Teaching Short Stories: Unit Makeover [S4 E107]

Listen to the full episode below about doing a unit makeover:

Who doesn’t love a good makeover? Well friends, today we’re talking about giving our favorite kind of makeover - a unit makeover! Specifically, a short stories unit makeover.

The reason we’re creating this episode during the summer is because we have heard from many of you that your first unit is short stories. We’ve also heard from you that this unit has not yielded much success for various reasons.

So, if you are in the same boat and do a short stories unit to kick off the year, we want to go through this unit makeover with you. Then you’ll be able to make the changes you want to make in order for it to be as successful as possible for your students.

You’ll hear the steps that we take in the unit makeover process and we’ll also dive into a specific unit makeover that Marie has done. Our process will help you to easily revamp any unit by creating a vision, nailing down an essential question, gathering supplemental texts, and preparing unit assessments.

Check out Marie’s fairy tale vision board:

Be sure to sign up for our free unit makeover challenge so that you can give your units a glow-up too! This is a 10-day email series that will allow you to implement each step of our process on your own time! Sign up below or learn more here.

Do you have a teacher friend who would also benefit from a short stories unit makeover? Share this episode with them so you can go through this process together!

Topics Covered:

• Details of a unit that Marie did on short stories

• How to think about your short story unit in a few different ways

• The problem with starting the year with short texts and reviewing terms

• The disjointed feeling that often happens with any given unit

• Identifying a unit that may need a makeover, and the steps to take in the unit makeover process

Resources:

• Sign up for the free Unit Makeover Challenge

• Check out vision board examples

• Listen to our interview on Cult of Pedagogy: Make Units More Inspiring with Vision Boards

• Is it Time to Rewrite Fairy Tales?

• Join Curriculum Rehab

• Connect with us on Instagram @bravenewteaching

• Follow Marie on Instagram: @thecaffeinatedclass

• Follow Amanda on Instagram: @mudandinkteaching

• Let us know what you think! Leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

Related Episodes:

• Episode 89, Text Pairings & Supplements: Where to Start

• Episode 81, Essential Question Workshop: Dystopia (Woohoo!)

• Episode 59, Essential Question Workshop: 12th Grade Lit

• Episode 49, To Ask Shakespeare Essential Questions

• Episode 31, To Get Started with Essential Questions

• Episode 16, To Find Supplementary Texts

More about Brave New Teaching:

Join hosts Amanda Cardenas (Mud & Ink Teaching) and Marie Morris (The Caffeinated Classroom) in discussions about being brave, trying new things, and all things teaching! As seasoned classroom teachers, Amanda and Marie bring their experience, insight, energy, and oh, so many opinions and ideas... It's time for all teachers to take their classroom and teaching practice into their own hands!

Tune in on your favorite podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.