If you ask a dozen teachers the best way to teach their favorite book, you’ll likely get twice as many answers. That's what makes literature magical—the books we teach in our classrooms have so much depth that each time we revisit them, there’s always something new to explore.
To help you see the books you teach in a fresh way, we’ve put together nine of our favorite literature teaching approaches. These methods aren’t mutually exclusive, and the best teachers often use more than one in a unit or over the course of the year.
1. Reading for Plot and Comprehension
This might not be the most exciting approach to reading, but comprehension is the first step toward deeper understanding. When you approach any book as a class, it's always worth making sure that students are at least able to identify what happened in any passage before exploring the text at an analytical level. You'd be surprised at how many "Aha! moments" will happen for your students after spending just a few minutes discussing basic plot events.
For classes that are struggling with comprehension, reading in class, either aloud as a group or silently following an audio recording, can be very helpful.
Resources to help students understand plot:
2. Reading for Theme
While comprehension is a necessary first step, looking at the intent, purpose, or meaning of the book is also essential.
One of the best places to start is the theme, or the central topic that a text covers. Every book develops its theme differently, so organizing your curriculum around books with similar themes can be a great way to tie everything together. Try looking at the different treatments of the American Dream in A Raisin in the Sun and The Great Gatsby or examining coming-of-age themes in The Glass Castle and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Resources to help with reading for theme:
3. Reading for Author's Craft
One of the most rewarding ways to explore a book is through a close reading of the text to examine not only what the story means, but how the author communicates that meaning. Is the novel exciting? What makes it exciting? Why do we laugh where we do? How does the author manage to make the main character likable even though he or she has some serious flaws?
A close reading is a deep investigation of the patterns in a book and of the techniques the author uses, from word choice and syntax to rhetorical devices and symbolism.
A great way to get started with this type of reading is to break down a poem, which is usually more densely packed than a novel, or take a look at a couple of key passages from a longer work. It takes more time to really dig into a book this way, but the rewards can be remarkable.
Resources for approaching author's craft:
4. Approaching Literary Theories
While it's common to think of literary theories as the realm of college or graduate students, you'd be surprised how powerful a lesson based on literary theory can be for high school students or reluctant readers who tend to tune out during more traditional studies of literature.
Looking at a story from a feminist or archetypal angle or focusing on social class struggles within the text can make books come to life for many students.
Resources for teaching literary theory:
5. Using Bloom's Taxonomy
Benjamin Bloom, an educational theorist, developed models for understanding the ways that students learn. By using these models, you can help classes progress from a rudimentary understanding of the basic language being used all the way up to synthesizing multiple sources and developing their own original analysis of the text. If you're looking to tie together a variety of approaches in a way that supports different learning objectives, Bloom's model will help.
Resources to help with using Bloom's Taxonomy:
6. Response Journaling
Writing about literature doesn't always have to be a formal process in which the goal is the typical five-paragraph essay. With response journaling, students are encouraged to write about what they're reading and draw personal connections to their own lives.
Whether they're describing how the book makes them feel, conveying how they'd react in a similar situation, or recreating events from their own lives that are similar to those in a book, journaling can help. Journaling also gives students a chance to build personal connections to literature and presents classes with fun writing practice on a regular basis.
Resources to help with response journaling:
7. Reading for Vocabulary
Sure, a strong vocabulary can help reading comprehension, but active reading is also essential to building vocabulary. By using the books you're teaching in class as a source of vocabulary words, you can give your classes relevant words in authentic contexts and teach your students to use context clues to figure out the meanings on their own.
Resources for using literature to build vocabulary:
8. Working with Groups
Reading often feels like a solitary activity, so getting students to work together on projects—whether it's completing a graphic organizer, putting together a skit, or developing a poster—will help them talk among themselves about what they're reading. They’ll learn about other people's opinions on the books and help each other get the most out of what's being read.
Resources for working with groups:
9. Reading for Fun
Never forget that every author who has ever put pen to paper did so for their book to be enjoyed.
Sometimes, it’s worth setting aside the structured lessons and simply encouraging your students to curl up with a cup of cocoa and dive into a great story. This helps them reconnect with the magic of storytelling and see books as more than just assignments. When students read without the pressure of schoolwork, they may gain fresh insights and, more importantly, develop a lifelong love for reading.
In the end, fostering a passion for reading is as valuable as teaching literary skills—so let students enjoy a good book when they can!
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