A Complete Freak the Mighty Novel Study

There is no better feeling than wrapping up a book unit and hearing, “That was really good! What are we reading next?” You’ve got them right where you want them. 😉 Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick is one of those kinds of books. It’s short, fast-paced, and gets students hooked from the first page. But beyond engagement, it is full of literary elements that reinforce the standards you’ve been teaching. I want to show you how I set up my Freak the Mighty novel study to include all major literature standards, so I could make the most of my students’ engagement.

About Freak the Mighty

Freak the Mighty by Rodman Filbrick follows two unlikely friends: Max and Kevin (also known as Freak). Max is a big, quiet kid who struggles in the classroom. Freak has a rare genetic disorder that causes him to be small, but his personality is huge. Max and Freak create a bond they both need – one that helps them deal with bullying and finally feel accepted for who they are.

This book is great for upper elementary and middle school students. It’s a pretty short read, with only 160 pages, which also keeps it from being too intimidating for your reluctant readers. While there are serious themes of bullying and abuse in the novel, the overall message is a positive one. And all content is suitable for 4th grade and up.

Organizing Your Freak the Mighty Novel Study

Before I map out my Freak the Mighty unit, I like to start by looking at the big picture: how am I going to get students excited and engaged in the novel? Because without engagement, not much learning is going to take place.

How students read the novel is one piece that can affect engagement. Reading as a whole class or listening to the audiobook might keep the class quiet, but are they really listening, or are they tuning out? I found that book clubs are the best way to engage students in the story.

Another piece of engagement is how students interact with the novel. A lot of teachers think they need brand-new activities for each day of the unit. One day, it’s a writing activity. The next is an interactive gallery walk. While those activities are great, a consistent routine can save you a lot of time with planning and increase engagement because students know what to expect.

I want to talk more about this repeatable routine (which uses Socratic Seminars) in the next section.

Planning Your Freak the Mighty Novel Study

Next is the fun part: mapping out the lessons in your unit. 😜 This is where a lot of teachers get overwhelmed. They aren’t sure how to break down the chapters, skills, and standards. That’s a big reason I created my Freak the Mighty novel unit – to take the guesswork out of teaching.

Another reason I created this unit is that I found a format for teaching Freak the Mighty that did really well in my classroom. Each lesson followed a similar format. I started with a guiding question, then read a section of the book. Next, my students completed a quick write, and then we moved into Socratic Seminar. We did all of this in one class period each day of the unit. (If you’re wondering how the heck to fit all that into one class period, check out my workshop, The Socratic Seminar Academy.)

It might sound repetitive, but repetition works in your favor here. Students get better at Socratic Seminar each time you do it, which means the conversations get deeper and the analysis gets stronger.

I want to share exactly how I broke down my Freak the Mighty novel study, and some of the questions I used to guide the seminars

• Pre-Lesson: Socratic Seminar Norms
• Lesson One: Point of View
• Lesson Two: Plot 
• Lesson Three: Character Traits
• Lesson Four: Characterization
• Lesson Five: Text Structures
• Lesson Six: Literary Conflict
• Lesson Seven: Theme
• Lesson Eight: Narrative Point of View
• Lesson Nine: Characterization
• Lesson Ten: Author’s Purpose + Theme
• Lesson Eleven: Author’s Purpose + Irony
• Lesson Twelve: Point of View + Theme
• Lesson Thirteen: Movie Comparison
• Bonus Lesson One: Comparing Texts
• Bonus Lesson Two: Objective Summaries

The movie comparison is always a hit and a good incentive for students who might need some external motivation to read. 

My Freak the Mighty novel study includes all of the resources you need to implement this unit into your classroom. The unit includes done-for-you lesson plans, teaching slides, interpretive and guiding questions (for Socratic seminar), interactive notebook pages, rubrics, reading response example, and a whole lot more. 

Socratic Seminar + Freak the Mighty

You might be wondering, “Why the emphasis on Socratic Seminar?” If you’ve done a typical book discussion in your classroom, then you know why. Those conversations are often surface-level, or you have one student answering for the whole class.

With Socratic Seminars, every student gets involved. And they come to the conversation armed with something to say and evidence to back it up. Let me show you exactly what this Socratic Seminar would look like with one of your Freak the Mighty lessons –

Take lesson six, where you’re focused on literary conflict. You’ll start with a guiding question: Compare and contrast Freak and Max’s character traits based on their actions, words, and thoughts. As they read, students will have this question in the back of their minds.

After reading, students will move into a quick write where they answer the guiding question. This is really low-stakes, just writing their thoughts and any evidence they remember from the reading.

Then, students move into the Socratic Seminar with their quick write in hand. You’ll ask an interpretive question this time: What is the difference between how Freak and Max handle

problems in their lives? Why do you think this is? Students can use what they wrote during their quick write to answer and engage in the conversation.

Because students come into the conversation having already thought about the question, they’re not showing up with blank minds. They already have something to say! And it makes jumping in, engaging, and analyzing a lot easier.
If you want to go beyond basic comprehension and get students analyzing, thinking, and talking, grab the Freak the Mighty novel study!