Conducting a Novel Study in the Self-Paced English Classroom

Often I am asked by my colleagues is “How do you use the Modern Classroom model in an English Novel Study unit”? This is definitely something that I, too, have questioned and wondered through my own personal journey using The Modern Classroom Project in my classroom. After trying it myself, I can share with you that it absolutely does work and it is extremely effective if you look at your program and think about how you can best implement it. 

Recently, my Grade 8 students completed their novel study or “Book Club” unit that I decided to roll out using the MCP format. Since I typically structure this unit as a series of mini-lessons, with independent work and group collaboration, I knew before designing the unit that MCP would be quite successful in this style and format.

The unit was centered over five weeks, but depending on how many novels you choose to study and how deeply, you could lengthen your unit. The novel study unit was created so that students were able to choose a book based on their ability level from ten different novel sets offered. The novels that I offered were all fiction; however, depending on the students, and their grades, the novel sets you could provide are endless. Once students selected their novels, collaborative book club groups were created. Students would work with these groups through the mini-lesson tasks, and come together once a week with the teacher to sit and engage in a conversation about the novel and the topic of the week.

MCP allowed my students to read their novels, learn the new topic of the week, and work at a pace that best met their individual needs. As a result, I was able to differentiate for each of my students. Students who were very strong readers were given a companion novel to compare and contrast the themes presented. In the case where work needed to be reduced or remediated, I was able to ensure the needs of those learners were met by completing the “must do” tasks and that they were supported on their path to success.

In my classroom, each of those five weeks centered around a different topic. The topics I chose were:

• Making Predictions

• Question Development

• Inferences/ Symbolism

• Theme

• Character Journey

Each week would build off the knowledge and understanding of the previous week and students would be required to communicate and apply that knowledge to a series of tasks. However, these are just some of the many options that a teacher can provide when implementing a novel study unit within their classrooms. In fact, the options are so diverse that this model can be applied from Grades 3 all the way to 12. 

When setting up a book club unit in the MCP style, I would record the mini-lessons that would deliver the content of the week through instructional videos. Students would then be able to implement the knowledge gleaned from the lesson into the week’s topic task. This allowed me to work directly with the different book groups, and have fully engaged conversations with each group pertaining to their novels. Too often educators feel rushed and interrupted by the needs of the room. By implementing the novel study using MCP, I was able to give my full attention to each student, not worrying about cutting off great conversations or constantly rearranging my timetable to ensure I was going to “fit in” lessons for whole class instruction on those topics. 

In addition to being expected to watch the instructional videos, students would have a set required amount of pages to read for their novels (chosen independently by each group), complete their guided notes on the video content, and have independent tasks to reinforce the learning about that week’s topic. Finally, the students would be required to complete an independent assignment using their novels as the source material to showcase their understanding. This acted as an assessment of their learning, or mastery check. 

In addition to the written work, students were expected to come to a conference meeting each week with their group. They were to prepare a series of discussion questions as well as a passage from the novel of their choosing that resonated with them. These elements allowed the students a foundation for conversation, but also allowed for the conversations to branch and extend naturally. Since the remaining students were working through the lessons and activities at their own pace, my full attention was on this collaborative group meeting. Previously, I would only be able to give each group a very limited amount of my time, but with the MCP framework, if groups were engaged in a rich conversation (which often was the case), I was able to provide a full 50 minutes to sit and be a part of the group conversation.

 Each week, students had clear expectations of what the expectations were, what their group was responsible for, and what they needed to be prepared for the meetings, complete the tasks, and achieve success. Every single one of my students was always engaged in the tasks at hand. Each week, groups would sign up to conference with me, and all members arrived prepared. I would be given the privilege of sitting and conferencing with groups, and at no point did I need to interrupt the conversations to deal with off-task behaviors. Students knew their roles and as a result, achieved a high level of success during this unit. 

This unit provided a lot of great learning for my students, not only academically, but in terms of personal development. Students knew what the expectations were and had to take the initiative to sign up for a conference time at some point within that week. Knowing they needed to have certain tasks completed for this meeting, they needed to work together as a group to ensure all members were prepared and ready to meet on the set date. The level of collaboration was impressive, but the leadership that emerged from many of my students was even more so, as they worked to support others in their group and ensure they all arrived prepared. Many of the students had to take on new roles within the class that allowed them to truly shine as leaders and mentors to their peers. 

If you are considering doing a novel study, I wouldn’t hesitate to roll out a self-paced unit in the MCP format. What we were able to accomplish as a collective was truly impressive. Students grew as independent leaders, further developed and reinforced their self-regulation skills, and saw more success during this unit than I have previously seen in other units implemented in a more “traditional” style of teaching.