By Krisandra Johnson
I became an English teacher because I love books. As a child and teen, books were magical and libraries were a haven. As an education major, I wrote, a little naively, in my philosophy of education that I was going to introduce students to stories they loved. They just needed someone to help them. Overzealous? Perhaps. But that passion is why it’s an uncomfortable truth to admit that now, a decade later, I absolutely loathe the novel study.
The hatred doesn’t stem from the books themselves, but rather due to all of the challenges a novel study presents. It’s exhausting, and I know other teachers have experienced similar situations. Only having one class set, so all reading must be done within the 55-minute class period. That entire period is spent reading, so there’s little time left to discuss. I feel I am forced to lead weeks of reading like a steam engine chugging toward a destination. I picture myself throwing wood to flame, afraid to stop and be derailed.
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Student absences are the death of productivity in a novel study. My own absences are even worse. Not to mention if a student doesn’t like the novel, they now have to spend nearly nine weeks reading and analyzing it. Even I, at times, can be sick of the book halfway through.
The Discovery
Several years ago, I went as far as denouncing the novel study. “We won’t read any whole class novels this year,” I told parents at back-to-school night. “Students will read at least four choice novels independently. But we’ll read short stories, articles, and poems together.”
It worked fine for a couple of years. Students read library books, journaled about their themes and characters, and answered any other standards-based questions I asked. At the end of the quarter, they would choose from their finished books to do a larger project. All was fine.
Then I discovered a classroom set of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief while clearing out my classroom closet. The set and a few copies of the graphic novel had been boxed and stored by the previous educator in my room. Having missed the Percy Jackson hype a few years ago, I hadn’t read the series myself, but now I was intrigued.
I began to flip through it on my own during independent reading time at the beginning of class while students read their library books. As I read, I found that this book seemingly had it all: a likeable main character with relatable flaws, action, a fast-moving plot, allusions to countless myths, and the classic archetype of the hero’s journey. Who wouldn’t love such an entertaining story?
Modes of Storytelling
The year I read The Lightning Thief was a turbulent one. I had started it off on maternity leave, and now that I was back in the classroom, I found myself struggling to encourage reading motivation in students. I needed a good book to pull them in. Going against my unyielding position about classroom novels, I decided to give the novel study another try.
I ended up introducing students to Percy Jackson in the spring semester. Unfortunately, this meant I didn’t have an entire quarter to devote to reading it in class. I needed a way to make the novel study shorter, but I didn’t want to just read part of the story, nor did I want to summarize some chapters to the class. Then, on an evening while I was watching the film adaptation to see if it was appropriate to show parts to the class, an idea was born.
I began organizing: watching the film, rereading chapters of the book, and labeling sections of the graphic novel with corresponding plot events. Instead of reading the novel in its entirety and then watching parts of the film, we would interweave the different media forms throughout the unit: the class would start by reading a chapter from the novel, then a chapter from the graphic novel, and then we would watch the next chapter in the movie. As they worked their way through the story, considering character and plot, students would also compare the three different mediums, analyzing the benefits and the pitfalls of each.
This idea of mixing media was born out of a need for more class time. However, after teaching the unit, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I, and the students, enjoyed comparing structures. We were able to have broader discussions about the modes of storytelling.
I found students talking about how the graphic novel allowed for more visualization, but offered less of the plot as it is shorter, leaving out important parts of character development. They spoke of how film could use music and other elements, but had to rely on the actors’ expressions and dialogue, whereas the novel gave first-person intimacy with Percy.
Students were even going back and reading novel chapters after they had finished a chapter from another form because they felt like the graphic novel or film didn’t wasn’t sufficient and wanted Percy’s narration. They were hungry for more; multiple students even requested the second installment, Sea of Monsters, at the school library after the unit had ended.
These deeper conversations about storytelling wouldn’t have been possible with only the novel. By offering the other two modes, students were able to zoom out from the plot to analyze how the story was being told, which was made easier by having versions to compare.
(It should also be noted that, since I first began teaching this unit, The Lightening Thief was also adapted into a TV series. The second time I ran it, the class watched episodes from the show instead, as it more closely follows the plot of the book.)
The Benefits
This type of unit doesn’t just have to be narrowed to only Percy Jackson. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Giver, The Great Gatsby, and countless other books have graphic novel and film adaptations as well. However, I will say that Percy Jackson is a great novel to introduce to students for many reasons.
First of all, students love the story of Percy. He doesn’t fit in. He’s a bit of a misunderstood trouble maker. I have found that Percy’s character draws in some of my not-so-fond-of-reading students. Also, the story’s action is unmatched. Every chapter offers something exciting, which keeps the pace of the novel going. Kids are eager to see what happens next.
The Greek myths alluded to in the novel allow for supplemental reading that can be differentiated. Myths have been rewritten and published so many times; it’s easy to find the story of Theseus and the Minotuar, for example, written in multiple reading levels. When reteaching or practicing skills such as outlining plot structure, finding themes, etc., myths at differentiated reading levels can help teachers prepare that “just right” challenge of a text for every student.
Lastly, the Percy Jackson series is so popular across the globe that it has been translated into many other languages. I was able to purchase both the novel and the graphic novel in French and Spanish! This allowed my newcomer students who only spoke those languages to be confident in their understanding of the plot and be more capable of answering the questions I asked of them.
Overall, the Percy Jackson novel study has been met with positive feedback, and is generally a favorite among my students. On the end of the year surveys I hand out, one student even wrote that, “I wish we had read Percy Jackson at the beginning of the year. Then, I would have had more time to finish the series!”
This goes to show that the dream of connecting kids with great books is not dead or impossible. With some creativity and reconsideration, it can be within our reach after all.
Krisandra Johnson teaches 8th grade English in Speedway, IN. She encourages her students to write about what they love, so she writes about what she loves: teaching.
