Updated Serial Lesson Plans : Teaching Serial After Adnan’s Release

On September 14, 2022 news broke that the subject of the Serial podcast, Adnan Syed, was predicted to get his conviction overturned. As millions of Serial podcast listeners reacted to the latest updates, many of us English teachers around the country immediately started getting emails, DMs, and tweets from former students who wanted to discuss the updated case just as they had years ago in class. There’s not much ELA curriculum out there that could match a response like this, but the Serial podcast is one. Adnan has now been exonerated, and this calls for updated Serial lesson plans so that ELA teachers can continue to use such an engaging podcast for years to come. 

There are several ways to approach teaching Serial now that Adnan has been released. Here are some thematic ideas:

1. Use the Serial podcast as a pairing for wrongful conviction texts like Just Mercy.
2. Use the Serial podcast as a pairing for the whodunit/mystery/crime writing  genre. 
3. Use the Serial podcast as an experimental journalism mentor text. It won a Peabody award for it after all!
4. Use the Serial podcast in a literary nonfiction unit of study with a focus on storytelling.
5. Use the Serial podcast as a way to engage students in ELA standards such as author’s purpose, bias, rhetoric, and tone. 

As I wrote in this post, using podcasts in my ELA classroom all started with Serial. It also launched the podcast genre as we know it. Just like the books in our canon, Serial will go down in history as a podcasting classic. However, as we learn to look at classic books with a critical lens, it’s also important to reflect on these essential questions for your Serial podcast unit. 

SERIAL ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• What was Sarah Koenig’s true purpose behind Serial? 

• If you believe it was to entertain (expert storytelling techniques), is true crime as entertainment morally defensible?

This updated Serial unit plan will help students grapple with these questions. Here are some updated ideas for teaching Serial after Adnan’s release.

uPDATED SERIAL LESSON PLANS

Before beginning your updated Serial podcast unit:

This updated Serial unit has a lot of activities related to tone. It’s important to set the right tone when teaching true crime so that students respect the content. Here are some quotes that can help: 

“I love reading true crime, but I’ve always been aware of the fact that, as a reader, I am actively choosing to be a consumer of someone else’s tragedy. So like any responsible consumer, I try to be careful in the choices I make. I read only the best: writers who are dogged, insightful, and humane.” -Michelle McNamara I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

“3 things to keep in mind for more ethical true crime consumption: 1. Know that curiosity and voyeuristic tendencies are normal. 2. Focus on facts over fiction 3. Consider how to positively impact affected communities” – Dr. Phill 

Another way to set the tone of your Serial unit plan is to start with stations that pique student interest in the new theme. 

Here are some ideas for starting Serial:

Have students look for symbols and color connotations of a variety of true crime podcast covers. As you can see in the example below, you can print out popular true crime podcasts and place them around the information sheet for station one. As they examine the covers, they will find symbolism. For example, the red rose on the Dirty John cover could symbolize passion and danger. This activity piques students’ curiosity and gives them a visual overview of the true crime genre they will be analyzing throughout the unit.

In another station, have students explore the essential question through different perspectives. For example, they could read a post from Hae’s brother and discuss how he might answer the question: Is true crime as entertainment morally defensible? This does a good job of building empathy for the families involved in this case before starting the unit. 

If you need more Serial station ideas, have seven stations ready for you in this Serial unit: Updated Serial Lesson Plans

During your updated Serial podcast unit:

This is the first unit I’ve taught that had such an important and drastic change to the content in real time. When I first designed this unit back in 2015ish, this was a classic whodunit story that enthralled students unlike anything I had ever experienced in the classroom. It was fun to teach, fun to discuss, and fun to reminisce about. It created a bond between us, and throughout the years, students have kept up with the case and reached out to me every time there was an update. Needless to say, Adnan’s exoneration has changed the dynamic of the unit. While it’s still an engaging whodunnit case to an extent (he’s out on a technicality and no other suspect has been arrested yet), this updated Serial unit is less about ruminating over Adnan’s innocence or guilt and more about the power of storytelling (both negative and positive). 

In the updated Serial lesson plans, I focus a lot more on the podcast structure and style rather than the mystery of it. I also put in a lot of reflective prompts about the “fun” I mentioned above.

My favorite part about the updates on this Serial unit plan is all of the text sets I was able to add! I now have pairings and activities for:

• Agatha Christie
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Crime Junkie Podcast
• Arthur Conan Doyle
• Criminal Podcast 
• Rabia Chaudry 
• Truman Capote

Not only does this make the updated Serial lesson plans more diverse and dynamic, but it also provides opportunities to dig deeper into ELA standards like:

• Author’s style and voice
• Mood and Tone
• Author’s purpose
• Literary Techniques 
• Author’s choice + More

Here is a preview of some of the updated Serial activities in this unit:

After your updated Serial podcast unit: 

 In the original unit, we ended Serial with a project where students used rhetoric to debate if Adnan was guilty or innocent. 

Now that he has been exonerated, I have changed this up. I have 3 essay prompt options in this updated Serial unit, but here is a sample of one:

In a recent tweet, Rabia Chaudry wrote, “Remember when they said in Serial that Adnan was either guilty or the unluckiest guy in the world (ie he’s prob guilty bc it would be impossible for so much to go wrong?). The truth is every wrongfully convicted person is the unluckiest person in the world.”

While this statement holds truth, paradoxically, Adnan is both extremely unlucky and extremely lucky at the same time. Without the fortune of a dedicated family friend (who happened to be a  lawyer), the opportunity of being the subject of powerful storytelling, and the luck of being the center of a pop culture phenomenon, Adnan would still be in prison. Research exonerated cases on the Innocence Project and Equal Justice Initiative websites to find a case that grabs your attention. Next, use rhetoric to pitch one of these cases to a true crime podcast. You will use rhetoric to persuade this podcast why their style is best suited to take on this case, why this story matters, and what impact it could have.  

I really like this Serial essay prompt, but if you would prefer to do a project rather than an essay, I think the natural fit would be to have students create their own podcast based on one of the prompts. 

For example, students would need to use Serial as a mentor text podcast then prep for creating their own podcast by outlining the following:

Creating a podcast after listening to Serial:

• Think about the purpose and angle of Serial. What will be your purpose and unique angle?
• Think about the hook that Serial used to grab the listener’s attention. What type of hook will you use? 
• Think about how the producers used music to set the mood of the segments. What music will you use and what mood will it create?
• Think about the primary sources and research throughout Serial. Where will you get your sources? 
• Think about the storytelling style and pace of Serial. How will you make your podcast engaging yet informative to listen to? 

These questions will get students started on the right path, but if you need information about the technical side of creating a podcast, read more here: How to create student podcasts in the classroom 

I hope this post has given you the confidence to continue using Serial in the classroom after Adnan’s release. This is a real testament to the power of storytelling and a persistent family friend! 

If you want more ideas for teaching Serial, check out this post: Teaching Serial Podcast in High School ELA , and if you want to download my updated Serial lesson plans, click here: Updated Serial Unit