Teaching Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

LadyKaylee · Post by **LadyKaylee** » 25 Nov 2014, 13:23

I teach 8th grade, and we're starting Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. For those of you who have read it (especially in school), do you have any tips on making Bradbury's prose more approachable to students?

Skillian · Post by **Skillian** » 25 Nov 2014, 19:12

I had a teacher that wasn't against cliffnotes or 'spoiling' a little in order to get us going on it. Basically he would go ahead and explain the book to a degree before making us read a portion of it. Granted we also knew about the book ahead of time.. so those who did want to read it without spoilers had time to. He would give us as assignment of...while reading to look for examples of things we just learned. It almost made it like a treasure hunt. We would share quotes and scenes the next day. And it would be like... OK here is a list of ten things you can look for. If you find five you get a five out of five.... if you find more those are bonus. He would encourage us to find all ten just in case one of our examples we found turned out to be wrong. In the end pretty much everyone had a perfect or more on the assignment. While it was only worth a few points.... it still is a major confidence booster to get a better than perfect score... and that enthusiasm.. for me at least... carried into future assignments.

After finishing the book we had a paper. And having been trained initially to look out for symbolism... metaphors... specific word usage of the author... whatever you want...etc. It made it more interesting... slowed us down and prevented us from skimming mindlessly. It also made it easier to have something to talk about in the paper. Versus the dreaded 'oh gosh I don't know what else to write.. I summarized the book in a paragraph... I need a page! oh no!'

haha. Obviously I enjoyed that class. Maybe it is an approach you can go for.

All I know is the worst approach to books in school for me was assigning it to be read over the weekend... and showing up on Monday for a quiz on tiny details I couldn't remember despite reading the book. It made me switch to studying cliff notes instead of actually reading.. because when I did that I got more questions right on those quizzes. haha

LadyKaylee · Post by **LadyKaylee** » 25 Nov 2014, 20:03

I love your treasure hunt idea! I have my students divided into groups, so they can act like teams to find everything. Thank you for sharing!

Jason Foo · Post by **Jason Foo** » 30 Jun 2025, 08:26

I remembered reading this book before when I was in high school, and it made me think that reading is essential for us to gather all the facts we need as individuals to understand the future. This mindset made me wonder: are we a few steps closer to creating a better world, or are there some drawbacks that prevent it? If I have to influence more people to read this book, it is not to think that reading is boring or a waste of time, and that not all books can engage the same mindset since everyone has their interests, and they continue to expand, which is how this book led me to that point of view