As a student myself, through college, and even into the first few years of my teaching career, I always thought of units in terms of the text they used. I thought about my unit on Romeo and Juliet or A Raisin in the Sun. After a few years though, my focus shifted, and I began taking a skill-based learning approach.
Now, I think about my unit focused on speaking skills or my unit about writing an essay.
After all, my students don’t need to know Animal Farm for life, but they do need critical thinking skills. They don’t need to know Fahrenheit 451, but they do need to know how to support their ideas with evidence.
In this post, I’m going to talk about the importance of skill-based learning over novel-focused teaching.
Skill-Based Learning: Equipping Students for Success
Skill-based learning is a pedagogical approach that prioritizes the development of transferable skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.
Unlike traditional methods that focus solely on content mastery, skill-based learning empowers students with tools they can apply across various subjects and real-life situations.
The Advantages of Skill-Based Learning:
- Adaptability: In an era of rapid change, adaptability is key. Skill-based learning equips students with the flexibility to navigate diverse challenges and opportunities.
- Lifelong Learning: By fostering a culture of continuous improvement, skill-based learning prepares students for a lifetime of learning and growth.
- Equity and Inclusion: Skill-based learning ensures that all students, regardless of background or ability, have access to the tools they need to succeed.
A skill-based learning unit will have goals like, “Students will be able to identify comma mistakes in writing.” Or, they might be something like, “Students will be able to synthesize information from multiple sources.”
These learning targets focus on what students will be able to do. Notice that the skills are not limited to ELA classes. Grammar and writing are important for every field. Being able to synthesize information is necessary for any content area.
These learning targets are not text-dependent. They don’t require students to have mastery over any particular poem or novel. Students can use any text to practice these skills.
Novel-Focused Teaching: Exploring Literary Worlds
On the other hand, novel-focused teaching revolves around the in-depth study of specific literary works. This approach delves into the analysis of themes, characters, and literary devices within a particular novel, aiming to deepen students’ understanding and appreciation of literature.
The Advantages of Novel-Focused Teaching:
- Engagement: Immersing students in rich literary worlds can spark curiosity, foster empathy, and ignite a passion for reading.
- Depth of Analysis: Novel-focused teaching encourages students to delve deeply into the nuances of a text, honing their critical thinking and analytical skills.
- Cultural Exploration: Through the study of diverse literary works, students gain insights into different cultures, perspectives, and historical contexts.
Novel-focused teaching is fun. When we all originally dreamed of being English teachers, it was probably novel-focused teaching that we imagined.
Those posters we made in grade school about characters? Novel-focused. Diorama projects about setting? Novel-focused.
When we have students express their opinions of a text, step into a character’s shoes in a creative writing prompt, or ask them to illustrate a scene, these are generally novel-focused assessments.
These activities have a place, but they don’t always demonstrate skills that can be transferred to another subject matter.
Skill-Based Learning vs. Novel-Focused Teaching: Finding the Balance
When you set out to create a new unit or map out a new curriculum, start with skill-based learning.
After all, you want students to leave your classroom better equipped for the world, not just their next English class.
Novels shouldn’t be the focus of your unit. Rather, they should be the tools you use to teach your unit’s skills.
Take, for example, my Persepolis Unit. When I designed this unit, my aim was to teach students how to create claims, use evidence, and support their ideas with reasoning. Persepolis was the text I chose to support teaching these skills.
There are three lessons in the unit (one discussing communism in Persepolis, one about the recent riots in Iran, and one about education in Persepolis). With each, students must use their claim, evidence, and reasoning skills, but the text gives them something to write about.
Skills-based learning doesn’t mean you can’t read awesome literature or have fun activities. But the skills should come first. The text is how you get students there.
Conclusion
If you want to prepare students for the world as best you can, skills-based learning should be your focus.
However, a balance of this approach and novel-focused teaching is the best way to create an engaging classroom.
