We turned our tiny classroom library into a space students could navigate—sorting books by genre, wrestling with fiction vs. nonfiction, and learning through messiness. A lesson in reading, teaching, and yes… failure. But worth every minute.
We have been studying genres in 3rd grade. Something so simple, and yet such a powerful key to unlocking yourself as a reader. For some students, these classifications are crystal clear; they already have the language that wraps around them as readers. For others, the designations are murky at best—confusion between fiction and nonfiction (which I completely understand in this day and age), and even what it means for something to…
