# A novel unit — *Frankenstein* in four weeks, from the 1818 text

Recipe No. 23, Teaching and courses. From The know.sh Cookbook: https://know.sh/cookbook/novel-study

Teach *Frankenstein* from one document the whole class reads. Your assistant drafts the unit from your own plans: a reading schedule that maps the 1818 chapters to the 1831 ones, a guide per week with passages to read aloud, a character map, and flashcards on the lines students must know. You check every quotation.

- For: an English teacher planning four weeks on a novel
- You get: a *Frankenstein* unit: weekly guides, a character map and a rubric
- Time: an evening to draft, two to check quotes
- Made with: Shelf, Document, Section, Your AI assistant, Elements, Public link

## How it works

1. **Settle the text first.** Say in the overview which text the class reads. Ask your assistant to map every 1818 chapter to its 1831 number, then check the map against both editions yourself.
2. **Draft the unit from your plans.** Give your assistant your plans and past questions. Ask for the schedule as a table element, then a section per week with passages to read aloud, discussion questions and five vocabulary words.
3. **Check every quotation against the text.** Open the 1818 text beside the guide and check each quoted line word for word. Assistants misremember famous lines and slip in wording from the 1831 text.
4. **Map the characters and share one link.** Ask for a mind map element of who’s who and flashcards on the key lines. Then share the unit, leaving out your teaching notes and, until the essay is set, the rubric.

## Try this prompt

Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model):

> Using know.sh, add a table element to the overview of my Frankenstein unit on the English 11 shelf: one row per week from 5 October, with two columns, Week (its number and dates) and Read, then in class (the 1818 chapters, the 1831 chapters in brackets, then a short phrase on the class). Tell me how you mapped the chapters, so I can check both editions.

Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model):

> Using know.sh, add a mind map element to “Who’s who” in my Frankenstein unit: Victor at the centre, with Walton, Alphonse, Elizabeth, William, Justine, Clerval and the creature branching from him, each labelled with their relation in a few words. Branch the De Laceys and Safie from the creature, and write a description that reads well on its own.

## Elements in the specimens

Written as your assistant writes them through the know.sh MCP server. Each reads as plain words until you turn elements on (Account → Elements).

Mind map, specimen 1:

```element mindmap
{
  "caption": "Who’s who in *Frankenstein* (1818), around Victor",
  "description": "Victor Frankenstein at the centre. Branching from him: Robert Walton, the explorer who hears his story; Alphonse, his father; Elizabeth Lavenza, his cousin and later his bride; William, his youngest brother; Justine Moritz, the family’s servant; Henry Clerval, his friend; and the creature he makes. Branching from the creature: the De Lacey family, whom he watches, and Safie, whom Felix De Lacey loves.",
  "nodes": [
    {
      "label": "Victor",
      "shape": "circle",
      "id": "victor"
    },
    {
      "label": "Walton",
      "shape": "rounded",
      "parent": "victor"
    },
    {
      "label": "Alphonse",
      "shape": "rounded",
      "parent": "victor"
    },
    {
      "label": "Elizabeth",
      "shape": "rounded",
      "parent": "victor"
    },
    {
      "label": "William",
      "shape": "rounded",
      "parent": "victor"
    },
    {
      "label": "Justine",
      "shape": "rounded",
      "parent": "victor"
    },
    {
      "label": "Clerval",
      "shape": "rounded",
      "parent": "victor"
    },
    {
      "label": "The creature",
      "shape": "hexagon",
      "parent": "victor",
      "id": "creature",
      "emphasis": "key"
    },
    {
      "label": "The De Laceys",
      "shape": "rounded",
      "parent": "creature"
    },
    {
      "label": "Safie",
      "shape": "rounded",
      "parent": "creature"
    }
  ]
}
```

Flashcards, specimen 1:

```element flashcards
{
  "title": "Whose words?",
  "cards": [
    {
      "question": "“I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel.”",
      "hint": "On the glacier.",
      "answer": "The creature, to Victor, when they meet above Chamounix. Volume II, chapter 2 (1831, chapter 10)."
    },
    {
      "question": "“I am malicious because I am miserable.”",
      "answer": "The creature, to Victor, demanding a companion. Volume II, chapter 9 (1831, chapter 17)."
    },
    {
      "question": "“Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example.”",
      "hint": "Said to a man who also wants to go where no one has been.",
      "answer": "Victor, to Walton, breaking off his account of his discovery. Volume I, chapter 3 (1831, chapter 4)."
    },
    {
      "question": "“I shall be with you on your wedding-night.”",
      "hint": "Victor takes it as a threat to himself.",
      "answer": "The creature, to Victor, after Victor destroys the companion he was making in Orkney. Volume III, chapter 3 (1831, chapter 20)."
    }
  ],
  "shuffle": false
}
```

Table, specimen 2:

```element table
{
  "caption": "Reading schedule: four weeks, 5 to 30 October",
  "columns": [
    {
      "label": "Week",
      "align": "left"
    },
    {
      "label": "Read, then in class",
      "align": "left"
    }
  ],
  "rows": [
    [
      "1: 5–9 Oct",
      "Letters 1–4 and Volume I, chapters 1–4 (1831: chapters 1–5). *In class:* Walton’s letters; the night of the creation."
    ],
    [
      "2: 12–16 Oct",
      "Volume I, chapters 5–7, and Volume II, chapters 1–2 (1831: 6–10). *In class:* Justine’s trial; the meeting on the glacier."
    ],
    [
      "3: 19–23 Oct",
      "Volume II, chapters 3–9 (1831: 11–17). *In class:* the creature’s story and his demand."
    ],
    [
      "4: 26–30 Oct",
      "Volume III, chapters 1–7 (1831: 18–24). *In class:* Orkney, the wedding night, the ice."
    ]
  ],
  "notes": "The essay is due on **Friday 6 November**. Finish each week’s reading by Monday of the next."
}
```

Definitions, specimen 3:

```element definitions
{
  "title": "Five words from chapters 3 and 4",
  "items": [
    {
      "term": "ardour",
      "description": "Burning eagerness. Victor had desired his success “with an ardour that far exceeded moderation”."
    },
    {
      "term": "tranquillity",
      "description": "Calm; freedom from disturbance. What Victor says a human being in perfection should never let passion disturb."
    },
    {
      "term": "catastrophe",
      "description": "A sudden turn to disaster; in older usage, the final turn of a tragedy. Victor’s word for the moment the creature wakes."
    },
    {
      "term": "delineate",
      "description": "To describe or draw exactly. “Or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?”"
    },
    {
      "term": "wretch",
      "description": "A miserable or despised person: pity and contempt in one word, and Victor’s first word for the creature."
    }
  ]
}
```