“Lord of the Flies” is one of those novels that is taught often within the schools. It can be found most often in high schools and middle schools. However, “Lord of the Flies” is also one of those novels that is sometimes hard for the students to understand¹. Although they may be able to answer questions about it, sometimes the action is hard to follow. To help students understand it, during reading they should have questions that lead them to the most important aspects of each chapter. After reading the movie should be shown to provide a summary of the book and allow the students to see what it is they’ve been imagining. In this instance, the movie directed by Peter Brook in 1963 is the preferred version. But before reading there are a few different activities that can be used to get the students in the right mind for this novel.

One very effective way of getting the students ready to read a particular text is to get them in the “mood” for the text. Another way of putting that is to say that the context is being set for the text. For “Lord of the Flies,” a great activity that can be used for the students to get in the mood of the text is to create a “message in a bottle.” Materials for this would include “aged” paper along with some form of bottle. An example would be empty water bottles without the labels. As for the paper, it can either be aged by soaking it in dark tea and then baking it in the oven or aged paper can be purchased. The point is to provide the students with paper that could have been with them when they had a plane wreck. Have the students write a letter to whomever they choose on the paper. The topic should include what their life on the island has been like in the past week on the island, as they are to act as if they are shipwrecked on a deserted island² just like the boys are in the book. This is an effective way of setting the mood for the story and it also improves writing skills and specifically letter writing skills as the teacher will assess the writing and help the students come up with clear images of how life has been on the island.

Another technique for increasing the understanding of “Lord of the Flies” before it is read is to introduce the students to vocabulary found within the book or a specific passage in the book. For example, the following text contains words that may or may not be understood by the students:

The shore was fledged with palm trees. These stood or leaned or reclined against the light and their green feathers were a hundred feet up in the air. The ground beneath them was a bank covered with coarse grass, torn everywhere by the upheavals of fallen trees, scattered with decaying coconuts and palm saplings. Behind this was the darkness of the forest proper and the open space of the scar. Ralph stood, one hand against a grey trunk, and screwed up his eyes against the shimmering water. Out there, perhaps a mile away, the white surf flinked on a coral reef, and beyond that the open sea was dark blue. Within the irregular arc of coral the lagoon was still as a mountain lake—blue of all shades and shadowy green and purple. The beach between the palm terrace and the water was a thin stick, endless apparently, for to Ralph’s left the perspectives of palm and beach and water drew to a point at infinity; and always, almost visible, was the heat³.

Vocabulary words within the text could be “fledged,” “upheavals,” “saplings,” “flinked,” “irregular,” “apparently,” “perspectives,” and “infinity.” An excellent graphic organizer for learning vocabulary is the Personal Word List⁴. Following is an example of a Personal Word List using those words:

Students can be given that form along with the excerpt from the book and be asked to fill out the chart as best as they can. Dictionaries can be provided if necessary to fill out the optional fourth column. This will help the students understand those words when they come to them within the text. Teachers should feel free to discuss the words as much as possible and use them in more modern sentences that relate to the students in their daily lives.

Finally, another reading strategy that can be used before the book is even read is to analyze the title. This is simple to explain, but teachers are encouraged to make this activity their own so they can have some fun with the students. The title, “Lord of the Flies,” should be given to the students. They should write down the title and begin writing what they think the title means. The teacher can then ask the students to share their concepts of the meaning of the title. As the teacher and students discuss the title the teacher can help the students understand that “flies” can mean death and that “lord” can mean leader or “god.” The discussion should continue until a meaning of the title is obtained by each student. That meaning should be written down in a journal or notebook so that when the book is finished, the students can go back to their title meaning and determine if they were correct or how close they came to the actual meaning of the title before even reading the story. This strategy helps students learn to infer what a book may be about based on the title alone. In some instances this may cause confusion depending on how well the author titled their book, but in other cases, such as with “Lord of the Flies,” finding the meaning of the title or predicting that meaning can help the students understand the text more and keep them focused on the important aspects of the book.

“Lord of the Flies” may be a tough book for students to read, but when strategies for after reading and during reading are used, the students will understand the book better. However, strategies used before they even read the book are the best preparation the students can receive in order to begin understanding the book the moment they begin to read it. Using all of the categories of strategies will enable students to understand tough material better than ever before. Teachers are encouraged to use these strategies as a jumping off point. They should come up with their own that fit their own teaching styles along with what is available to them by way of materials and ideas.

1. I had a tough time with it too when I first read it. [«]
2. Won’t be needing international credit cards there. [«]
3. Golding, W. (1954). Lord of the Flies. New York, New York: The Putnam Publishing Group. [«]
4. Vacca, R. T., & Vacca, J. L. (2005). Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum. Boston, Massachusettes: Pearson Education, Inc. [«]

• Classroom Management: The “Conch” Works
• Writing Tips: The Conversational Style
• Modified Poetry Reading: Marvel the Blues
• The Personas of Saphrym
• Book Review: Twilight Series

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.