These days, engaging students in the classroom is more challenging than ever, it seems. The complaints I hear the most about students is that they are apathetic and difficult to engage (besides being disrespectful). That's not to say all students are difficult (I know a lot of energetic and cool kids), but if you have a difficult group, here are some ideas that may help. 

Let me preface my suggestions with the obvious statement that classroom engagement behaviors are cultivated in a variety of means, which is a different, broader topic than what I'm addressing here. How you treat students and what you expect from them from the moment they enter your classroom, when you see them in the hallways, or when you interact with them in after-school activities will all play a part in how engaged they will be in your class.

Students need structure, but "structure" doesn't necessarily mean boring repetition. Structure can be as simple as knowing what your expectations are--having a plan laid out so they can clearly see what they are doing, when they are doing it, and why they are doing it.

Teaching is, in a way, like sales. Before you buy something--invest your time and money, you want to know that what you're getting is worth the price (time/money) paid. I think many students are leery, like people who have been burned many times by paying for something and not receiving a product that was "worth it." Before they invest again, they want some assurances that what they will receive will be worth their time and energy invested. It doesn't have to be "fun," but it does have to seem "worthwhile."

So, when you start to plan, think in reverse. What will your students get out of the time they are investing in your novel unit? This book that you are about to study...what does it really offer students? The activities, writing assignments, analysis--all of it--what skills, what insights about life, what are you giving students that is meaningful, useful, helpful in their lives? Write it all down. Don't use educational jargon; use words that are meaningful to your students.

Way back in 1978, in my education classes at Towson University, I learned to write "objectives." What no one told me is what I'm telling you now--that students don't care about "objectives" and "outcomes." They care about themselves and want to know concrete benefits. 

If every minute of your class time with your students is all about THEM, they will eventually become engaged. They don't care about the book or the characters or symbolism. They care about their own lives. What you have to do is to show them the connection of the novel study to their own lives via benefits.

Ideally, create your novel study with a variety of engaging activities--some individual work, some group work, some worksheets, some involving technology, some with whole class participation. That will help keep students involved, challenged, and engaged. Any Internet search can give you activity ideas. The magic is in what you do with the activities and how you present them to students within the culture you have created in your classroom.

Class discussions, research papers, games, role-playing, debates, presentations, models, projects, murals, newspapers, poetry, music, graphic organizers--the kinds of activities one can do in a novel study are just about endless.  

At the same time, these various kinds of activities have to actually produce the "benefits" I've been talking about. So, take your list of "benefits" and decide what kind of an activity will best suit that outcome.

All this is great, but it also has to make sense. There has to be some logical order to the sequence of activities. Some of that will necessarily be determined by the reading of the book. Some chapters lend themselves to certain kinds of discussions or certain content analysis. For example, chapter three might have a lot of figurative language. Chapter five may have a key plot turning point. Chapter nine might juxtapose two characters. And so on. 

Just picking out vocabulary words and creating comprehension questions isn't what teaching a novel is all about. I've been doing this for over thirty-five years and have learned so much from my journey. I look back at novel units I wrote back in the beginning and compare them to ones I wrote later in my life, and I am amazed at just how much richer the latter ones are. 

It isn't easy. It takes a great deal of time and thought and work, as does anything that is worthwhile. If you do this, though, you will be standing on solid ground yourself as you teach--and if you share with your students the benefits of each activity and center your class time on THEM, their engagement WILL be better.

Just remember what we do isn't about some esoteric theories or some cerebral exercises. Maybe at the university level it is, but not in K-12 classrooms. In our K-12 world, it's about giving students tools to prepare them for life, for work, and--for some--the university. We have to give them useful information as well as reading, thinking, writing, and communicating skills--all benefits.

A Word About Commercially Available Novel Study Units

Many, including myself, have always said that teaching is an art. It is. You have to take all the elements and put them together in a way tailored to the students that you have to teach. No commercially prepared novel unit can do that entirely for you. I, and many others, have said that commercial novel study units are TV dinners, not the gourmet meals you would like to be serving your students.

That being said, having a commercially available novel study unit as a foundation can give you freedom from some of the mundane and time-consuming parts of novel unit creation that will allow you to spend your valuable time novel study crafting and tailoring things for your students. 

Not all novel study units are equal. They vary from scanty outlines (what I call "skeleton units") with some study questions, vocabulary words, and a few activities--to something like my LitPlan for The Westing Game, which is 360 pages of detailed lessons, assignments, and assessments. Some are "trendy" with currently popular activities that may or may not have the real "benefits" I discussed earlier. Some are "cute" with lots of graphic images and graphic organizers--which, again, may or may not have the real "benefits."

My LitPlans are comprehensive novel study units that provide a strong foundation of materials based on proven educational methods. They look very simple (which is a good thing) but provide a very strong footing for your novel study. My customers often say that LitPlans are "deceptively simple," providing "real help," a "great foundation," and "everything I needed." New teachers often email me to tell me my LitPlans "saved their lives." I don't know about that, but I'm so happy that they were helpful!

I hope that this post has been helpful to you. If it has, please let me know; I like feedback.

If you're interested in looking at my LitPlans, here's a link: https://www.tpet.com/litplans/ 

If you find some resources you want (except novel texts), you can use code BLOG1 at checkout for 20% off your order.

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Here's a link to a FREE RAFT Assignment Template https://www.tpet.com/content/GraphicOrganizers/RAFT%20Assignment.pdf 
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