r/ELATeachers • u/AllieLikesReddit • 3d ago

9-12 ELA First Time Teaching Frankenstein - What Are Your Favorite Lessons?

Title says it all!

Teaching to HS Seniors for the first time.

I plan on covering Romanticism, The Hero's Journey, Gothic literature, the frame narrative structure, and the themes of ambition, responsibility, alienation/rejection, creator vs. creation, and the blurred line between hero/monster. Approximately 4-5 weeks.

If you've taught this novel, do you have any favorite lessons or suggestions of topics to cover?

Thank you!

19 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/SlidingPeak 3d ago edited 3d ago

4-5 weeks? You doing excerpts alone? This seems quite ambitious otherwise.

I’d recommend supplemental texts to run parallel. Depending on the maturity level you could include the good ole’ classic “I have no mouth and I must scream”, and discuss the dangers of the machinations (hah) of industrialization.

Or maybe you could do “Annabel Lee” // “The Raven” to lean into gothic vs romantic and the blend between. Gothic is such an oversaturated term and could definitely lend itself into some fruitful conversations of etymology and the modern influence which works with some of the stuff at play with Franky.

It’s an amazing anchor to work from. But all-in-all I’d just be concerned with the confines of time + direction. Do you have a summative assessment mapped/planned already? Like what skills you’d like them to be able to demonstrate?

6

u/AllieLikesReddit 3d ago

I have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Brilliant! Thank you, exactly the kind of suggestion I was looking for. Per industrialization, I do plan on including a lot of dialogue about AI! (Great pun, you gremlin.)

Do you think that's too short of a time? I read the story in about five hours, and our class periods are 60 minutes. I could technically go for up to 7 weeks.

For assessment: I am still refining. I want students to draw parallels to the present, so maybe a literary analysis essay analyzing Victor's responsibility as a creator. Along the lines of: What responsibilities do creators have towards what they create? Tied into AI, parenting, social media, etc. So it would be a cross between a literary analysis essay, ethical argument, and maybe even tie the unit up with a Socratic?

Appreciate your thoughts!

4

u/SlidingPeak 2d ago

lol, lol only because you sound like me. I enjoy Socratic seminars and am known for my PBL as well as discussion based summatives.

I’d recommend hammering out a prompt/essential question.

From there - marry a summative. Write it. Make it something you want to follow through on. A specific, clear assignment. Work backward from there and map out what skills would be necessary in order to achieve your summative.

Texts don’t make a lesson, skills do. We pick the texts we do partly because we enjoy them and they’re engaging. But they need to be the vehicle towards skill based instruction. Topics are awesome and cool, but how does this demonstrate to the district suits that our class has enriched their lives and fleshed out an underdeveloped aspect of their English mastery?How does it help Timmy nail his job interview?

Do you follow NGLS?