Teaching The Secret Garden Through Critical Literacy

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is more than a beloved children’s novel; it is a rich text for examining power, privilege, gender, disability, and social class through a critical literacy lens.

What Is Critical Literacy?

Critical literacy goes beyond basic comprehension and asks learners to question how texts position people, ideas, and events. Students do not simply absorb a story; they interrogate it, noticing whose voices are amplified, whose are silenced, and what assumptions the text invites readers to accept.

In practice, critical literacy encourages readers to connect literature with real-world issues, challenge stereotypes, and imagine how narratives might change when told from different points of view. This approach is particularly powerful in classrooms where students are negotiating their own identities and learning to see themselves as agents of change.

• Reading becomes an active, questioning process rather than passive consumption.
• Students learn to recognize bias, gaps, and power dynamics in familiar stories.
• Discussions link fictional situations to contemporary social and cultural realities.

Why Use The Secret Garden for Critical Literacy?

The Secret Garden offers a compelling narrative with complex characters and clear transformations, making it accessible to young readers while still layered enough to support deep analysis. Its depictions of colonial India, English class hierarchy, gender roles, and disability provide many openings for critical questions.

The novel’s enduring popularity also works in a teacher’s favor. Many students encounter it as a simple story of a lonely girl who finds healing in a hidden garden, which means critical literacy work can productively disrupt surface readings and invite students to look again at what they previously took for granted.

• Recognizable plot and characters help students focus on deeper questions.
• Historical setting exposes students to ideas about empire, class, and medicine in the early 20th century.
• Transformation arcs for Mary and Colin highlight growth, agency, and changing beliefs.

Key Themes for Critical Exploration

Several themes in The Secret Garden lend themselves naturally to critical literacy discussions. Teachers can frame these themes as inquiry paths and return to them throughout the reading experience.

Below is an overview of core themes and how they can be leveraged to encourage critical thinking, questioning, and reflection.

Preparing Students for Critical Reading

Before reading, it helps to build background knowledge and set expectations that this will be a questioning, dialogic experience. Students can be invited to keep a reading journal specifically focused on power, fairness, and representation.

Teachers can also introduce key vocabulary—such as stereotype, bias, privilege, and perspective—in age-appropriate language. Visual aids, anchor charts, and sentence stems support all learners in articulating their responses.

• Co-create classroom norms: respect, curiosity, listening, and openness to multiple viewpoints.
• Introduce simple question frames like “Who benefits?” and “Whose side of the story is missing?”
• Use quick writes or exit tickets to capture early impressions and questions.

Early Chapters: Colonial India and First Impressions

The opening chapters set in British-ruled India provide a first opportunity to examine race, culture, and power. Students can notice how servants and local people are described, contrasted with Mary and other British characters.

Teachers might guide students to question the language used for different groups and ask how a child from India might tell the same events differently. Mapping the journey from India to England invites geographic, historical, and social discussion.

• Have students list adjectives used for Mary versus local characters, then discuss patterns.
• Create a two-column chart: “What the narrator says” and “Questions this raises for us.”
• Invite short imagined diary entries from a local child’s point of view.

Mary Lennox: From Selfish to Self-Aware

Mary begins as a lonely, demanding child who has been emotionally neglected and physically cared for by servants. Her initial judgments of others often reflect the attitudes of the adults who have shaped her world.

As Mary explores the moor and garden, she becomes more empathetic and curious, providing an ideal context for students to talk about how beliefs are learned and can be unlearned. Critical literacy work can highlight that Mary’s transformation is not just about becoming kind, but about questioning her assumptions.

• Track Mary’s changing language about other characters in a character chart.
• Ask students what messages Mary has absorbed about class, race, and gender at the start.
• Discuss moments when Mary chooses to act differently from how she was raised.

Dickon and Working-Class Wisdom

Dickon represents a romanticized vision of rural working-class life, often depicted as naturally good, close to nature, and endlessly helpful. This portrayal can be examined for both its positive and limiting aspects.

Students can ask whether Dickon is allowed complexity, flaws, or ambition beyond service to the upper-class children. This leads to wider conversations about how working-class characters are often used in literature to support the emotional growth of wealthier protagonists.

• Compare how Dickon speaks and behaves with how Mary and Colin are described.
• Brainstorm what Dickon might want for his own future and whether the text supports those dreams.
• Discuss whether Dickon ever challenges Mary or Colin’s assumptions about class.

Colin, Disability, and the Idea of “Cure”

Colin’s storyline is central for discussing how disability is portrayed in older texts. He is hidden away, treated as fragile and doomed, and spoken about in fearful whispers. His eventual physical improvement is linked to fresh air, exercise, and positive thinking.

Critical literacy invites students to question the suggestion that “mind over matter” alone explains Colin’s transformation. It also opens space to talk about how disability is depicted today, what inclusion might look like, and how stories can affirm dignity regardless of physical condition.

• Analyze how other characters talk about Colin before they meet him and after.
• Ask whether the novel suggests that illness is a personal failure or moral weakness.
• Introduce contemporary perspectives from disability advocates (summarized in age-appropriate ways) for comparison.

Gender Expectations and Resistance

Gender roles in The Secret Garden appear in expectations about behavior, strength, and emotion. Mary is at times criticized for being too angry or stubborn, yet those same traits are later reframed as courage and determination.

Students can discuss how Mary and Colin both break and reinforce gender norms, and how adults respond when children cross expected lines. These conversations help young readers reflect on how gender stereotypes influence their own experiences at school, home, and in media.

• Have students list what boys and girls are “supposed” to be like in the story and challenge each item.
• Identify scenes where Mary takes on roles traditionally given to male characters (leader, problem-solver).
• Compare Mary to other girl protagonists students know from books or film.

Power, Voice, and Who Gets to Decide

Throughout the novel, decisions are often made by adults, especially men, who control money, property, and information. Children and servants must navigate these power structures, sometimes through secrecy and small acts of resistance.

Critical literacy discussions can focus on who has the power to close or open spaces—the garden, the house, the truth about Colin—and what that reveals about social hierarchies. Students can also explore moments when characters claim power in new ways.

• Create a “power map” of the story, showing who controls different spaces and decisions.
• Discuss secrets in the story: who keeps them, why, and who is harmed or protected by them.
• Invite students to imagine alternative scenes where less powerful characters make the key choices.

Connecting the Garden to Students’ Lives

Critical literacy becomes most meaningful when students see clear links between the text and their own communities. The garden can serve as a metaphor for spaces where people feel safe, valued, or shut out.

Teachers can encourage students to identify “secret gardens” in their lives—places, groups, or activities that help them grow—and to consider who is welcome or excluded from those spaces. This invites reflection on belonging, inclusion, and shared responsibility.

• Ask students to draw or describe a place where they feel most able to be themselves.
• Discuss which groups in their school or town have less access to supportive spaces and why.
• Brainstorm ways to make classroom and school environments more welcoming for everyone.

Practical Classroom Strategies and Activities

To integrate critical literacy consistently, teachers can weave reflective prompts and collaborative activities into each stage of reading. Planning ahead helps ensure that critical questions do not feel like occasional add-ons but part of the fabric of literacy instruction.

Activities should be varied to support diverse learners: some excel in discussion, others in writing, art, or drama. Offering choices also models respect for different strengths and voices, aligning pedagogy with the values being taught.

• Reading journals: Students record passages that raise questions about fairness, power, or identity and respond in writing.
• Role-on-the-wall: Create large outlines of key characters and add notes about how they see themselves versus how others see them.
• Tableau or freeze-frame: In small groups, students physically pose scenes that show a power imbalance, then re-pose to show a fairer alternative.
• Critical comparison: Pair excerpts from the novel with short informational texts about British colonialism, disability rights, or children’s health.

Sample Critical Literacy Questions by Theme

Having a bank of reusable questions helps students internalize a critical stance over time. These prompts can be adapted for different ages and abilities, using simpler language where needed.

Teachers might post these questions around the classroom or on bookmarks, encouraging students to choose one or two to answer after each reading segment.

• Whose story is this, and whose stories are missing?
• Who has the most power in this scene, and how can you tell?
• What assumptions does the text seem to make about people from different backgrounds?
• How might this scene look if it were told from another character’s point of view?
• Which parts of this story feel fair or unfair, and why?

Assessing Critical Literacy Learning

Assessment in a critical literacy unit should focus on growth in questioning, perspective-taking, and the ability to support interpretations with evidence, not on having a single “correct” reading of the text. Rubrics can emphasize thoughtful engagement, connection-making, and respectful participation in dialogue.

Students can demonstrate learning through a variety of summative tasks, such as alternative narratives, multimedia projects, or reflective essays that analyze how their views of the story changed over time.

• Use pre- and post-unit reflections where students describe how they read stories at the beginning versus the end.
• Invite self-assessment checklists focused on listening skills, openness to new ideas, and willingness to revise opinions.
• Collect portfolios of journal entries, discussion notes, and creative responses to show a range of thinking.

Ethical and Inclusive Considerations

Working with issues like colonialism, class, and disability requires sensitivity. Teachers should create structures for emotional safety, such as clear norms for discussion, opportunities to opt out of sharing personal experiences, and access to support when topics feel uncomfortable.

It is also important to avoid presenting older texts only as problematic. Students benefit from recognizing that they can both appreciate a story’s beauty and question its assumptions, holding complexity rather than seeking simple labels of “good” or “bad.”

• Model language that critiques ideas and representations, not people who enjoy the book.
• Include contemporary texts that offer counter-stories or more inclusive perspectives.
• Check in regularly with students about how discussions are affecting them and adjust plans as needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is The Secret Garden appropriate for all ages?

The novel is commonly used in upper elementary and middle grades, though specific suitability depends on students’ reading levels and maturity. Younger readers may engage primarily with the surface story, while older students can dive more deeply into historical context, disability representation, and colonial themes.

How do I address outdated or offensive attitudes in the text?

Rather than skipping difficult passages, use them as teachable moments. Explain that texts are products of their time, then invite students to critique the language, discuss its impact, and compare it with contemporary values and knowledge.

What if students love the story and resist criticism?

Affirm that it is possible to care about a book and still ask hard questions about it. Encourage students to think of criticism as a form of engagement and respect, not as an attack on something they enjoy.

Can critical literacy work fit into tight curriculum schedules?

Yes, especially when integrated into everyday reading practices rather than treated as an extra unit. Brief but regular questioning, reflective journals, and small-group discussions can infuse critical literacy into existing lessons.

Do I need extensive background knowledge about colonial history or disability?

Deep expertise is not required to begin. Start with accessible, age-appropriate explanatory materials, remain transparent about your own learning process, and invite students to research specific questions collaboratively.

Using The Secret Garden in this way transforms a classic children’s novel into a powerful tool for nurturing empathy, curiosity, and critical awareness. When students learn to question the worlds they encounter in books, they are better equipped to question—and improve—the world they inhabit every day.