Ideas for Your Call of the Wild Unit Plan

Usually, I have a rule: no sad dog stories. But I make an exception with The Call of the Wild by Jack London because it’s such a good story. Anytime I’ve read this one with my middle schoolers, they get passionate. They are enraged for Buck and rooting for him at the same time. Yes, it’s a bit of a sad dog story. But it’s a classic for a reason! I want to share my Call of the Wild unit plan, so you can get an idea of how to lay out your unit and take students beyond comprehension.

About The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild by Jack London is about a dog named Buck who was stolen from his home and forced to become a sled dog. The novel takes place in the 1890s during the Klondike Gold Rush, where sled dogs were often used. Throughout the novel, readers watch as Buck slowly becomes more wild. He leans into his primitive instincts and learns that if he wants to survive and lead, he must be willing to shed civilization.

This book has been used in middle-grade classrooms for decades. Language is mild, and there is no inappropriate content. There is violence in the novel, though. Dogs are often beaten, attacked, or killed. There are some detailed depictions of the violence, so just be wary of that and give students a heads up (or skip those passages).

The Call of the Wild is fiction, and is often read with 6th-8th grade. It’s super short, only about 150 pages (depending on the edition). It’s the perfect read if you need to squeeze in a quick novel unit, or you’re looking to build students’ stamina for reading.

Outlining Your Call of the Wild Unit Plan

Before you outline your day-by-day unit, make sure you think over some of the high-level pieces. How can you get students excited about the novel? How much time do you have to read? Where can you fit in reading the novel in class?

An easy buy-in for your The Call of the Wild novel study is the fact that there’s a movie. 😉 The promise of an upcoming movie day in class always does the trick. Plus, you can use the movie trailer to introduce the story to students and get them excited about reading.

Next, determine how much time you’ll carve out for reading. Personally, I spent about two weeks on my Call of the Wild unit. This included a pre-lesson and some bonus lessons, so it’s definitely doable to fit it into two weeks or less. (More on my exact unit outline in the next section.)

Then, decide how you’ll read the novel in class. Are you going to listen to the audiobook as a whole class? Will students read it independently in class or at home? I liked to use book clubs with students because I found they were more engaged in reading this way. 

Lastly, think through your overall flow for each class period. I find that a lot of teachers overcomplicate this part (and it leads to major overwhelm with teaching novels). They try to come up with complex activities to pair with each chapter or section of the novel. And really, this means that every day in class looks different. That equals a lot of set-up, a lot of explaining, and a lot of changes. I found that using a repeatable daily routine during novel units meant we could get more done in class. Instead of focusing on comprehension questions and activities, we leaned into Socratic Seminar. In the next two sections, I’ll share exactly what that looked like in my classroom.

Planning Your Call of the Wild Unit Plan

Now that you know how you’ll approach your unit, it’s time to plan it all out. That’s the fun part. 😉 I recommend laying out your unit lesson by lesson, standard by standard, so you know exactly what you’ll cover each day, and you know you’ll be covering all essential standards. In my Call of the Wild unit plan, I broke the novel down into ten lessons (not including a pre-lesson and some optional bonus lessons). Socratic Seminar is the backbone of this unit, so each day, there’s a simple, repeatable lesson framework that includes reading, analyzing, and writing into one class period.

Each lesson starts by presenting the guiding question, reading a section of the novel, completing a quick write, and hosting a Socratic Seminar. And yes, it’s possible to fit all of this in, even if you only have a 45-minute class period! (If you’re wondering how the heck to fit all that into one class period, check out my workshop, The Socratic Seminar Academy.)

Here are the lessons I include in my Call of the Wild unit plan – 

• Pre-Lesson: Socratic Seminar Norms
• Lesson One: Text Section Purpose
• Lesson Two: Point of View
• Lesson Three: Central Idea and Plot
• Lesson Four: Theme and Characters
• Lesson Five: Point of View
• Lesson Six: Conflict and Characters
• Lesson Seven: Characterization & Theme
• Lesson Eight: Text Structures
• Lesson Nine: Text Section Purpose
• Lesson Ten: Movie Comparison
• Bonus Lesson One: Point of View Influence
• Bonus Lesson Two: Comparing Texts
• Bonus Lesson Three: Historical Account
• Bonus Lesson Four: Objective Summaries

Lesson ten might be in two parts, depending on how many classes you need to watch the movie (it’s an hour and forty minutes long). And then there are the optional bonus lessons to help you dig even deeper, if you have the time.

The Call of the Wild unit plan has it all – lesson plans, teaching slides, interpretive and guiding questions (for Socratic seminar), interactive notebook pages, rubrics, reading response example, and a whole lot more. 

Using Socratic Seminar with The Call of the Wild

If you’ve never tried Socratic Seminar or it hasn’t gone well in the past, then you might be hesitant to try The Call of the Wild unit plan. Fair. But I want to show you that it’s not as overwhelming or complicated as it seems. Actually, I found this approach to novel studies to be way less chaotic than trying to plan a brand-new activity each day.

Here’s how I used seminars with The Call of the Wild. (And by the way, I include a Socratic Seminar teacher’s guide in my unit, plus a pre-lesson to prepare your students for seminars, so you’re not left to figure it out alone!)

The lesson starts by presenting the guiding question. For example, in lesson four, you will ask students: How has Buck changed from the beginning of the story to now? Then, students will read a chapter or two, either as a whole class, independently, or in groups. As they read, students will cover key vocabulary.

After they read the chapter, students will complete a quick write answering the guiding question. You’ll then ask them the interpretive question like, “What do Buck’s changes reveal about animal instincts? Use examples from the text to explain your thinking.” Students will gather for a Socratic Seminar to discuss the interpretive question, then return to their quick write and strengthen it using arguments they heard in the seminar.

This process repeats each day, but it doesn’t grow old or boring because each chapter brings new questions and discussion points! 

If you want to go beyond comprehension worksheets, grab The Call of the Wild unit plan! Your students will be analyzing, interpreting, and discussing the book. They’ll be putting the ELA skills and standards into practice with each lesson.