Language Arts · Grade 12

Active learning ideas

Romanticism in the Novel

Active learning helps students grasp postmodern and metafictional techniques because these concepts are abstract and best understood through doing rather than passive reading or lecture. By engaging with texts through collaboration and role play, students experience firsthand how narrative authority shifts between author and character, making the theoretical concrete.

• Ontario Curriculum Expectations
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.5
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.3

• 30–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• Inquiry Circle
• 50 min · Small Groups

Inquiry Circle: The Intertextual Web

Groups are given a postmodern passage filled with references to other books, movies, or historical events. They must 'untangle' the web by identifying the references and discussing how each one changes the meaning of the current story.

Analyze how Romantic emphasis on emotion and individualism shaped novelistic protagonists.

Facilitation Tip

During Collaborative Investigation, assign each group a different postmodern novel and provide guiding questions that focus on the text’s relationship with its own fictionality.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'How does the Romantic emphasis on emotion differ from the Enlightenment's focus on reason, and how do we see this difference reflected in the main characters of novels like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?' Encourage students to cite specific character actions and motivations.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Self-Awareness

Activity 02

• Role Play
• 30 min · Pairs

Role Play: The Author vs. The Character

In pairs, one student plays an author trying to finish a story, and the other plays a character who refuses to follow the script. This 'meta' role play helps students understand how postmodernism challenges authorial control.

Compare the portrayal of nature in Romantic novels with earlier literary periods.

Facilitation Tip

In Role Play, assign students roles as either the author or the character, ensuring they prepare arguments based on their assigned perspective before the debate begins.

What to look for

Provide students with short excerpts from a pre-Romantic novel and a Romantic novel. Ask them to identify and list at least two specific stylistic or thematic differences related to setting or character portrayal, referencing key Romantic concepts.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Activity 03

• Gallery Walk
• 45 min · Whole Class

Gallery Walk: The 'Choose Your Own' Ending

Students write three different, non-traditional endings for a story they've read (e.g., an ending that breaks the fourth wall). They display them for a gallery walk where peers vote on which ending is the most 'postmodern' and why.

Explain how Romantic authors used setting to reflect internal psychological states.

Facilitation Tip

For Gallery Walk, curate a variety of 'choose your own ending' excerpts and provide sticky notes so students can annotate their reactions to each version.

What to look for

Students write a one-paragraph response explaining how a specific natural setting in a Romantic novel (e.g., the Alps in 'Frankenstein') serves not just as a backdrop but as a reflection of a character's inner turmoil or emotional state.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teaching postmodernism and metafiction requires a balance between playfulness and depth. Avoid dismissing students’ initial reactions to 'weird' texts as irrelevant, as these reactions often lead to meaningful discussions about narrative authority. Research suggests that students engage more deeply when they see these techniques as tools for exploring serious questions about power, truth, and representation, rather than as mere stylistic choices.

Successful learning is evident when students can articulate how metafiction challenges traditional storytelling and can identify specific examples of self-referentiality in a text. They should also explain the purpose behind these techniques, not just describe them.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Collaborative Investigation, watch for students who dismiss postmodern texts as 'random' or 'meaningless.'

  Use their confusion to guide them to the text’s guiding questions, which focus on how the story comments on its own fictionality. Ask them to look for moments where the narrative ‘breaks the fourth wall’ or questions its own construction.

• During Role Play, watch for students who treat the debate as a joke rather than a serious exploration of narrative authority.

  Remind them that the goal is to explore who holds power in storytelling. Ask them to reference specific lines from their texts to support their arguments, shifting the focus from humor to analysis.

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Methods used in this brief

• Inquiry Circle
• Role Play
• Gallery Walk