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One of my all time favorite short stories to teach is “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami. It’s an absolute treasure chest for the English classroom: frame story narration, figurative language, vivid imagery, complicated and rich characters.
All in all, a fascinating story about guilt and innocence. While it’s a heavy story, it always leads to really good conversations and analysis.
The first time I taught it I had no idea what I was doing.
I hadn’t heard of this particular story prior to teaching 9th grade. The first time I taught it, I assigned it as homework, which I definitely don’t recommend. I found out the hard way that wasn’t a good idea. I facilitated (read: attempted to facilitate) a Socratic Seminar on the text. The plan was to seamlessly move into an argumentative essay with a prompt from the Socratic. Needless to say, none of it went well.
The next time I taught it, I changed my approach.
I kicked off the lesson with a fun and engaging start to help my students dive in and they loved it!
I recommend working through the text alongside your students instead of letting them fly solo. It’s not too dense but there are parts that are a little complicated. I created and developed lesson plans that will make it easy to facilitate the kind of lesson I’m talking about. With a focus on related topics in an easy-to-navigate nonfiction text and discussion, students are prepared to dive into the short story. You can check them out and purchase them here.
Reading the text.
After a good first read of the text, usually with an audio version like this one, I facilitate close reads. My goal is to focus students on the narrative frame story structure and Murakami’s use of figurative language.
Socratic Discussion & Writing
Students always have a lot to say about the text, with more questions than answers most of the time. I have found that holding a Socratic seminar gives the students an opportunity to process through their thoughts. While I give them several questions to answer ahead of time, I also leave room for them to bring in their own ideas to discuss. You can see how I structure that here.
After the discussion, I usually move them into an argumentative processed essay. I usually assign the prompt “Should the Seventh Man forgive himself for failing to save K?” However, I developed a few other options of prompts a few years back. Because there are prompts across 3 genres (argumentative, narrative, informative/explanatory), students have a range of choices. I also love that I can assign specific prompts depending on the year. Other times I choose based on what ideas are emphasized in the Socratic discussion. You can purchase the writing prompt pack, with rubrics included, by clicking here.
Check out a video about the unit I created for “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami.
