/why we decided to undergo this process, and what genres we decided on using a slide deck with visuals.

The Genre Personality Quiz

After I talked to students for about 10ish minutes about the genrefication process and which ones they can find in our library, I explained how important it is to not pigeon hole ourselves as one particular genre.  Often times, books highlight several elements of different genres as you read.  Just like people have layers of personalities, so do books.  When students take the personality quiz, I ask them to pick the top three answers to narrow down which genres they may be interested in. Depending on what they get on the quiz, students get personalized book recommendations on a book mark.  Students are usually shocked that they are more than one genre and often times include different aspects of genres they never would have thought about before.  The discussions from this part of our lesson get to the heart of why I genrefied: personality, interests, and being able to offer more personalized readers advisory for 1,500 students.  

**Please keep in mind these genre personalities and book recommendations are geared towards middle schoolers/high schoolers. They do include young adult novel recommendations as our school promotes both middle grades and young adult novels to our students.  This includes books like The Hate U Give, Dear Martin, etc.**

GooseChase Scavenger Hunt for Genres

After the personality quiz, students participated in a GooseChase scavenger hunt (a virtual scavenger hunt with missions that can include taking pictures, recording videos, typing, and more).  Students were so engaged going through the missions on their teams!  Students had to complete missions like acting out their favorite sport in the sports genre area or taking a bookface picture with a book from the historical genre area.  The point of the scavenger hunt was to help students be able to locate all of the genres on their own.  Not all of my classes got to this part due to time constraints and I believed the personality quiz was 100% more important to my goals for this project.  However, I do think I will do this again next year with my 7th & 8th grade students during their beginning of the year library orientation (or at least a variation). I create one for each class period to make it easier to start/stop the game and locate the submissions after the end of the day.

You can find the GooseChase Scavenger Hunt (which is FREE) here. 

**My school has one-to-one iPads so this was an easy way to complete this activity. I have printed clues and had students draw answers before. You could have students partner with devices if you have limited numbers. There is also a genre breakout out there!

**To learn more about GooseChase and how awesome this app is, visit my tutorial here.

Did you want to learn more about how I actually genrefied? Read Part 1 here.