"if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything."
Why this novel, Persuasion? Well for one, I wanted a novel that was by a female author - and Jane Austen is one of the greatest writers in English regardless of gender. For many years we did her most famous book, Pride and Prejudice, but I switched over about half way through my 30 year career for a number of reasons. The first is that this book directly speaks to matters that were very important to my students. Life choices, being persuaded out of following your dreams, vanity, even the idea of "influencers". Persuasion, also very much belongs in the Romantic Era - it both is a product of, and exemplifies so many of that era's precepts. In addition, there is a great connect with this book to the their next novel - "The French Lieutenant's Woman". It is Austen's most mature book, to boot, and for my students, who were almost seniors - they too were on the edge of maturity.
Though I include a Solo Work below - I don't really see it as an option. You should always have an Opening Discussion for novels - but for the longest time I was constrained by the year's schedule. The students were working on their Research Papers and I needed to have conferences with them, so having them work in Groups, while I met with individual students was the only option. In any case, the discussion here is a Vertext. The students are presented with quotes (Oh my gosh - the quotes from this novel are amazing, funny, and so timely that the students can't believe it), and the discussion grows from those lines. I have also included below a version of the Vertext (Discussion) for a shortened reading, Chapters 1 to 3, as well as a matching quiz. There is SO much in these wonderful opening chapters - so much that students will be able to identify with. Anne is talked out of the most fateful decision of her life - and she has spent the rest of her short life regretting it. We see influencers, economic downturns, vanity out of control, disdain for the poor and downtrodden by some discpicable characters. But the students always feel the greatest affinity for that idea of young people being forced into life choices that are not their own.
This was a new invention of mine - I wanted the students to look at these next chapters by examining some very important and representative quotes AND I also needed the time to meet with students about their Research Papers. That made it impossible to do a Row Reading or a Vertext Discussion, like the last lesson, so I came up with a way to have the students do the same thing (a combination of Row Reading and a Vertext) - in small groups, rather than with the entire class - and I could meet with individual students.
Like our normal Row Reading Discussions, they will divide there group up to cover all the assigned chapters. Each member will come up with two things for those assigned chapters. When they've got those - they come together and first discuss the items (comment, question, quote, or a link to something else we've studied) they came up. Next they go over the quotes that I provided for each chapter.
For these Chapters (and I've included variants that being with Chapter 14 as well), there are three possible ways to cover these Chapters. There is the Quote Small Group Discussion (see the last lesson), there is a Vertext (see my page on Class Discussion Methods if you're not familiar with these), and finally, as with the last lesson there is a Slide for a Row Reading Discussion where the assigned reading is divided, based on rows, and each student gets to start the conversation based on a quote, comment, question or link that they find before the discussion begins.
The Vertext is actually like the Small Group Quote Discussion except it takes place with the entire class. Then, like our normal Row Reading Discussions, they will divide there group up to cover all the assigned chapters. Each member will come up with two things for those assigned chapters. When they've got those - they come together and first discuss the items (comment, question, quote, or a link to something else we've studied) they came up. Next they go over the quotes that I provided for each chapter.
This is our final discussion for the novel. In addition to the methods already seen in the first three Lessons, there is another type that I've included here. The class would for the first 10 minutes get into Groups (1-6) based on the six chapters that were assigned for the day. Each Group has two things to get done in their 10 minutes: For Part 1, they have to answer a question (with specifics, as always, and using textual evidence). For Part 2, they have to write a brief summary of the Chapter. Then after the 10 minutes, the class would get together and we would go through - first their summary, and then their question and the answer that they came up with for it. Everyone will take notes on what everyone else came up. Nothing is collected, but is used to help them study for their Persuasion Exam. - The other method (and the one that I used the most) was the Small Group Quote Discussions.
