This week, I started my much-anticipated (at least for me) John Steinbeck author study where students pick one of three Steinbeck novels: Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, or The Red Pony. In the past, I’ve taught Of Mice and Men as a class novel, but I wanted to provide more choice for my students. I’ve read enough arguments that whole-class novel studies don’t address students’ diverse needs as readers and lead to only a few kids doing most of the talking (because they like and understand the book) while the rest of the class is frog-marched through the reading—if they even do the reading—and count minutes during class. Given some choice, kids are more likely to find a book they like and to contribute to their group discussions. So far, that’s just what I’m finding.
On the other end of the choice-in-reading spectrum, I’m not quite ready to let everyone pick whatever book they want. I recognize the strong arguments in favor of total student choice: they’re more likely to enjoy reading and want to read on their own; teachers can guide students toward more appropriate choices after establishing a relationship of trust (more likely to occur when a student feels the teacher takes his or her initial choices seriously); a student is more likely to grasp sophisticated elements of literature, like motifs and symbolism, in an accessible book; a student is more likely to take risks in discussions if s/he feels s/he understands the text on the surface. I get it.
But still, having seen so many students rise to the challenge of a text on the edge of their comfort zone, I see the value in pushing them to that edge. And, I know from the “gradual release of responsibility” model of teaching reading that students need a slightly lower-level text for independent reading than for guided reading. In short, students can read more difficult books for class than they do for themselves. And, a common text helps students build community because it gives them a non-threatening starting point—and a point of comparison—for discussing deep and difficult issues in their own lives. It’s easier to talk about, say, seeking approval in The Red Pony than it is for them, at thirteen, to discuss how they seek their own parents’ approval. And giving more kids access to the same text means more of them can participate in such discussions.
So, I created my Steinbeck author study as a happy middle ground between the class novel and free student choice. Because my default model in class is to give small groups of kids an activity, I’m able to use many of the activities I used for Of Mice and Men, but now for all three books. For example, last year, one way I’ve had the student think about setting was to have them sketch a landscape, map, or “image collage” of the pool in chapter 1. Within the drawing, they write short quotations to show where they got their ideas. I explain that the activity helps them visualize the setting more clearly, appreciate Steinbeck’s precise description, and begin to notice how Steinbeck uses his settings to convey themes and set up conflicts—almost like the setting is another character in the book. To deepen this last point, I have students list adjectives to describe the setting. What kind of place is this?
Because the students this year are all reading different books—and only because they’re reading different books—I was able to take this activity one step further. In their book groups, students came to a consensus on the 3-5 best adjectives to describe their settings, and I put these lists on the board. Then I asked each group to look at the lists they had not made—the adjectives describing the settings from the other two books—and note the ones that could describe their book’s setting too. I circled adjectives that could describe two or more Steinbeck settings, words like natural, peaceful, isolated, simple, and beautiful. After reading the list out loud, I asked, “So, if these are the words that describe Steinbeck settings, what are some of the ideas Steinbeck is concerned with? What messages is he trying to send by setting his books in these kinds of places?”
The kids hit on some important points. That Steinbeck is concerned with the interaction between the human world and the natural world. That there’s always an isolation factor. That the places he describes aren’t exactly tourist destinations, but Steinbeck finds the beauty in them. All of these ideas come up in the motifs, symbols, and plot conflicts in the three books, and now we’ll be able to refer back to them. And again, the students were able to make these observations precisely because they’re reading different books.
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