As a high school English teacher in Ontario, Canada, I've taught William Golding's Lord of the Flies in 10th grade English many times. The faces of my students, many of whom are reluctant readers, suggested they needed a change. Although I didn't have the ability to change the novel, I did change the focus to bring life to the lessons.
Classroom Chaos for a Day
To make the lesson more engaging, I tried to recreate the experience of the chaotic society in Lord of the Flies. As we began the novel, students showed up to a classroom with overturned desks, chairs, garbage, and a variety of packaged food around the room. I posted the following sign on the door:
Imagine that Mrs. White is not here. Read the premises and work to accomplish the goals for the entire period.
1. Everyone is stranded on an island with no technology or access to the outside world.
2. Everyone needs order and a job for survival.
3. Everyone is hungry and thirsty and should eat a nutritionally balanced meal.
4. Everyone must work toward accomplishing the goals and tasks.
1. Establish order. Create working space and shelter. (Everyone has 20 minutes for this goal.)
2. Satisfy hunger. (Everyone has 15 minutes for this goal.)
Everyone has 40 minutes for the rest of the goals.
3. Use only the resources in the classroom to work collaboratively to complete the Setting Maps in your Novel Study Groups.
Each map MUST have an accompanying quotation from the author, William Golding.
Hang your map on the wall at the end of the period.
During the activity, I kept notes of what was happening without identifying students by name. This helped me to practice making observations without judgment or inferring meaning as much as possible.
These are notes from one observation that I shared with students.
Observations:
Behavioral order was established very quickly, within two minutes. One student pointed out the need for one person to talk at a time. One person spoke and took control as the leader with no voiced objections from the group, even though no democratic vote took place. Others spoke up occasionally and contributed to the direction of the group in the early stages.
One student kept reminding others of the goals and the time.
One student jumped to the end goal and brought the focus of the group to the final task. This decision led to dividing food based on Project Group.
Physical order of the room was not established until 9:25 a.m., and not all desks were moved into order. The order that was established met a short-term goal of getting into groups and not a long-term goal of whole-room order.
One student demonstrated skills of observation of the surroundings, found the food, and determined what papers were strewn about the room.
Following the activity, a whole-class discussion gave students time to think about themselves and the characters in the novel. They wrote reflections on the activity; I asked them how they managed the goals and how this reminded them of events or characters in the novel. Their reflections gave me insight into what they learned about themselves as they made connections to what they had read. I didn't need to test them on the content of the plot; they were more interested in figuring out which character they were like and how the whole class experience was similar or different to the novel.
Build Upon Sensory Experiences
Students can build upon their understanding of characters and themes using modern modes of communication, such as podcasts. For example, one group of students produced a hockey game podcast about the "Lord of the Flies Islanders." These boys used the novel as the source of information, but their interests in hockey and sportscasts drove the creation. The novel gained significance and relevance when they could make connections with their own lived experiences. Through a focus on imagination in the context of their own lives, students engaged with the novel and rescued themselves through reading.
