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Teaching Franny and Zooey

Franny and Zooey and Shmoop and you.

  • Activities: 13
  • Quiz Questions: 30

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This novel has a lot going on: abnormally bright children, crumbling romantic relationships, dead siblings, and an intense spiritual crisis. Sounds like a page turner, right? Well, in case your students don't agree, we've got the guide to help.

In this guide you will find

  • an activity that explores the significance of food throughout the novel.
  • tips for helping your students connect with old-fashioned and seemingly boring characters.
  • discussion and essay questions to help students dive into the complex relationships, talk of religion, and Glass family history presented in the novel.

If this guide doesn't ease all your teaching fears, you could always use Franny's cry-until-you're-all-tired-out method to calm yourself down.

What's Inside Shmoop's Literature Teaching Guides

Shmoop is a labor of love from folks who love to teach. Our teaching guides will help you supplement in-classroom learning with fun, engaging, and relatable learning materials that bring literature to life.

Inside each guide you'll find quizzes, activity ideas, discussion questions, and more—all written by experts and designed to save you time. Here are the deets on what you get with your teaching guide:

  • 13-18 Common Core-aligned activities to complete in class with your students, including detailed instructions for you and your students.
  • Discussion and essay questions for all levels of students.
  • Reading quizzes for every chapter, act, or part of the text.
  • Resources to help make the book feel more relevant to your 21st-century students.
  • A note from Shmoop’s teachers to you, telling you what to expect from teaching the text and how you can overcome the hurdles.

Want more help teaching Teaching Franny and Zooey?

Check out all the different parts of our corresponding learning guide.



Instructions for You

Objective: Remember mix tapes? They were simply the best. Unfortunately for kids these days, though, they're mostly a thing of the past. No matter, for this activity your students are going to do the millennial equivalent, examining the themes in Franny and Zooey and coming up with music that fits those themes. Much of this can be done for homework—just be sure to leave a little class time for a dance party at the end.

Materials Needed: Copies of the text; either access to or printouts of our themes section; the ability to explore music—online, in the library—and if you want, a way to compile their playlists (think: YouTube playlist, burned CDs)

Step 1: Start by breaking the good news to your students that their task today is to make mixes to go with Franny and Zooey. Then, while they're still smiling and thinking you're awesome, hook them up with our themes link (either as handouts or by having them hop on computers). Good sneak attack, right? They can't very well make mixes without some guidelines…

Step 2: Okay, so there are eight themes. Have your students read up on them, taking notes about each.

Step 3: Once everyone's done reading and taking some notes, discuss each theme with your class by having them answer the following questions:

  • Where do you see each theme most at play?
  • Which scenes highlight which themes?
  • Are some themes more important than others? Which ones? Why?
  • Are there themes Shmoop missed? What can you add to the theme list?

Step 4: Now comes the music part. Make it clear to your class that they'll have to explain each song selection they make and that each theme needs one song, then set them loose. If you want them to put together YouTube playlists, let them know so they work within YouTube to find their songs. If you want CDs, now would be a good time to let them know this, too. If you don't need an actual playlist proper, though, and are down to just get song names, then the sky's pretty much the limit at this point. Remind them to cite their sources.

Step 5: Once students have their playlists together, they need to write a paragraph for each song explaining how it relates to Franny and Zooey. In the end there should be eight paragraphs—one for each theme.

Step 6: Have them turn everything in, then get ready to get down (if you've left some time for a dance party, which we're really hoping you have because dance parties are awesome).

Instructions for Your Students

Objective: Ready for something you don't normally do in class? In this activity, you're going to hammer out some themes in Franny and Zooey and find songs that go with them. It's the ultimate literary mix tape, and if you're lucky, there'll be time for a dance party at the end.

Step 1: Since your mix tape (or playlist or whatever) has to sync up with the themes in Franny and Zooey, you probably want to make sure you know what these themes are. Don't worry—your teacher has your back.

Step 2: Okay, so there are eight themes. What are you waiting for? Get reading, and be sure to take good notes as you go along. You'll be glad later.

Step 3: Discuss each theme with your class, trying to answer the following questions and adding to your notes as you learn from your classmate's responses, too.

  • Where do you see each theme most at play?
  • Which scenes highlight which themes?
  • Are some themes more important than others? Which ones? Why?
  • Are there themes Shmoop missed? What can you add to the theme list?

Step 4: Now comes the music part. You'll have to explain each song selection you make and each theme needs one song. Be sure to work within your teacher's parameters (think: YouTube playlist, burned CD, etc.) and no matter what format your playlist ultimately takes, remember to cite your sources.

Step 5: Once you have your playlist together, you need to write a paragraph for each song explaining how it relates to Franny and Zooey. In the end there should be eight paragraphs—one for each theme. Yay math.

Step 6: Turn everything in, then get ready to get down. You deserve a little dance party after all your hard work.