When I was in my teacher preparation program, a few experiences stand out, none more than the day when my methods professor told us that we had to plan an entire novel unit.
You would think that this would make aspiring English teachers all giddy.
The training wheels were coming off. We were moving past the self-contained lessons of a poem or a short story from our previous methods class and were stretch our creativity capacities far and wide, across 15-17 lessons. I had dreamy visions of inspiring potential students, having them build deep content knowledge and understanding, and creating a sequence that builds to some dramatic crescendo at the end.
At least, that’s the way I saw it in my mind.
The only problem was, the initial excitement I felt soon gave way to dread.
When the professor assigned the project, he told us we had three weeks to complete it. At the end of class he mentioned that he had 2-3 samples from years past that we could look through if we wanted. There was no great discussion about the pedagogy of novel instruction. There was no brainstorming list of creative projects or different forms of assessment. There was no sharing of horror stories from the novels units we were subjected to in high school to know what to avoid.
It was simply — go, do.
Maybe he was challenging us to figure it out on our own. Perhaps the less he showed us and told us, the more he was allowing us to think for ourselves. But it didn’t work for me. I remember creating one or two lessons, then feeling unsure the rest of the way. I stared at the blank screen for hours at a time, lost, panicking, and feeling a sense of futility.
I handed in something long on filler and little to be proud of.
In the years since, I have come to realize that novel planning is a series of trade offs. I can’t do it all, there just isn’t enough time in the year or bandwidth of attention from my students to pull it off. Therefore, I have to determine what I value within a book and make a series of decisions specific to that novel.
Here are some things to consider with examples of some of the decisions I have had to make:
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
When I teach Pride and Prejudice I give no historical context. It’s because my students are so easily confused by the sheer number of characters introduced early in the novel — the Bennets, the Lucases, The Bingleys, The Darcys, etc. — and the names of their respective estates, that more information would overwhelm them, not alleviate their suffering. However, I front load my Great Gatsby unit with a research project in which students pick a key issue from the 1920s and create a visual presentation. Gatsby has far fewer characters than P+P and therefore, they can handle it. Plus, I want to immerse my students in the decadence of that decade because it will enhance their appreciation for the story. Not doing it for P+P does not hinder it.
5 PASSAGES FOR CLOSE READING
I have often said that novel units are like playing with microscopes and telescopes. A mentor once told me, whenever he decided to teach a novel, he tried to reread the text as a student, considering the moments when they would struggle. I took that idea and turned it into a search for the dazzling moments, those passages that can easily be overlooked by the naked eye, but contain something magnificent when magnified under the microscope of close reading. In Mudbound, it is the piano scene when they first move to the farm, the commotion with Ronsel Jackson at Tricklebanks store, when Jamie builds the shower for Laura, Jamie waking up Pappy to look him in the eye, and the final chapter.
You can’t close read it all; trade offs have to happen. But if I can find 5 passages that I am really excited to teach, I have nearly a third of my unit planned.
BIG IDEA EXPLORATION
If I think about zooming in, putting small portions of text under the microscope, then I also want to zoom out, using the telescope to see the constellations of stars. The decision becomes, which themes do I want to teach and how can i help students understand how those ideas operate in the novel. Then, by extension, what relevance do they have to their own lives? Do I have them develop one-pagers for key themes? Do they do the envelope activity? Is a Socratic Seminar the perfect way to talk through it?
UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES
When my wife began her teaching career, her department chair encouraged her to think of each book as a unique opportunity. She told her, “If you are just teaching skills, it doesn’t matter what book you teach. But if you think about it, you can teach hundreds of novels, why are you teaching this one? What opportunity does it possess that no other novel has?” I like this mindset because it makes me feel the weight of responsibility for the novels. It fills me with reverence for these works, appreciating them for their artistry, and aspiring to match it with lessons imbued with a similar creative spirit.
When teaching The Lords of the Flies, I tried to capture the descent into chaos by having a silent lesson in which I didn’t talk. The objective for the lesson was placed on the board and students had to work together to achieve it. Strong personalities tried to assert themselves as leaders, other opinions raised concerns, and soon the class broke off into factions to do it their way. The form of the lesson was suiting its function.
Look for what’s unique about a work, and find a way to teach it.
BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS
A few months ago I posted my What’s On Your Plate lesson that began my Pride and Prejudice unit. I wrote, “There is a self-imposed expectation to get it right and generate excitement. In my mind that first lesson is a propulsive first step, launching them deep into a journey. But how does that happen?”
One of my biggest challenges is that I expend so much energy up front to create wonder and anticipation, by the end I’m depleted and can’t match the same heights of thought or energy.
That’s why recently, I have started to plan the last two lessons first. Not because backwards design encourages me to think with the end in mind (although that is a nice benefit), I do it because I know myself too well. If those lessons aren’t in place, I’ll sputter across the finish line, resorting to a final test to wrap things up.
VOCABULARY
Uggh. Remember the novels units that began with a list of vocabulary words from a novel. I would regret the purchase as soon as I saw them. Building vocabulary in context isn’t bad, its just that this format — vocab list, author background, and study-guide questions represents a tired, lethargic approach to teaching novels.
The better question to ask is, what words will hinder student comprehension, and how can I teach them in a way that accelerates comprehension?
When you look at a novel is this light, you realize that vocabulary is less about the words in context and more about discipline-specific vocabulary that will propel students to a deeper understanding.
When teaching The Catcher in the Rye, it is more important for students to understand the nuances of an unreliable narrator and the consequences it has to the plot of a story than for them to understand what “falsies” means when Holden says, “she had on those damn falsies that pointed all over the place.”
ASSESSMENTS
As I am formulating an assessment plan, the question that keeps recurring is:
Am I looking to punish the students that don’t read or reward the ones that do?
The first part of that question operates from a mindset of harm — it wants to inflict hurt upon a perceived offense. The second part of that question find its genesis from a place of love.
My design principle is to find ways for students to express their knowledge and understanding without fear of retribution. I don’t want them to fear being wrong, I want them to see that I value original thinking. This results in a lot of open-ended questions that provide ample space for them to tell me what they think, rather than what I want to hear.
There you have it, seven things you have to consider and make decisions about when planning your next novel unit. If you made it this far, would love to hear some of your considerations and the the works that you love to teach.
