As noted in the article, "Teaching Thinking and Writing for a New Century", “instruction needs to engage students in exploring problems that are intrinsically interesting to them, that have no quick or easy solutions but are open to a variety of solutions and/or interpretations, and that are complex but not too complex or abstract for their particular level” (Johannessen, 2001, p. 39). Often, teachers feel restricted by the curriculum because the novels assigned are old and uninteresting to students, but designing units a different way can help teachers who are still not allowed to choose their own books make the content interesting for students.
Unit Design Source: George Hillocks, Teaching Argument Writing
Sticking with the idea of having students come up with their own definitions of a concept, teachers can organize their units around these concepts rather than around a particular novel or work. Examples of this could be the theme of courage, with texts includes such as the Diary of Anne Frank, among others, or the theme of love and hate with Romeo and Juliet. The Great Gatsby could be included in a unit about hope and hopelessness, along with other poems and short stories. Students can start by defining what hope is, and what it is not. They can then read the texts and compare them to how they relate to the overall concept of hope. Questions can be asked in regards to whether or not hope is admirable in all situations, like in Gatsby’s.
Students then will develop knowledge and opinions about concepts that they can apply to other texts they read, rather than just understanding the individual texts. This keeps unit design interesting because texts can be paired and compared in different ways, and teachers can design units around something besides just a novel. Most teachers read some other types of text, but generally the focus is on novels. Designing a unit around a conceptual idea allows teachers to bring in other texts like short stories that students can often relate more to. This also allows teachers to bring in more modern texts as well, since they can be read alongside the required material.