Active Reading: Previewing Novels (1)

Essays on the Teaching of English
Raymond Stopper
Based on His Book, Teaching English, How To….

Active Reading: Previewing Novels (1)

10-Second Review: Plunging into a novel.

The previous technique of previewing textbook chapters is well known in education. It is called “chapter survey.” How can this technique be adapted to reading a long work of fiction, a novel?

When I attended Syracuse University, I learned about a technique that was useful for students who had a difficult time starting and completing reading assignments—in this case, novels. The originator of the idea, a professor named Dr. Shirk from the University of Kansas at Missouri, called the technique “Successive Sieves.” His target: reluctant readers at the college level.

The students gathered in small groups and read for ten minutes somewhere near the beginning of the novel and then shared what they had learned with each other. Since the students read at different places in the beginning, collectively they had covered a good portion of the beginning section of the novel. The students then reported to the group what they had read, including character, setting and plot. They repeated the process about half way through the novel, then ¾ of the way through the novel, and at the end of the novel.

Each time students explained what they had read and collectively they would put together a pretty good review of the novel. The cost in time was less than two hours. As a result of this “preview,” students were prepared to participate in class discussions and even to take quizzes. Such an activity was certainly superior to not reading at all. But such an activity, I discovered, also had a surprisingly desirable side-effect.

When I tried this technique in class, I found something wonderful happening. The “preview” from different parts of the novel proved to be a terrific discussion starter—and motivator. One night in a continuing education class at a community college, I tried the technique with Knowles’s A Separate Peace, a novel I’m not crazy about. I just happened to have enough copies for every member of the class.

The class read for ten minutes near the beginning, in the middle, ¾ through and near the end of the novel. After each reading, they told what they had learned and began asking questions about the meaning of the novel. But I was unprepared for the class’s response to previewing the novel. When I was ready to collect the books, hands shot up. The students wanted to take the novel home to read. They had been motivated by the sampling and the discussion and the questions raised to want to read the entire novel. About 80% of the class took A Separate Peace home that night. It was not assigned reading.

I immediately began thinking about how to make use of this discovery in teaching novels in my English classes. In my next essay, I will tell you how I used it.