This weekend I read the final drafts of the Accelerated English III essays in which students could recommend Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and/or George Orwell's 1984 or recommend that people NOT read one, the other, or both. The audience was to be teachers who would assign novels or students deciding what to read. Two students recommended neither be assigned or read, and some students recommended one novel over the other (with compelling reasons). The majority, however, wrote that they thought the two novels should BOTH be read and in conjuntion with each other. They did a fine job at comparing and contrasting the fictional societies that ultimately resulted in a similar effect. Most of them made credible connections between the events in the books and contemporary society. Some of the students, who chose teachers as their audience, provided specifics including how the novels could be used to augment curriculum and included topics teachers could introduce to encourage discussion.
Reading these essays confirmed what research indicates and what I'd thought but never asked my students in such a pointed manner: thematic instruction makes reading more enjoyable and themes more obvious and meaningful. Also, when students are asked to, they can display an impressive level of metacognition. My goals now: seek out more thematically connected literature and encourage more purposeful metacognition. Wish me luck!