“Why do we need to study British Literature in Cambodia?”

This 12 grade student had the same question I asked myself when I was approached about teaching this class at the close of last school year. Of course, I didn’t actually voice this question to the administration the way he voiced it to me on this day. But I did go and get some answers and fortunately, I had the foresight to teach these answers to the students before we began our British literature adventure.

“Great question!” I enthusiastically said. “One reason can be seen in our need to be able to really analyze people and time periods and relate those qualities and influences to the art and literary works of their time period. This just is one of the ways we come to grasp a fuller understanding of our world and the people who shape our cultures. We need to be able to analyze an author, for example, and see the connections between their character and personality and the literary work they produced.” Although I didn’t tell him, I knew that this was the reason I chose this particular standard for this Gothic literature unit where Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is used as our primary text.

Virginia State English 12 Standard | Reading 12.4.d

Relate literary works and authors to major themes and issues of their eras.

Through this unit students will become proficient at:

Identifying themes in literature

Identifying the major issues of the romantic time period

Understanding the concept of author profiling

Connecting common era issues with themes in literature

Connecting author personality with key themes in literature

Students will prove their proficiency through three formative and one summative assessment. Two Plickers quizzes will be presented in the unit as a check for understanding. In addition, a reflection paper on the learning outcome of the “anticipate” activity will serve as a formative check for understanding. As a summative assessment the students will create a storyboard that includes characteristics and personality traits of Mary Shelley, issues of the Romantic era and connect them with the major themes in Frankenstein.   

The first activity to engage and move students towards proficiency will involve anticipating the personality traits of the author, Mary Shelley, by reading a bio of the romantic era and a short bio on Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley’s mother. The students will speculate on the personality of Mary Shelley by writing a fictitious bio. The students will then read a real bio on Mary Shelley and compare and contrast the real bio with their speculative bio.

The second activity to engage and move students towards proficiency will involve anticipating the major themes of Frankenstein by reading a second bio on Mary Shelley and the romantic era. Students will list speculative themes (at least 5) with an accompanying explanation. Students will keep this speculative theme activity and see how many themes they got correct (or close) as they read through Frankenstein.

The third activity will involve a mix and match game where student groups are given a many themes to multiple British literature text of the romantic era. The students will read excerpts from each novel and choose which theme belongs to which novel. They will need to give a reason for that particular theme connecting with a particular novel. The game will end with answers revealed and explained.