Teaching Genres: Four Corners!

One way to introduce students to the idea of genres within film and television would be to play a four-corner activity. We would have the students stand in the center of the room. Then we would say the name of a popular TV show, i.e. “If you like Grey’s Anatomy’s stand in corner 1” “if you like The Simpsons, go stand in corner 2” ,“if you like family guy…corner 2,” “House…corner 1” etc. Once everyone had a corner to stand in, we would have them discuss:
-why they like the show(s) they picked
-what the shows have in common
-similar character(s)
-plot line
-setting
and then come up with a name for that genre (may or may not be the “name” it has been given by mass culture). We could repeat this activity for multiple genres.