What to Include in The Maze Runner Novel Study

Middle school classrooms in 2009 didn’t know what was coming. The Maze Runner would soon be sweeping through schools, and it hasn’t left even 10+ years later. For decades, middle school students were stuck reading stuffy classics. But eventually, schools saw the need for more engaging novels, and books like The Maze Runner were a perfect fit: a fast-paced read, age-appropriate, and filled with learning possibilities. I want to take you inside my unit for The Maze Runner novel, so you can get some ideas on how to arrange yours.

About The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner novel was published by James Dashner in 2009. It’s a dystopian novel that follows a boy named Thomas, who wakes up one day inside an open meadow called The Glade. There are several other boys inside this meadow as well. They don’t know how they got there. All they remember is their name. Thomas becomes a Maze Runner, one of the boys who attempts to find a way out through the maze. There’s a lot that takes place, from the first girl – and last person – arriving at The Glade, but there’s one thing for certain: your students will be locked in.

This book is typically read toward the beginning of the year when most teachers introduce fiction, but it fits into any point of the school year. I recommend teaching an entire dystopian unit separate from fiction because it has its own literary elements. However, The Maze Runner works whether you’re fitting it into a fiction or dystopian unit.

The Maze Runner is also most commonly read in 7th and 8th grade, but it’s definitely not unheard of to use it in 6th grade as well.

Prepping for The Maze Runner Novel Unit

Before you dive into outlining your unit, I recommend deciding how you’ll present the novel to your students. Are you going to have them read the book at home? Read in book clubs? Listen to the audiobook as a class?

There is no “wrong” way to do it, but if I had to toss my opinion out there, here’s what I found to work best: First, you should alternate my units. This gives you space to actually dive deep into content because instead of trying to balance reading, writing, and grammar lessons into one week (or even one class period), you get to spend intentional time on your reading unit. Then, you would use book clubs. My students were way more engaged in reading when they were in small groups vs. reading together as a whole class.

I also liked doing a classroom transformation for The Maze Runner novel. You can leave up the transformation for the entire unit or decorate on the first day of reading (that was also an easy way to get student buy-in from the start). I made my classroom look like The Glade, so I put green tablecloths over desks, covered the walls in faux greenery, and put on an ambiance video to set the scene.

Planning The Maze Runner Novel Study

The hardest part about any novel unit is laying out exactly what you’ll teach and how to break up the chapters. The Maze Runner novel is no exception. 😅 This is actually one of my longer novel study units, and for good reasons. First, it’s a bit longer than some of the other books I read with students. And second, it’s packed with so many opportunities to dig into author’s craft, theme, plot, and more.

One big thing you should know about how I plan my unit for The Maze Runner is that I use Socratic Seminars. For years, I used typical classroom discussions, and my students just didn’t talk. I was basically giving a lecture about my opinions on the book. With Socratic Seminars, though, my students were actually analyzing and sharing their opinions with evidence (!!). I talk more about how I made this happen in my workshop, The Socratic Seminar Academy, but a lot of it comes down to setting expectations, giving students a chance to prep for Seminars, and having solid guiding questions. (Which, by the way, my Maze Runner novel studyincludes guiding and interpretive questions for each day.)

Here is how I laid out the standards and chapters for The Maze Runner –

• Lesson One: Point of View (Ch. 1-2)
• Lesson Two: Dystopian Genre (Ch. 3-4)
• Lesson Three: Point of View (Ch. 5-7)
• Lesson Four: Character Traits (Ch. 8-9)
• Lesson Five: Plot (Ch. 10-11)
• Lesson Six: Theme (Ch. 12-14)
• Lesson Seven: Character Traits/POV (Ch. 15-16)
• Lesson Eight: Character Traits (Ch. 17-19)
• Lesson Nine: Author’s Craft (Ch. 20-22)
• Lesson Ten: Central Idea (Ch. 23-24)
• Lesson Eleven: Plot/ Point of View (Ch. 25-27)
• Lesson Twelve: Plot and Characterization (Ch. 28-29)
• Lesson Thirteen: Theme (Ch. 30-32)
• Lesson Fourteen: Plot and Setting/Chapters (Ch. 33-34)
• Lesson Fifteen: Dystopian Elements (Ch. 35-36)
• Lesson Sixteen: Conflict and Theme (Ch. 37-38)
• Lesson Seventeen: Point of View (Ch. 39-41)
• Lesson Eighteen: Mood and Tone (Ch. 42-44)
• Lesson Nineteen: Characterization (Ch. 45-48)
• Lesson Twenty: Theme (Ch. 49-52)
• Lesson Twenty-One: Point of View (Ch. 53-55)
• Lesson Twenty-Two: Symbolism (Ch. 56-58)
• Lesson Twenty-Three: Inferences (Ch. 59-60)
• Lesson Twenty-Four: Inferences (Ch. 61-Epilogue)

This unit also includes bonus lessons on the book vs. movie comparison, comparing texts of the same genre, and objective summaries.

My novel study of The Maze Runner includes daily lesson plans, daily comprehension questions, interactive notebook pages, teacher slides, rubrics, reading response examples, and more. Socratic seminar is built into the novel study, so students aren’t just reading and skimming the surface. They had to dig in, analyze what’s taking place, and have meaningful conversations.

Teaching The Maze Runner with Socratic Seminar

I talked a little bit about how Socratic Seminar is my not so secret weapon to engaging students in classroom discussions. But exactly how does that look inside the unit?

I wanted to share one of the lessons from The Maze Runner novel study, so you can see Socratic Seminar in action. The example I’m pulling is day four. Students are reading chapters eight and nine, so we are still in the early stages of the novel. 

The lesson starts with a presentation of the guiding question: How are the characters responding/changing as the world they are used to is starting to change? Write this on the board or display it on the screen, and remind students to keep this in their brains as they read.

Then, it’s reading time. Depending on how you’ve structured your unit, you’ll either break out into book clubs, read as a class, read independently, etc. Once the class has read chapters eight and nine, they’ll return to the guiding question. Put five minutes on the clock, and have them write independently, answering the prompt.

Now, it’s Socratic Seminar time. You’ll give students the interpretive question: How do these challenges reveal the character’s character traits? (Thomas, Alby, Chuck, Newt). Then turn the conversation over to your students. I always remind them that it’s okay if they need to refer to or read from their written response to get started. Usually, that takes the pressure off students, and then the conversation can begin flowing more naturally.

After Socratic Seminar, students will go back to their written responses and revise. Likely, they’ve heard some really good arguments and evidence inside the Seminar, so they might want to edit their response to improve it or even take a totally different stance.

Socratic Seminar with Short Classes

So, what if your class is only 45 minutes long? The biggest myth I want to bust is that Socratic Seminar needs to take an entire class period. In the beginning, Seminars might take longer because students are getting used to how it works. But, as the routine becomes familiar and expectations are set, you can host a 10- or 15-minute seminar.

I talk in-depth inside The Socratic Seminar Academy workshop about how to structure your seminars (no matter the length of your class period), and how to set clear expectations for students. If Seminars haven’t worked for you in the past, that’s the best place to start!
If you’d love for someone to plan your novel unit for you, then you’re in luck! My complete The Maze Runner novel study doesn’t skim the surface. You’ll have the lessons, questions, and resources you need to help students thoughtfully analyze and dissect the text.