The Girl Who Gave Great Advice — Reading & Analytical Writing Lessons

Help your teen explore irony, sarcasm, and tone with a short story they’ll actually enjoy.

This lesson pack guides middle and high school students through BJ Novak’s witty short story The Girl Who Gave Great Advice, teaching them how authors use diction and irony to shape tone and mood. Parents don’t need to be experts — the lesson is designed with clear instructions, student handouts, and model responses so you can facilitate with confidence.

What’s Inside:

• Version 1: Reading & Analysis
  • Printable + digital reading questions for close reading
  • Lesson slide deck introducing mood, tone, irony, and sarcasm
  • Discussion prompts for small group or one-on-one homeschool settings
  • Great for a 1-day, high-engagement lesson
• Version 2: Reading + Writing
  • Includes everything in Version 1, plus:
  • Scaffolded tone paragraph assignment (print + digital)
  • Exemplar “meets” and “exceeds expectations” paragraphs to model strong writing
  • Sentence frames and supports for claims, evidence, reasoning (CER) & quotation integration
  • Perfect for extending the lesson into structured analytical writing practice

Why Homeschool Families Love It

✅ Flexible — you can keep it discussion-based or build into a full writing lesson
✅ Parent-friendly — clear notes, exemplars, and organizers make it easy to guide without extra prep
✅ Student-friendly — witty, ironic humor that keeps teens engaged while building critical reading + writing skills
✅ Works as a stand-alone mini-unit or as part of the complete BJ Novak bundle

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this lesson, your teen will be able to:

• Identify irony and sarcasm in contemporary short fiction
• Explain how diction and irony create tone and mood
• Write a focused analytical paragraph using claims, evidence, and reasoning
• Revise and strengthen writing using models and scaffolds

⚠️ What's Not Included?

Please note that this unit includes scaffolded reading questions AND instructional writing materials and mentor texts for "The Girl Who Gave Great Advice" in the collection, One More Thing by BJ Novak, but I do not own the rights to distribute the stories themselves.

You will need a copy of the story.

I recommend purchasing a copy of the text to use for yourself, previewing the text here, or borrowing from the library.