The Game's Afoot!
Engaging Young Readers with Mysteries

 

There's nothing like a good mystery to pull a reader into the story.  A whodunit encourages close reading for clues, inferring significance, recognizing character motivation, and hypothesis development and testing.  All while engaging young readers with a compelling story.  By choosing classic mystery novels, you immediately increase the complexity and rigor of the selection. 

My colleague has great results reading Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None with her advanced 8th graders.  The reading level is well within the abilities of upper middle school and the kids really seem to enjoy it.  And you have the added bonus of leading students on to her other novels, or have reading circles choose another of her novels to follow up.

And of course, there's the grandmaster of all detectives, Sherlock Holmes, who's been quite popular in the movies and on TV lately.  I've had great success with The Hound of the Baskervilles--my students really enjoy trying to figure out this moody and atmospheric whodunit.  The reading level is more demanding than Christie but still accessible.  Of course, you may need to provide some background info on Victorian England, but this might be useful if you segue into another British novel like The Time Machine.  If you're intrigued, check out my study guide by clicking onto the image below:

A fun extension activity might be to group students and give them an unfamiliar object, then ask them to glean what information they can by applying Holmes' deductive technique.

Want to really challenge your kiddos?  Give them Edgar Allan Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue--a bizarre account of mayhem and monkey business in Paris.  Shorter than a traditional novel, Rue Morgue presents high school students with complex language and inexplicable clues, neither of which is enough to stump the remarkable Auguste Dupin, the very first literary detective.  Here's a link to my study guide:

 

 



Are you already planning your reading program for the up-coming school year?  Fire your students up about reading by introducing them to some of the greatest classic mysteries on your classroom shelf.

Sad Monsters Are Sad
Classic Horror in the Classroom

Most of us like a good scare; I find this to be true of my middle school students.  Many of them are reading Stephen King and Clive Barker on their own; the zombie-themed Enemy series by Charlie Higson and The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey are popular young adult fare, so why not incorporate the genre into your reading and literature curriculum.

One interesting theme to explore with students is the plight of monster--a pitiable figure, as characterized by Mary Shelley in the classic Frankenstein.  He just wants to be loved by his creator, who's a total dick to the anguished creature.  Granted, it's a tough read (Shelley's prose is pretty turgid and the level of sentimentality is cringy), but older, proficient readers can tackle it.  Another compelling classic is Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; the writing is better and will generate great class discussions about the nature of good and bad.  Talk about complex texts!  They also present excellent opportunities to compare the original texts with popular movie retellings.  Click onto the image below for a potential study guide:

If you're willing to slog into murkier candidates, how about Lovecraft's Reanimator?  A novella separated into six mini-chapters, it's more gruesome and vivid than Shelley's and Stevenson's classics (I had one child opt out because it was just too scary for her), which might well improve interest and compliance in your audience.  Much like Frankenstein, the mad scientist is caught off guard by the consequences of his attempt to play God.  I use it as an exercise in getting students to locate and elaborate on textual evidence (a skill most lacking in their essays).  Check out my study guide:

Get your kids reading and thinking in the coming school year with a dose of good old fashioned horror!

Feeling Grateful for Another Great Year
The End of the Year is a Bag of Mixed Emotions

Here it is June again, the end of another school year--a time to reflect on what went right in the classroom, what promoted effective learning, and what I still need to change.

 

 

I feel so grateful for the opportunity to share my passion for language and literature with (generally) open-minded and capable young people.  For some kids, reading can be such a struggle, grammar and writing such a chore--but hopefully not for mine.  It's all about the passion that you bring to your material and the spirit of compassion with which you delivery it.  I have high expectations of my students--we tackle complex texts and work with the subtleties of language--but they always come through for me.  Some are motivated by the challenge or the love of the subject, as I was at their age, but many are pulled along and buoyed by the current of the teacher's love and energy.  You have to make it relevant, achievable, and yes, fun, for young adolescents.  I generally choose classic novels for class texts (I eschew the District's textbook collection of uninteresting and unliterary bits and pieces, truncated and bowdlerized as they are), but I lead students to recognize in them themes that apply to their own lives and the real world around them and provide the skills and guidance that makes them accessible.  This year, we read 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, and my students looked around themselves and realized, "yeah, this looks eerily familiar."  Good literature, made relevant, illuminates our experiences and opens up new worlds and new possibilities to us.  That's what I try to give my students every day.  I think I'm on the right track: I received this note the day after school ended from a young man whom I thought wasn't all that engaged:

Dear Mr. Felt,

 

I would like to thank you for teaching me this year. You were an amazing teacher and your class was one of my favorites. You introduced me to timeless, classic novels that I wouldn't have picked out myself but learned much from and really enjoyed reading. My writing, vocabulary, and reading comprehension skills have all improved greatly because of you. I have purchased Edith Hamilton's Mythology per your recommendation and plan to read it along with study the remaining vocabulary in my workbook over the summer. I really appreciate your passion - your love of teaching is unmistakable! Thank you so much for all you've done for me and my education this year.

 

Sincerely,

Dylan

This is what makes it all worthwhile for me--knowing that I've made a genuine impact on a young person's life.  For all the hassle, administrative pettiness, low pay, unreasonable parents, and mindless paperwork, this is why I stay in the profession.