If you’ve ever felt like you were stuck in a rut doing the same thing day after day, I’ve got a quick mindset shift to help. I do NOT want you to give up on whole class novels, so let’s talk about how to make them work.

In theory, whole class novels are the bread and butter of the English classroom. But if you struggle to get students to read at home and you’re finding the daily routine of covering a few pages every day a total slog, I hear you. You might have heard me talk about this with Amanda from Mud & Ink Teaching last year on the pod, and I really appreciated her ideas, which, combined with hearing from lots of teachers trying to figure out how to run a whole class novel unit successfully, have led me to think even more about this.

So here’s my suggestion - create days of the week that are focused on different things, and give that whole class novel a break sometimes. Sounds pretty simple, right? Too simple? Hear me out.

I’ve always been amazed at just how many things English teachers are supposed to cover, and going through every standard from 7th grade ELA to 12th grade ELA last year when I was creating planning materials for The Lighthouse just drove that point home. No doubt you’re trying to figure out how to advance your students’ work in vocabulary, writing forms, reading comprehension, public speaking, and listening. Plus, you’re a creative teacher who wants them to be engaged in real world work with an authentic audience.

Making a shift away from covering each night’s reading the next day in class will help you move forward across your priorities, and give your students more time to read in between text-centered classes.

Maybe on Mondays you spend fifteen minutes on choice reading and then you’re working on podcasts related to the essential question of your whole class novel. Tuesdays you’re doing a quick reading check-in activity and then a Harkness discussions on the chapters students have read across the previous few days on their own. Wednesdays might be focused on 15 minutes of choice reading and then writing practice, trying a variety of creative prompts around short stories, poems, audio clips, and articles related, again, to the themes of the whole class novel but read right there in class so you know everyone is on the same page. Thursdays might be a deep dive into the whole class novel with small groups or partners engaging in activities like close reading, reader’s theater, mini-debates, theme one-pagers, or whatever else you’re excited to do related to the novel. Then Friday could be for First Chapter Fridays, 15 minutes of choice reading, and some vocabulary work.

This is just one imagined example of how you could structure a week with plenty of variety. The bottom line is, you don’t need to talk about your whole class novel every day to DO a whole class novel.

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Interview 5: David Tsumura, Professor Emeritus at Japan Bible Seminary