5 Reasons to Start Your School Year with “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov

How do you start the year in your literature class?  One of the first stories I have my eighth graders read is “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov.  It is a perfect story to start the year with for several important reasons:

• It’s short.  I want to get students involved with literature quickly, so it’s important to me that the first text of the year be brief.  “The Bet” can be read silently in under 15 minutes, or read aloud in less than 20.
• It’s controversial.  Chekhov begins the story with a discussion of the death penalty, hooking the reader almost instantly.  Teens love to debate, and they are beginning to think deeply about social issues.  “The Bet” gives them the opportunity to do both.
• It’s about reading.  One thing a good first text does is get students thinking about the value of books.  “The Bet” deals with the effect books can have on us, both positive and negative, giving students a natural jumping-off point for a great discussion about the power and purpose of reading.
• It asks more questions than it answers.  Was the young man better off at the end of the story?  Who really won the bet?  Why did the banker keep the note and lock it away?  These are the kinds of questions teens need to wrestle with to really learn to read literature.
• It’s got a free audio book.  The great folks at Librivox.org have recorded “The Bet” and made it available as a free public domain mp3 file, as are all the audiobooks at Librivox.  If you have students with special needs, or if you want the whole class to listen to it together, you can download this file and have the students listen along as they read.

As you’re planning your lessons for the beginning of the school year, give some consideration to using Chekhov’s “The Bet.”  I’ve made the text available as a free download as the first of the ROMAN Reading Practice Texts.   Give it a read today, and while you’re at it, you might like my free e-book, ROMAN Reading: 5 Practical Skills for Transforming Your Life through Literature.