Today we began to think about how to use what we know about genre to make predictions about our books. To illustrate this point we compared nonfiction and fiction books.
We already know that nonfiction books are full of information, and fiction books tell a story. Would you expect to see the same thing in both kinds of books? Of course not. I can open an informational book to any chapter and be able to understand what is going on. But, I would feel lost if I were to open a fiction book and start reading from the middle. THUS, we expect different things from different genres.
Who would be the main character? – Chrysanthemum
Who might be a bad guy? – A school bully
What might be the problem? – Being bullied at school
How might the problem be solved? – A teacher will help
As we read the story, the Magical Minds discovered their predictions were right on! They discovered that using what they know about genre, they can determine what will happen in their books.
For homework the Magical Minds are asked to think about the books they checked out of library. Using the guide sheet below, they will name the genre of their book as well as list/write sentences about what they expect to find inside their book.
Teaching Mahollitz 
I really liked how you organized this lesson- discussing as a large group the differences between fiction and non-fiction and then moving into the main lesson about genres and making predictions. It will be a fun activity to see what the students bring back from home. It reminds me of a lesson I used to teach about making predictions about the text and confirming or contradicting predictions as we read on as a class. I was always pointing out to the students to use their prior knowledge and textual clues to draw conclusions and form unique interpretations of text.