The author explores new conceptions of genre and genre learning: learning genres, learning through genres, and learning about genres. Drawing on the work of Bahktin, she argues that reconceptualizing genres as situated, social, and active, rather than focusing on formal features, can extend and enrich process approaches to writing and enhance learning in the elementary classroom.

This paper examines the written genres of a group of six children in a first grade classroom. Using the dual lenses of sociocognitive constructivism and emergent literacy, it explores relationships among the children’s genres and between these genres and the social context of the classroom in which the children’s written discourse is situated. Analysis of naturalistic data (using an integrated functionalformal analysis which considered substance, intention, form and context as interrelated dimensions of genre) resulted in a classification scheme which encompassed all genres in the children’s writing. Analyses of the classroom discourse revealed the children to be active participants in the social dialogue within their classroom. They constructed their written genres in response to the texts with which they engaged during collaborative reading and writing tasks and in response to the ways in which the teacher structured the writing tasks. They acted upon their world by writing about their personal experiences, creating imaginary worlds through drawing and writing and playing with words and ideas. The genres the children employed came from the morning news, from stories and poems, and from genres that were embedded in their literacy environment or constructed by them in collaboration with their teacher and each other. Both constructiona nd appropriationw ere seen as active processeso n the part of the child rather than as passive imitation or copying from models.

This article examines the writing and drawing produced by a group of children during “writing workshop” time throughout their first-grade year. The purpose of the study was to obtain insight into the general question: Do genres “emerge” in ways analogous to other aspects of writing development? While the study is limited to a specific group of first-grade writers, it provides insights which suggest that genre may indeed be “emergent.” Emergence is supported by evidence of the following: Quantitative and qualitative changes in the organization of texts, with genres appearing as adaptations rather than fixed forms or generalized verbal products; an interplay among drawing, talking, reading, and writing in the construction of genres; the influence of the specific recurring social context of Writing Workshop and the genres surrounding and embedded in it; and the impact overall of the socialization into literacy occurring within this specific classroom community.