To introduce Mary Shelley’s novel, I try to tie in the students’ daily lives with the ideas of the novel. To do this, I write eight of the major themes that occur in the novel on the board. These themes include but are not limited to: beauty, revenge, pursuit of knowledge, ambition, science, conflict with parent and child, friendship, nature. I ask the students to reflect on their experiences and to jot down some ideas about each theme, and then to decide if the theme/idea is good, bad, or a combination of both. This stimulates some really heated discussion.

Sometimes I pull in the newspaper as part of this introduction and ask the kids to find examples of good, bad, and a combination of both for each of these themes.

Then, in groups, I have the kids draw two columns on their papers. In the first, they are to list at least three “facts” that they know about the novel. In the second, they predict how Shelley will teach a moral lesson or make some observation about life using these facts. Newspapers would also be helpful in this part of the lesson.

Finally, I give the students a list of features that are characterized as “romantic” and discuss Shelley’s life. I share with them that the novel was written as a result of a challenge to write a ghost story. We read together parts of her intro to the novel where she describes how she came up with the idea of the novel.

It’s all a very interesting day, and the kids feel like they have a vested interest in the novel.

At the end of the novel, I revisit the eight themes listed above. I ask the kids to work either alone or in small groups to create a theme poster. Choosing one of the themes, they are to find at least five passages in the text that refer to that theme, photos, art, words, etc. that fully illustrate the theme in question. The final poster should wholly show how Shelley makes use of the theme throughout the novel. The student/group then presents it to the class.

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Amy Lepore

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