Teaching the novel shouldn't be gone with the wind

As a seventh-grader in the '90s, Miah Daugherty wanted to "conquer" a "big" book. She read Gone with the Wind, which was both enthralling and educational. "The battlefield of the novel is where knowledge is built, ideas are forged, and lives change," she writes. But students have to learn how to tackle a complex novel.

In middle-school classes, she read "The Pearl by John Steinbeck (bored), The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (really bored), Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor (loved), and The Giver by Lois Lowry (really loved)," Daugherty writes. Even the ones she didn't enjoy helped her grow intellectually.

Reading excerpts doesn't build students' mental endurance or help them see patterns and character shifts, she writes. Students don't become invested.

"Complex, well-written novels ask readers to inhabit the lives of others for extended periods of time, not just three paragraphs but three hundred pages," Daugherty writes. Readers "navigate complexity" and build empathy.

Teachers must "know the novel so deeply that you can anticipate students’ questions in advance," she writes. With "the right hook, the right book, and the right teacher," students will read -- and "will carry those characters, sentences, words, and worlds beyond the classroom and into their adult lives."

Daugherty thinks students benefit from reading a mix of classic and contemporary novels. After once assigning Hunger Games, Daugherty adds advice for teachers: Don't teach the book kids are already reading. It's a waste of class time.

I was a voracious reader -- and still am. Like Daugherty, I made the transition from kids' books to adult books in sixth and seventh grade, though I never thought of it in terms of conquest. I liked to explore new worlds.