Five Steps To Revolutionize Whole-Class Novels

As a department we are continually discussing how we can develop more engagement, independence and stamina with reading in our students. As the first unit that we teach in the middle school is a novel, I was drawn to this blog which suggested that the techniques would ‘revolutionise’ how we teach it. The blog by Ariel Sacks, a middle school teacher who has written a book entitled Whole Novels for the Whole Class: A Student-Centered Approach gives five steps to improve teaching and learning of the whole class novel.

After reading the blog, I decided to try out the idea with my P6 class this bimester. Sacks believes that it is ineffective to ask students to analyse a novel until they have read it in its entirety, arguing that it is like being asked to comment on one corner of a painting instead of appreciating the piece as a whole. After each student has read the entire novel, then the discussion and analysis can begin in earnest. This is different from the more traditional approach where the teacher controls the pace at which the students read and works on the novel bit by bit. Sacks advocates for the students first reading at their own pace and using sticky notes in their copies of the texts to record their thoughts as they read. In this way the students have ownership over their initial interpretation of the text. The sticky notes serve as an important tool for the teacher to ascertain how the students are getting on with their independent reading.

A tool for differentiation in their own right, the sticky notes are just one of the ways that this approach to teaching the whole class novel can be differentiated. Given that our P6 English classes are mixed ability, I used several of the ideas in the blog to help support and challenge my students when reading the novel. Each week I provided four reading options for the class. They were: reading independently; reading aloud in pairs; reading whilst listening to the audiobook; and reading aloud in a group with teacher support. Many students wished to read independently and had the freedom to read at their own pace which is denied in the more traditional method of teaching a whole class novel. Other students really benefited from hearing the words spoken as they read. As further differentiation, I created extension tasks for the quicker readers and where necessary ‘catch up’ reading sessions in tutor time for the slower readers.

In practice, I found advantages and disadvantages of using this approach. I found that it took greater organisation to set up the different ways to read in the classroom at first, but once the students were used to it, it ran quite smoothly. At times, I also felt that the class was not able to explore specific moments from the novel in the depth that they would have if we read at the same pace. That said, the speed at which we were able to finish the novel was a huge advantage; the focus on independent reading meant that the whole class had finished reading the novel by Week 5 and we could begin exploring the novel as a whole in our discussions. I also liked the way that all of the students could read at their preferred pace and track their ideas in the book. Another advantage was that the responsibility for reading the novel was with the students and I hope that this approach would, in time, improve their reading stamina and independence. To conclude, this is an approach that I will definitely use again when teaching a whole class novel.