5 Literary Analysis Tips for Middle School
The words literary analysis spark fear in just about every middle school student on the planet.
I mean, it’s kind of a scary term.
Literary analysis.
It sounds so collegiate!
And here our middle school students are clunking around in their Crocs, performing the latest TikTok dances to the wall mirror. Can we really expect them to master something like . . . literary analysis?
Believe it or not, we can.
The term may sound intimidating, but at its heart, literary analysis is all about forming opinions and arguing about them — and that’s what our middle school students do best.
Here are 5 tips for teaching literary analysis to your middle school students.
1. Start with what your students already know.
Are your students obsessed with their Crocs? Tell them to design Jibbitz that their book characters would wear in their Crocs. Are your students constantly bopping around to the latest TikTok trend? Let them create a new dance that represents their character! Whatever it is that your students are currently obsessed with — let them use that for their literary analysis. The more our middle schoolers can relate to the characters in their books, the more they will be able to analyze their character’s personality and choices. And that’s what we want!
2. Give your students sentence stems.
Sometimes, when it comes to literary analysis, our middle school students just don’t know where to start! I’ve found that it’s super helpful to give my middle schoolers sentence stems to help them get started with their literary analysis journey. For example, when my students are designing Jibbitz for their book characters’ Crocs, I give them sentence stems like this:
“My character would wear _______________ in their Crocs because they ____________________________. For example, on page ________, it says . . . “
It might seem a little elementary, but when middle school students are starting out with literary analysis, they often need a little hand-holding. Later on, when they have gained some confidence, they can analyze without the sentence stems.
3. Provide examples from your whole-class read-alouds.
Every day, I spend at least ten minutes reading a middle-grades chapter book to my students. One of my favorite books to read out loud is Ungifted, by Gordon Korman, and one of my favorite literary analysis essay prompts is this: “Invent a sandwich that represents a character from your book.”
Instead of asking my students to create sandwiches for characters in Ungifted (and undoubtedly have half the class creating the same sandwich), I ask them to create sandwiches for the characters in their independent-reading books.
Since everyone is familiar with Ungifted, I write a sample essay about Donovan, whose sandwich has unbuttered bread (for his ungifted abilities), surprising banana peppers (for his rash decisions), and a blend of unripe and ripe tomatoes (to show his change of maturity throughout the book).
The students get it because they’re familiar with the character, and they can clearly see how I analyzed Donovan and turned him into a sandwich.
I then release them to create sandwiches for the characters in their own books, and we end up with an amazing variety!
4. Break it down.
Have you ever looked at a students’ paper and wondered where it all went wrong?
Me too.
Unfortunately, the reality is that our middle school students may not understand literary analysis the first time we explain it to them, and if we wait until they’ve finished their entire analysis, we may not know where the disconnect happened.
Instead, I give my students one small section of their literary analysis at a time.
For example, when my students write their first literary analysis essay, I assign JUST the thesis statement first.
Then I assign JUST the topic sentences.
Then they write JUST the reasoning.
And after each step of this literary analysis, I provide feedback so the kids know what to fix before they move on and the whole analysis goes up in flames.
By the time my students are finding their text evidence, they are hopefully on the right track. At least I can sleep at night knowing I did what I could to get them there.
5. Give your students something to look forward to.
Let’s face it.
Even when we make it fun and as simple as possible, literary analysis is still a lot of work. That’s not a bad thing. Good things take work. That’s just reality!
Still, it helps if our students have something to look forward to as they are combing through their book pages, looking for the perfect text evidence.
When my students invented sandwiches for their book characters, I let them actually make their sandwiches and bring them to class for everyone to taste. It was a big hit!
The literary analysis essays were still a lot of work, but there was a fun event to look forward to, and it inspired the kids to put in their best effort.
(Plus, we got amazing pictures for the yearbook!)
So, yes.
The words literary analysis may not sound fun. The term may not even seem attainable.
But with a little fun and guidance, middle school students can analyze literature successfully, and they can live to tell the tale—with plenty of textual evidence, of course.
Here are a few of my favorite literary analysis resources. Click the image below!
