Do you read novels aloud in your classroom? I taught in a class for students with autism for 10 years. I had students in grades kindergarten through 5th grade. Some students were early readers, while others could not even identify their names. Some of my students could hold an hour-long conversation with me about the finer points of Thomas the Tank Engine, while others were unable to utter a single word. I was tasked with helping every single student grow and thrive while learning what their typical peers were learning a few classrooms away. One of the ways I did this was by reading novels aloud to the class as a whole-group activity. Sounds a little crazy, but it was great.
My “not your average novel units” were born from this amazing experience. I was not reading these novels to my students for comprehension purposes. I was reading to them in hopes of connecting on a personal level. I was reading to them in hopes of teaching them to sit and listen (or at least be quiet) while an adult was speaking. I was reading to them in hopes of sharing my love of books and stories. So, with each chapter, I found myself trying to come up with an activity that would help them make a deeper connection to the content without relying on their ability to decipher and comprehend what I was actually reading.
These novel units do just that. With each chapter, I develop one or two activities that tie to concepts introduced in those pages. This isn’t as easy for me as it seems. With each novel unit I start, I worry, “Will I be able to think of what to do with the next chapter?” Sometimes the idea comes right away as I am reading. It is easy to see a thread to pull on and use to build a great activity. Sometimes, it is not so easy. Sometimes it is REALLY difficult.
When I was doing the novel unit for Where the Red Fern Grows (a favorite story of mine from childhood), I totally forgot that one of the characters in the story falls on an axe and dies. It took me 3 days and LOTS of conversations with my daughter (who was home from college) before I could come up with an acceptable activity. I really just wanted to skip that chapter, but in the end, I decided it was about when you really need to call 911 and when it is not necessary.
I have currently completed over 20 novel units. They take me a long time, usually about a month. There is a lot of love, time, and thought that goes into creating these. If you are looking for a different approach to teaching your novel units, check these out. I hope you love them as much as I have loved creating them. Click on the image below to download some free activities to go with the novel, Matilda, by Roald Dahl.
Here are the other novel units I have in my store: Special Needs for Special Kids.
- Because of Winn-Dixie
- Charlotte’s Web
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Hatchet
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
- Holes
- Wizard of Oz
- Shiloh
- The Mouse and the Motorcycle
- Sarah, Plain and Tall
- Stuart Little
- Where the Red Fern Grows
- Frindle
- James and the Giant Peach
- The Outsiders
- The Lemonade War
- Number the Stars
- Best Christmas Pageant Ever
- Tale of Despereaux
- Mary Poppins
- The BFG
- Old Yeller
- Mr. Popper’s Penguins
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