A colleague gifted me this cool mug. It’s covered with some of the best sentences in literary history. One day, while sipping and excellent cup of Earl Grey and marveling over these one-statement masterpieces, it occurred to me that these sentences might just be enough to hook students into reading some of the best books in literary history.
What do you do immediately after your students check out Frankenstien?
Is there a slideshow about upcoming themes and motifs? Is there lecture to create an understanding of context? Is there a dimming of the lights and a retelling of how on a dark and stormy night in Switzerland in 1816, a group of literary types challenged each other to a contest of who could write the scariest ghost story?
I suppose those are all perfectly good ways to kick off the study of a brilliant classic.
However, what if you could interest students without all of that? After all, do those strategies really connect students to a text they know will be a difficult read, a forced read? Okay, the dark and stormy night ghost story challenge might, but I don’t know if the others do. You might need to hook students with something else first and then go into historical context, themes, and motifs.
On the second page of Toni Morrison’s foreword to her novel Song of Solomon, she begins a full, one-page breakdown of the first sentence of her novel. She starts by saying, “I have written…details of how certain sentences get written and the work I hope they do.”
Have your students ever thought about the work a sentence does? I’m betting most of them have not. What if they did, though? What if, instead of two days of tedious note taking on the background of the story and the author, what if they spent two class periods considering the work a sentence does?
Here’s her sentence:
The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance agent promised to fly from Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior at 3:00.
On the surface, it’s not exactly the most compelling thing ever written. However, we aren’t examining the surface. In her foreword, Morrison explains that the tone of that one sentence is meant to mock a “journalistic style” of any small town newspaper. The named insurance company is a “well-known black company dependent on black clients”. Even the direction of the intended flight from “North Carolina” to Lake Superior mirrors the common south to north migration of black people.
Her analysis focuses on the important words fly and mercy. Your students should, too. What does the narrator mean by fly? Is the insurance agent in an airplane? Because if he isn’t (and–spoiler alert–he isn’t), the sentence suddenly takes on a whole different meaning. Morrison explores the word promise, as well. She explains, “The sentence turns, as all sentences do, on its verb. The insurance agent does not declare, announce, or threaten his act; he promises.”
The work of this sentence doesn’t stop at word choice. Morrison analyzes the tone as mocking the simplicity of small town journalism. How does it do that? Yes, words help determine tone, but so does sentence structure. Have students experiment with rewording the sentence. What happens to the tone if the sentence reads as follows?
“I will fly from Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior at 3:00,” promised the North Carolina Mutual Life insurance agent.
Or
From Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior, the North Carolina Mutual Life insurance agent promised he would fly.
See how the arrangement of words shifts the focus of certain ideas? See how it can also confuse meaning? It certainly affects tone.
What about verb tense? Morrison claims that the sentence turns on its verb, promised. What happens if we change to present tense?
The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance agent promises to fly from Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior at 3:00.
Or past perfect?
The North Carolina Mutual Insurance agent had promised to fly from Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior.
Let’s not leave out analyzing articles. There’s a difference between a life insurance agent and the life insurance agent. Additionally, why is it important that the agent represents a life insurance company and not simply an insurance company?
I’m going to stop here and offer a warning. Such intense scrutiny of the very first sentence of a classic text might intimidate students. Are they supposed to find that much meaning in every single sentence? Without certain background knowledge, how are they supposed to understand the significance of the name of the insurance company? They might not even understand the directional significance of the promised flight of the agent.
This is when you guide them to dig deep, to work together, to do a little research. That’s why I suggest you take two class periods. It will take one simply to wrap their brains around it all. The second period will be when the payoff comes. And, bonus, some of them will have been pondering this problematic sentence all night. You got them thinking about literature without them even realizing what you’re doing. I love it when that happens.
The beautiful thing about this one-sentence intensive is that not only does it create curiosity about the writing style or the story or the character, it also offers several mini bonus lessons on grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and sentence structure. If you make a practice of breaking down the first sentences of all texts you study, students will begin to think through first sentences and maybe even all sentences in their own writing. They will start to approach complex texts with confidence rather than apprehension.
In case you aren’t sold on the idea of the impact of a really good first line and the necessity to study it, I want to introduce you to the Moth Education Program. A few years ago, students from a Kansas middle school entertained a room full of ELA teachers at the annual Kansas Association of Teachers of English (KATE) conference. These students boldly stepped to a microphone and shared personal stories from memory. They were funny, poignant, clever, and oh, so impressive. These students weren’t child actors or class clowns. They were simply students whose teacher had trained them in storytelling through The Moth Education Program. There is a lot to recommend about this program. I suggest you check it out and see if it’s for you.
One point that stayed with me from their performance was the value placed on finding the right first and final lines. In creating their memorized personal stories, the students worked longer and harder on their first and last lines than on anything else. In fact, the students who didn’t have time to share their entire stories regaled us with only their first and final lines. Two lines. That’s it. Let me tell you, it was powerful. Talk about creating curiosity for the rest of the story!
Borrowing this idea from The Moth, switch up your one-line intensives. Break down first sentences sometimes and last sentences other times. With enough practice, students start examining these lines without teacher guidance. Sometimes, they even start examining first lines and final lines of chapters or strong lines that made them gasp or laugh or curse anywhere in a passage.
Can you see how diving deep into one sentence can help not only create connection to texts but also improve reading and writing skills? Additionally, it’s just fun. Most students enjoy the detective nature of the activity. If your students are like mine, they will compete to discover some juicy little nugget that the other groups or peers didn’t.
One more note, I’m gonna go ahead and give you permission to study the first lines of texts you might not even be studying in your class. Using excerpts in class is a fantastic way to encourage independent reading. Students become curious and check out the texts on their own. Furthermore, analyzing a first line from a text they will study next year provides an advance hook-in. When it’s time to read classics like Frankenstein, it’s fantastic to have a room full of students who have already engaged in analysis of the first line. They’ve already dipped their toes in that sometimes frigid water, and they are ready to dive in. They have the confidence that they can meet the demands of the complexities awaiting them.
If you are ready to try this fun, engaging, and challenging activity, I’ve created a list of my favorite classic first lines. Click here to make your own copy.
TIP: Always check out the foreword or introduction available to you in texts you study. They are usually filled with brilliant insight as is Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon.
What are your favorite first lines? What are your favorite hook-the-reader tips? We’d love to know. Share in the comments below.
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