Teaching literary analysis can be challenging, especially when students struggle to interpret themes, symbols, and deeper meanings in texts. One of the most challenging aspects of teaching students how to go beyond basic comprehension and recall.

One powerful strategy that can bridge this gap is the OPTIC strategy, traditionally used for analyzing art and visual texts. However, incorporating the OPTIC strategy in your middle school ELA or high school English class can be highly effective in helping students with analysis.

Another great reason to incorporate the OPTIC strategy into your classroom is that quite a bit of art was in fact inspired from the novels we read in our classrooms. 

By integrating art with the OPTIC strategy, teachers can help students develop stronger analytical skills that translate seamlessly into literary analysis. It will be a fun and engaging lesson when you are teaching literary analysis. Analyzing art helps with the process of literary analysis.

What is the OPTIC Strategy?

OPTIC is an acronym that stands for:

• O – Overview: Summarize what you see in the image.
• P – Parts: Identify key elements, figures, or details.
• T – Title/Text: Consider the title and any text within or accompanying the image.
• I – Interrelationships: Examine how different parts connect to convey meaning.
• C – Conclusion: Determine the overall message or theme of the visual.

This structured approach encourages students to break down an image methodically, similar to how they would analyze a poem, short story, or novel. I like to think of it as providing students with extra tools for literary analysis.

How to Use the OPTIC Strategy in ELA with Art

When introducing students to the OPTIC strategy for the first time, I use the instructional presentation in my Visual Literacy Activities – OPTIC Strategy for Visual and Literary Analysis Teaching resource. This visual analysis teaching unit includes everything you’ll need to incorporate the OPTIC strategy into your classroom. 

Here’s how you can apply the OPTIC strategy effectively in your high school English classroom for teaching literary analysis:

1. Begin with a Work of Art
   Choose an image, painting, or illustration related to a literary theme. Works like Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, Frida Kahlo’s The Two Fridas, or an illustration from The Great Gatsby can serve as compelling discussion starters.
2. Model the OPTIC Process
   Display the image and guide students through each OPTIC step. Encourage them to take notes and discuss their observations.
3. Connect Art to Literature
   Once students are comfortable using OPTIC with visual texts, transition to literary analysis. For example:
   • Compare Hopper’s Nighthawks to themes of isolation in modernist literature.
   • Analyze Kahlo’s The Two Fridas alongside duality in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
   • Use a Great Gatsby illustration to explore the novel’s themes of decadence and disillusionment.
4. Encourage Independent Practice
   Assign students a literary passage along with a related visual. Have them apply OPTIC independently and present their findings in small groups or as a written response.
5. Extend to Writing Assignments
   Ask students to use the OPTIC framework to outline literary analysis essays, reinforcing structured thinking and clear argumentation.

Why OPTIC Helps with Teaching Literary Analysis

• Improves Critical Thinking: Encourages deeper observation and interpretation.
• Builds Analytical Skills: Transfers visual analysis skills to text analysis.
• Engages Different Learning Styles: Visual learners benefit from the structured approach.
• Encourages Cross-Disciplinary Connections: Links literature to art, history, and culture.

Teaching Literary Analysis: Incorporate the OPTIC strategy!

Help your students improve their visual literacy, visual analysis, and literary analysis skills with the visual literacy OPTIC analysis unit! This visual analysis unit is the perfect way to engage students and help them learn new strategies that will improve their analysis skills!

You and your students will LOVE this resource because it is a fun, engaging, and out-of-the-box unit for your ELA class! Students will learn about the OPTIC analysis strategy and will learn how to explore topics in more depth! It is a great way to help students improve their literary analysis skills.

Looking for more literary analysis fun? Try a literary analysis create square project!

By incorporating the OPTIC strategy and visual art into your ELA classroom, you can make teaching literary analysis more engaging and accessible. Students will develop sharper analytical skills that not only enhance their reading comprehension but also prepare them for more sophisticated critical thinking in college and beyond. Try it in your next lesson and watch your students’ understanding of literature deepen!

At the end of each novel I teach, I like to have my students participate in some sort of culminating literary analysis project that allows me to assess their understanding of the novel, its major literary themes, and other elements of literary significance. Sometimes the end-of-novel literary analysis assessment will be the literary analysis essay and sometimes it is more of a hands-on project. Whatever I choose, I like to provide my students wil creative literary analysis activities throughout the year.

When it comes to a culminating literary analysis project, I like to vary the requirements from project to project so that students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and creativity. Recently, with my honors sophomore class, the cumulative literary analysis project they completed was a literary analysis square off of our class novel Bless Me Ultima. This blog post does contain affiliate links, and contains helpful literary analysis activities for middle school and high school!

The Literary Analysis Creative Square: A Cumulative Literary Analysis Project

I took this idea for the literary analysis create square project from the artistic PAPA square project and modified it to fit my needs for the Bless Me, Ultima unit my students were working on. For this project, I provided each student with a piece of 12×12 inch cardstock and encouraged them to use printer paper on top if they wanted to add more color to their project.

For this project, I divided the work up into three categories: the front inside (the square inside the flaps), front outside (the outside triangle flaps), and back (the back of the literary analysis project).

Planning the Front Inside of the Creative Literary Analysis Square Project

There is a large square on the front inside of this project. For the Bless Me, Ultima literary analysis project I assigned my students, I had students respond to three of the five provided essential questions. These were essential questions that I provided my students with at the beginning of our unit, and we discussed them at length throughout the unit.

On your copy of the literary analysis project, double click on the image, and then you can edit the contents of the this portion of the project. If answering essential questions isn’t your jam, you could also have your students write a paragraph or two discussing how the author develops the novel’s theme.

Planning the Front Outside of the Creative Literary Analysis Square Project

The front outside of this artistic literary analysis project has four triangular flaps. For this part of the project, I had my students look at the four main literary elements we studied and discussed in-depth during our unit: character, setting, symbol, and archetype.

For each of these literary elements, students selected one topic for each category and provided a cited quote and several sentences explaining the significance of that element in the novel. This also served as an excellent novel review because I had my students share their projects at their table groups before the final novel test!

Here is a list of possible literary elements you can choose to do with your own literary analysis project:

• character
• setting
• symbol
• archetype
• conflict
• protagonist (if you want to focus more on character)
• antagonist (if you want to focus more on character)
• motif

For the outside flaps of the literary analysis project, the possibilities really are endless! Simply select which ones your want your students to focus on and edit the document!

Also, with this portion of the project, I give the students more freedom. I let them know they can either add the information to the outside or the inside of the flap. This is where many of the students choose to add in artistic elements.

Planning the Back of the Creative Literary Analysis Square Project

For the back of the project, I wanted to provide my students with an opportunity to reflect on their thoughts about the book and provide a rating or a review for the book. On the back, I had my students write an 8-10 sentence reflection on the book as well as provide a review with a rating system. I encouraged a lot of creativity here with the rating system, and my students did not disappoint.

Teaching Literary Analysis

Teaching literary analysis can be fun, engaging, and accessible for all students! When I teach literary analysis to my students, I use this hands-on sticky note unit to increase student engagement and understanding. Students enjoy using sticky notes in class as they analyze the author’s use of various literary devices in complex short stories and novels.

This sticky note literary analysis unit is a great way to help students learn to thoroughly analyze literature. By focusing on just one or two devices at a time, students are better able to understand how the device is used and why it is effective!

Here is what fellow teachers say about this unit:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Extremely satisfied

“My students found this very helpful to organize their writing and the movement involved with using sticky notes was a hit. The kids loved getting to use sticky notes and to flip them up and down. It made the planning for their writing so much faster. Would highly recommend for all students but especially for any kids who have a hard time focusing.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Extremely satisfied

“This is a great way to have kids write literary analysis in a different way instead of just asking for essays. It’s like a little trick to get them to do academic work while thinking they are just doodling on sticky notes. I even use this with AP Lit and just modify my expectations somewhat. I appreciate all the different handouts/options.”

Classic literature is classic for a reason. There are themes that resonate across generations and timeless characters. The trouble is, students hear those classic titles and freeze up at the prospect of reading something “so old”. Instead of fighting them on it, I have paired modern novels to some of those classic works to help bridge that gap. Read on to see my suggestions for modern pairings to Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Classic Focus

Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of young boys who become deserted on an island. Although they begin with creating rules and organization with no adult help, they eventually collapse into brutality.

When my students begin their study of this novel, I tend to focus on a few major themes that I can mirror in my modern selections. Civilization vs. lawlessness is one of the biggest ideas of the novel. It drives most of the instincts of the boys on the island. Loss of innocence is another biggie, as well as the dangers of mob mentalities, and if mankind is inherently evil.

This novel is also considered an allegory, meaning the characters and objects are symbolic in and of themselves. I think that actually helps my students track themes, because they can easily recognize the characters and their roles as themes develop.

 
When I teach this novel, I use this 5-week Lord of the Flies Unit and I also try to gamify the unit for more excitement.

Modern Pairings

There are many options for this novel. That’s one of the best reasons to still teach classics, we still use them as inspiration! Depending on your class culture, the skill level of your students, and their general interests, you have options to bring to the table. Here are a few of my favorites.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Some people might think this is an overdone and overused example. Students who struggle with making connections to text may benefit from reading a novel after having seen a film, reading something they already know, etc.

Katniss Everdeen makes a heroic decision to take her sister’s place in the deadly Hunger Games. Survival is in her nature, but she must truly fight to the death and make smart decisions if she will beat the odds.

This is an interesting pairing when you compare the idea of civilization and savagery in particular. Especially since the nation of Panem is considered a “civilization” with a ruthless and horrible tradition, and the boys in Lord of the Flies were considered uncivilized when presented with no form of government or rules.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

A very interesting parallel to not only Lord of the Flies but also to the recent pandemic. Hetty has been living in her quarantined island school for girls for eighteen months. Teachers died one by one from a horrible virus. Students were then infected. The girls live cut off from the world, fending for themselves, and waiting for a cure they were promised.

This is an interesting option for students to discuss various forms of loss of innocence, not only as a gender-bender version of Lord of the Flies, but also as an opportunity to discuss loss of innocence during our recent quarantines. Students can benefit from discussing their own life events as a connection point to the novel, and solidify some of these key themes.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

A ravaged, barren landscape stretches forth as a father and son walk alone towards the coast. McCarthy writes about a hopeless world where the two main characters only have each other. It’s a torrid tale of humanity’s propensity for evil, which pairs well with Lord of the Flies. It can be quite dark in some places, but mature readers may enjoy the opportunity to read something with more macabre.

In spite of these darker scenes, or maybe because of, The Road is a great read with Lord of the Flies. Students can compare the darker tones of humanity when civilization is taken away. Students can also compare character’s struggles and perseverance.

Do you have favorite modern tellings for Lord of the Flies that your students love? What activities help solidify broader concepts and themes with your students? Share here or check out Facebook and Instagram for more ideas!

You’ve come to the end of another novel or short story. Now what? If you’re looking to spice up your review activities with something fresh, unique, or just plain different than your average paper, read on! Here are ten ways to review a novel or short story.

Here are 10 Ways to Review a Novel or Short Story

1. Socratic Seminars

Why write when you can discuss? If you’re unfamiliar with a Socratic Seminar, it is a method to understand information by creating a dialogue in class. Students should find deeper understanding and discuss complex ideas. Works that are “heavy” or require your students to really think about issues are perfect for Socratic Seminars.

Socratic Seminar for ANY text!

2. Create a Game

You can either have students create their own game with various templates they find online, or you can create a game that students will play in order to review. Either way, it’s a fun excuse to host a game day in your classroom and breaks up the monotony of review, papers, and tests. I really like having students create their own games, or put a creative spin on old classics.

3. Task Cards

Instead of a long project, try several smaller tasks that review the works. It’s also great if you want to have students work in small groups. Check out my Task Card Resource that can be used with any novel. It includes a pre-reading set of task cards, as well as a second set for review. There are four sets of student directions for differentiation.

4. Escape Room

I love escape rooms, and you can usually find one for just about any novel or short story. Or, if you’re particularly creative with puzzles, you can create your own. They don’t have to be super complicated or involve anything more than paper (though there are plenty of digital escape rooms that are very engaging). Try one for your next read and see how students respond.

5. Fan Fiction

This activity is especially engaging when students have read cliff-hanger or open-ended stories. I’ll have students continue the story, or re-write it from a different perspective. When I use this with short stories, students see it as more manageable than trying to write something for a longer novel. Alternatively, you may try having students write poetry based on the overall themes or major plot points.

6. Collaborative Review Poster

I love this for the beginning of the year with my freshmen and sophomores. It works as a review for my short story unit and, since they present their posters to the class, it helps all the students review for their unit test. Because I use this within my short story unit, each group will review a different story, though sometimes I will have duplicate groups. You can read more about this project specifically here or find my poster project here.

7. Be Artsy

There are many alternatives to writing projects, and you may have students who much prefer to express their thoughts artistically. Students might work on a collection of shape poems. You could also have them copy a few pages from the novel or short story and create blackout poems. I’ve had students create bookmarks using quotes, or students who drew scenes from period pieces. I have even seen collaborative projects where students created graphic novel-inspired projects. 

Blackout Poetry Teaching Unit

8. Take it to the Theater or Silver Screen

If you’ve read a novel or short story that has no film adaptation, this is a particularly excellent activity. Have students imagine who would play in the film, or who would act on stage. Students can create soundtracks for key plot points, design the stage, research film locations, create a film poster or playbill, and even write scenes as a script. This is another collaborative opportunity for students.

9. Write for Children

Have students think about the novel or short story from a different angle. There are a lot of ways to create a children’s story from longer works. Students can condense the story into a picture book, focusing on visual aspects and simple language structure. You can also bring in alphabet books to see how it is structured around a theme, and then have students create a version of the novel in alphabet form. I suggest having a plethora of examples from the library for students to lean on, and have students work in pairs or small groups. This is really a fun activity and having to simplify a story proves to make a great review.

10. Write a Little Bit

Instead of a full paper, think of something creative that involves a little bit of writing. Give students a short stack of post-its and require the answers to fit on the square. You can also collect mint tins and require the same thing. Their “review” notes must fit inside the mint tin. If you have class sets of whiteboards, students can write a summary and then work on condensing the story into the shortest sentence. You may have students write a tweet for a summary or write the “live tweet” of the short story. Any of these can be collected and copied for a class set of notes to study for a later test.

These are all great activities to use as a review for a novel or short story, but they also work as stand-alone projects as well. Put a creative spin on your review activities with any of these, and let me know in the comments what your favorite options are.

Bonus! 

Take a look at this resource, Activities for ANY Novel.

zRomeo and Juliet is one of those classic pieces of literature I think everyone has read. Even students who haven’t read the Shakespeare play have probably heard of the story or will relate to the plot as it has been retold in various films and literature. If you need some fresh ideas before you start this unit, read on. 

Here are 10 activities for teaching Romeo and Juliet

1. Teaching Romeo and Juliet: Relatable Bell Ringers

If you’re going to focus on a Shakespeare play, you must go all in. Immersing students into a unit from start to finish is such a perfect way to help students understand a topic in-depth. Start off each class with these Shakespeare Bell Ringers. Each one includes a famous Shakespearean quote and a quick writing prompt. Students will explore various writing styles based on the quote.

2. Teaching Romeo and Juliet: Character Focus

Help your students identify and organize characters with these graphic organizers. This resource has two sets for almost every character in the play. Students will identify characters as round or flat, static or dynamic, and other basic qualities. This will also require them to provide textual evidence.

The second organizer focuses on tracing emotions and motivations throughout the play. It’s a creative way for students to organize the play’s characters and is also a great resource for ESL students and struggling readers. 

3. Teaching Romeo and Juliet: Get Interactive

I can remember interactive notebooks becoming all the rage. And while the paper notebooks are creative, a motivator for some students, and it’s generally pretty easy to put an interactive spin on old ideas already at hand. Having a digital version is just one more layer to add something unique to the interactive notebook. My digital notebook resource can work as its own unit and includes analysis activities covering characters, symbols, major events, writing tasks, and response questions. Digital notebooks are great for classrooms trying to limit paper use, use more technology, prepare students for tech demands, and for any classes that need to work with mobile options.

4. Teaching Romeo and Juliet: Engaging Writing Tasks

Help students understand and analyze the play by giving them unique writing assignments. Have students explore different writing styles, analyze universal themes, and study character development. My Writing Tasks resource does all this and more. Each act has its own unique writing assignment, and I’ve included brainstorming organizers for each. You’ll be able to use this with differentiated instruction, and there are several additional resources and organizers included. 

5. Read “Cloze”ly

Prep passages for students to summarize to help them understand events from the play. This is an ideal activity for review, comprehension, or even assessment. Cloze reading is an ideal way to help students understand what is happening. Cut your prep time down by using this resource, with 6 passages ready to use AND written in modern-day English. Use as an individual assignment or collaborative activity. 

6. Use Office Supplies

Increase student engagement with hands-on activities using sticky notes. You can use various colors to coordinate different aspects of study (literary elements, major events, character development, etc). It’s an easy and quick way for students to organize thoughts and notes, and the bits of information can be manipulated and moved around for different assignments. Students can gather relevant information for various essays, or can organize their sticky notes in a way that makes sense to them (by topic, or chronologically, as an example). Check out my Sticky Note Literary Analysis activity that includes 12 sticky note organizers. 

7. Make Use of Bookmarks

There are many creative avenues when it comes to bookmarks. Have an activity where students pick a favorite quote, draw a scene, or draw what they know about the play prior to reading (they can use the back to draw after reading the play).

Consider a foldable version like this one where you can jam-pack a variety of questions, vocabulary, literary analysis and more. These are foldable, interactive, fun, engaging – and it saves you time passing out one activity to be used throughout the play. 

8. Plan an Escape 

Escape rooms live up to the hype. Challenge your students with a fun and engaging review escape challenge. Have students work together in groups to complete collaboratively and spark authentic discussion. This escape room activity includes 40 timeline events to sort from the play correctly.

9. Don’t Forget Vocabulary

Vocabulary is an important aspect of understanding any work, but Shakespeare is on a whole other level. In addition to reading an older version of English in poetic form, students must grasp key vocabulary to understand the play more deeply. Engage your students with hands-on activities to learn vocabulary, whether that be through graphic organizers, visual dictionaries, or word puzzles. Check out my ready-to-print vocabulary packet that includes word lists, puzzles, organizers and quizzes for the entire play. 

10. Practice Annotations

Start at the very beginning with an engaging activity for the prologue. This will allow students to explore the Shakespearean language and the set-up to the drama that is Romeo and Juliet’s tragedy. Using this resource, students will read and annotate the prologue, be introduced to Elizabethan English, and have context and background information before reading the play. Students then will rewrite the prologue in modern-day English following the same sonnet form. I love having students explore language, and this activity fits perfectly into the unit. 

Bonus

If you’re starting fresh with activities to fill a unit, or you’re looking to refresh your tried-and-true activities, check out my 5-week unit plan for Romeo and Juliet here. It’s full of goodies including a pacing guide, pre-reading activities, bookmarks, vocabulary, passages, writing tasks, essays, review activities, and more. 

Put a new spin on the classic tragedy by refreshing your activities and finding new ways to present to students. Just a few simple updates and changes can keep students engaged and help them relate to the material. I love seeing what others do in their classrooms, so please share your favorite ideas in the comments below. 

Is Teaching Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Still Revelant?

In an earlier blog post, I discuss if teaching Shakespeare is still relevant.

Taking on the task of teaching The Odyssey is a massive undertaking. One might even say it’s an epic undertaking. Although a popular Greek tale with tons of films and visual renditions, getting through the text can look overwhelming to students. That’s why I love keeping a list of interactive and engaging activities handy to help break up the monotony of reading through a long text and help students keep track of important details.

Here are 10 Activities for Teaching The Odyssey

1. Character Analysis Activities

There are a multitude of characters to track and understand can become a long list that is hard to track. Give students a character analysis activity to help visualize relationships, keep track of important characters, and study later. I have a Character Analysis Interactive Notebook activity (this one is digital), and a Character Graphic Organizer (each character has 2 organizers). Top it off with an analysis essay that you can find here. 

2. Comic Strip 

A fun way to unleash artistic creativity, have students create comic strips to tell the various tales from Odyssey’s epic adventure. I personally love the Cyclops encounter so I have a premade resource available here that is already set up and aligned with common core curriculum standards. But this is such a fun assignment and can be adapted to cover any portion of the epic. 

3. Game Board Project

This requires students to work together and utilize higher-level thinking skills. If you’re looking for a fun group project, this nails it. My resource has several requirements that must be fulfilled in order to demonstrate their understanding of the poem. Game pieces and detailed directions are included to make it a smooth process. You could make it your own by having students recreate classic games into the Odyssey, like Monopoly, Candyland, or card games. 

4. Reading and Writing

Sometimes “classic” is the way to go. Even if you select a variety of interactive and creative activities, having study questions and reading guides can help students keep track of all the information. You can also refer back to it for studying for any written tests. Reading guides with line-by-line analysis and keeping questions in chronological order can help students comprehend and read deeper. I have a 14 page reading guide here, and writing responses here. 

4. Study Ancient Greece

Use this as a prereading activity so students are introduced and familiarized with the culture and figures of Ancient Greece. If you’re looking to introduce research strategies and MLA formats, I have a perfect research assignment you can use here. It’s a great choice before reading “The Odyssey” but also any Ancient Greek related text like “Oedipus Rex” or “Antigone”. 

5. Vocabulary Practice

Understanding vocabulary is part of the battle when undertaking longer works like “The Odyssey”. Comprehension can be overwhelming when students see a bunch of words they don’t readily recognize. I break apart vocabulary into two units for the play. My unit includes two word lists (one with definitions and one without), vocabulary charts, table sorts, puzzles and reviews as well as a quiz. It’s super beneficial and front-loading can help students tackle the difficult text with confidence. 

6. Group Research Project

Working in groups helps divide the labor and make presenting easier. Students work together to create a research project. The final project is a research paper and presentation presented to the class. This group research project is a great intro to the epic and mythology before students get started reading the poem. Alternatively, you can make this an extension activity. 

7. Class Timeline

Keeping a class timeline is another great way to track what is happening in the story. Either with a long piece of chart paper, or even digitally with Google Slides or Padlet, have students track 1-3 things that happen each day based on the readings for that day. Once you are finished, not only will students have an excellent review guide, but it will help students track Odysseus’ journey. 

8. Create a Map of Odysseus’ Journey

Yes, I know there are many versions of the map available online, but have students work together in small groups to come up with a map that chronicles Odysseus’ adventure. To get started, have students keep track of quotes from the poem that depict the setting. Then, by using textual evidence, have students work collaboratively to create a map of his journey.

9. Rewrite a Section in Prose

At the start of teaching The Odyssey, some students struggle with it’s format. To help show students that narratives can take poetic form, have students work together to rewrite a small section from verse to prose. Not only will students be able to understand the stry more, but by translating the format of the story, they will eventually see that there is a story in the poem. 

10. Keep a Journal

Journaling can look like many things. Students can track in a journal the chronological events. You can use sticky notes for important quotations and organize them in their journal. You can focus on visual journaling or “scrapbooking” the journey from Odysseus’ perspective. Journaling can be paired with interactive notebook activities. You can then read the text for literary element examples, organize vocabulary, or practice identifying parts of speech. It’s a very flexible option and all it requires is a notebook.

Bring some new life to the ancient epic with a few of these activities. What are your favorit activities to incorporate with longer works?

It’s not the most popular activity in my classroom, but I believe teaching close reading is a vital skill for my students to feel comfortable and confident in their ability to closely read, understand, and analyze a text. If you’re looking to bring your students to the next level in reading comprehension and analysis, read on for tips and tricks.

What is close reading?

First, it’s important to know that close reading is not a summary of the main points and it’s not a personal response. It’s actually more in-depth than that. When you close read, you should be focused on analysis and interpretation. Students should pick apart the work. This is the time to uncover layers, make inferences, and look for specific textual evidence.

It’s more than a reader response. It is understanding what the author is doing. Why were these words chosen? Why described in this way? Why is this interesting (or not)? Notice that, while it is important that students acknowledge the need for tapping into prior knowledge and their own interests, they should not be focused on just their personal responses.

Why learn about close reading?

Our brains are muscles that need flexing and a bit of a challenge. Close reading helps students learn to find deeper meanings in a text. I honestly believe it is one of those “life-long skills” that students can use post-graduation. It is important to read with a critical eye. Close reading allows students to develop precise interpretations and deeper understanding. It also comes in handy for college readiness (though it certainly isn’t the only reason to learn).

How to teach close reading?

When we go about a workout for the first time, it can be tough. There’s resistance. It probably doesn’t look pretty. Students will need to practice, practice, practice with close reading. Since close reading as a whole really means looking at so many different parts of the whole, you can begin by looking at specific close reading questions.

For example, focus on vocab and diction. Look for the most important words and how they relate to each other. Ask your students to find what phrases appear repeatedly. What words seem odd or out-of-place? Are there double meanings? Are there different ways to read and interpret the text?

You can also look for patterns. Are there symbols repeated? Is a pattern established? Did the author build on one overall idea or is the structure more inferred? You can establish if the author seems valid, or they can identify in what areas they should have improved the writing.

I think the best bit of advice is to know you need to make close reading a habit so students learn through exposure. Always model and set a purpose for reading. Have students focus on connections and not worry about mistakes (in fact, I think “mistakes” are great for teaching students to explain their reasoning, interpretations and discuss finding textual evidence).

I have several close reading activities available in my store that are perfect for introducing close reading, practicing, or setting up as sub plans. This bundle has 14 resources (including distance learning options) which can also be purchased separately.

A great way to include close reading in the classroom is to incorporate the gradual release method. First, complete a small passage together as whole class, then release students in small groups to work together on this task, and after several rounds of collaborative close reading, students should then be ready to tackle the challenge on their own.

If there’s one thing that students of all ages love and find joy in, it’s music. Thanks to technology, streaming services make all kinds of music available to anyone with a smartphone or a laptop. Mixing and matching favorite tracks and creating playlists is a rite of passage to tweens and teens; a marker of their ability to decide what they like and dislike for themselves. So why not incorporate that into your curriculum?

Incorporating music into selected reading units can transform and channel that strong sense of individuality and autonomy into excitement for literature and developing critical thinking skills.

The key?

Playlists, Playlists, Playlists!

You’ve probably heard your students discussing their playlists, whether they’re talking about the songs they love, exchanging customized collections as gifts, or ribbing each other about their respective musical guilty pleasures. Siphon that passionate energy and self-driven creativity into classroom assignments using that very medium!

Projects and presentations which require students to create playlists for whatever you happen to be reading in class will allow kids to fit literary content into the context of something they understand and relate to.

These projects can be individual assignments or group projects. Also, consider assigning an accompanying paper or annotations for each song, explaining how contents of the playlist correspond to the book. Because the literary themes and character analysis will be seen (or perhaps, heard) through the lens of music, this will provide students with an opportunity to write about a subject they are no doubt eager to discuss.

Most importantly, it will spawn work that students will enjoy doing and a finished product that they will be proud of.

Tip: I strongly recommend having the entire class use the same streaming service. Spotify, in particular, is specifically engineered for making playlists. Most of your students will probably have accounts with Spotify. If not, it is free to set one up and comes equipped with all the features necessary for the project, such as the ability to share playlists once they’re created.

Without further ado, here are some ways to combine the magic of playlists with pedagogy!

A Soundtrack

One way to teach narrative structure is to have students create a soundtrack for your novel as if it were a film. If you’re looking for an involved group project for the end of the semester, this one is for you! This project would involve students mapping out the book’s story arc, from exposition to resolution, and deciding which chapters fall into which unit of the arc. From there, each student should take responsibility for one section of the plot, and then choose one song for each chapter or pivotal scene in their section. This assignment can have as much or as little detail as you want, but evaluation should be dependent on whether or not the students have sufficiently accounted for their choices about the book’s plot and themes.

Set the Scene

An incarnation of the above, this project takes the idea of creating a soundtrack for the entire overarching plot and puts it on a much smaller scale. Instead of having students map out the narrative structure of a whole book, have them create a playlist for a single chapter that holds a lot of significance to the story or even a single scene if you feel it has enough meat to it. This makes a fabulous individual assignment, and it is especially helpful for directing students’ focus and analysis of specific, dense sections of text.

Mixtapes: A Character Study

One of the most powerful feelings is hearing a song that perfectly describes someone you know, or at least reminds you of them. Using music as a tool for character analysis may be just the thing to help students genuinely understand literary characters who so often seem inaccessible or unrealistic to the modern teen or tween. Assigning your students a character from your selected work and having them make a playlist they think that character would enjoy is a fun exercise in imagination that will connect students to the book on a deeper level. This assignment can be small for extra-credit or something more fleshed out if you are working with an unusually character-driven work.

BONUS: Classroom Playlist

As Plato said, “Music is a moral law.” Which means, in general, people can’t get enough of the stuff. It’s no secret that students sometimes feel uncomfortable or restricted in the classroom. Now, I’m not saying to toss all rules out of the window, but one way to make the classroom a more inviting work environment is to set up a playlist for your students. There are several already customized for the classroom on several streaming sites, but you can create your own or have your students submit songs! The promise of background music in place of stale white noise is a great way to incentivize your students to stay on task.

One of the most important things you can teach your students is good literary analysis skills. Your students will be critically reading texts in high school, college, graduate school, and in their careers. It’s necessary to cultivate analytical ability as early as possible. If you are looking at how to teach literary analysis, sere are six ways to enhance the literary analysis curriculum for all ages.

How to Teach Literary Analysis: Think Aloud and Model Inquiry

The process of literary analysis is fraught with difficulty, even for the most seasoned critic. How can we expect students to “get” literary analysis without seeing it in action?

Hint: it’s tough. 

As such, a reliable way to gain an understanding of the fluid process of close reading and literary analysis is to model it for your students. To do this, analyze a relevant text in front of the class to show your process. It may seem uncomfortable, but don’t prepare yourself for this exercise beyond reading the text you’re analyzing- you want to give your students an authentic experience so they can really see the steps required.

If you have an overhead projector, document camera, or similar technology, this would be the time to use it.

How to Teach Literary Analysis: Emphasize Small Details

When teaching literary analysis, a pattern appears: students’ analysis looks more like summaries. A way to remedy this is to remind and reinforce to them that the small details are especially important when analyzing a text.

That’s not to say large plot points are less important; there is merely more to draw from when considering the small stuff in a written work. They must move beyond what’s “interesting” and focus on what’s “significant,” and the small details help students achieve this state.

How to Teach Literary Analysis: Explain Why Small Choices Matter

To that end, when digging into the nitty-gritty of analysis, we run into structural details. These authorial details, while seemingly arbitrary, are often intentional. A period here, a semi-colon there- each creates a different meaning and a different context. These choices can prompt and support intellectual arguments if only our students recognize them.

How to Teach Literary Analysis: Encourage Exploration

Some of the best analytical essays were born of a question. Allow and encourage your students to explore the text. They should be able to pursue an idea and have it fail, to rewrite and redo, to ask questions that may not seem relevant, and to find a part of the text that speaks to them. Only then will they create a quality paper.

Remind your students constantly that for the most part, there are no wrong answers. The only stipulation is that the claim needs to be backed up by sufficient textual evidence and discussion of the evidence.

How to Teach Literary Analysis: Subjectivity and Objectivity

Discuss the differences between subjectivity and objectivity and how they relate to writing. Contrary to popular belief, the purpose of literary analysis is not “what does the text mean to me.” However, subjectivity does have a place in literary analysis. It’s finding the balance between objectivity and subjectivity that many students have issues with, and it’s important to define these terms and their usage in context at the beginning of the year.

How to Teach Literary Analysis: Promote Controversial Stances

An argument that is accepted widely as “true” runs the risk of sounding like a retelling of the text. Students must avoid this. The most evident way to do so is to write about something that has multiple, plausible opposing sides. Find the controversy in the text, and have students analyze the controversy.

You might also be interested in this blog post: 15 Literary Analysis Questions to Ask Your Students.

Literary Analysis Teaching Resources:

• Sticky Note Literary Analysis Teaching Unit
• Literary Analysis Mini Flip Book
• Response to Literature Task Cards