This dissertation explores the relationship between the teaching of literary genre and the facilitation of empathy. It analyzes whether poetry, fairy tales, readers-theater, biography and/or novel can contribute to a fourth-grade student's understanding and development of empathy. After leading my students in guided readings, I concentrated on observing responses to various literary genres and recorded students' responses to questions that pertained to each genre. Key words and phrases were recorded to track feelings, emotions, and ideas of empathy, vulnerability, and exclusion. The findings of this study demonstrated that the reading of the genres mentioned above elicited some level of empathetic feelings from students. The findings revealed that the respondents in this research attached important feeling words and ideas of empathy to their responses in each of the genres. The results substantiated that student empathy was not contingent on the genre; rather, what was important was how the student was able to connect with characters and with situations that characters encountered. As a result of this research, I recommend that further explorations on empathy include empathy as a teaching strand that runs cross-curricular through all subjects in a classroom. In addition, I recommend that a similar study be done with adults to increase empathy, which in turn could lead to a more compassionate and just society. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]