Gladly Would I Teach

I received an email yesterday from a teacher who wanted to know if I would share my lesson plans for teaching In Cold Blood. I had to apologize to her for not sending anything because the plans that I have for teaching the book are all inside my book. I don’t type up plans for teaching; I just put everything I need inside the book itself. Until I received the email yesterday, I had never given this concept much thought.

Years ago, I created plans and typed everything to make it look pretty, but each time I made changes to the plans, and, after awhile, I realized that making plans and typing them up was just spinning my wheels because it wasn’t a valuable way for me to prepare to teach. Besides, since I’ve been teaching for decades, I also had to endure the conversion process: from typewriter to early computers; early computers to Windows based computers, and on and on and on. Those of you who are really young probably don’t understand this part, but in the first 10-15 years of personal computers, many files were not compatible from one machine to another.  It was painful!

Today, the only plans I have for teaching a book are located inside the book itself. I write/circle/underline/highlight/colorize and decorate my book with sticky notes of everything I need to teach. It’s a system that works really well for me.

First, I buy a popular HARDBACK edition of the book (one that students often also purchase). While paperbacks are fine, I prefer hardback books for teaching because I will indeed teach from that same book for decades. Paperbacks fall apart after four or five years of teaching, and I don’t want to have to transfer over my information.

What notes do I include?

• In the first pages of the book, I list  the items I want to go over with students before they begin reading, including any warnings about the book, information about the author, publication information, things I want students to pay attention to as they read. I always begin by emphasizing why the book is a classic or why it has become so popular.
• In the opening pages of the book, I also list the reading schedule I will use. For example, if we will spend three weeks on the book, I list which pages we will read the first night, second night, etc.  Then, each time I teach the book, I only need to supply dates.
• Before each block of text for nightly reading, I include notes about what I want students to pay attention to that night or the purpose for reading that night.
• On each page in the book, I highlight important information and terms or descriptions of people, etc. If there is something on the page that I definitely want to review with students in class, I circle the page number. (As I discuss the book, I always look for circled pages so I know what to go over in class.)
• On pages I will review with students, I write the corresponding page numbers for other editions of the book that students might use.
• I highlight or mark pages that I want to read aloud in class. These may be “Aha” moments or prose where music should play in the background.
• On each page or at the end of the block of reading, I write discussion questions that I will use in class.
• At the end of the book, I write the quizzes that I will give in class after each section of reading.

Each time I teach a book, I add more information to my book. After a decade of using the same book, the poor thing is covered with highlights and notes, but I have everything I need for teaching in the same place. As a result, when I prepare to teach the book for the umpteenth time, I don’t have to flip through file folders of information or computer files of handouts. All I have to do is take my book home with me. It contains everything I need to teach the book.

Except tests – I still keep them under lock and key!