Do you do novel study with your students and are you wondering how to make it fun? I was in the same boat as you! I was teaching The Giver for the first time a few years ago, and all we did was answer questions about what we had read and then we moved on. That wasn’t fun for my students, and that wasn’t fun for me either.
I decided I wanted to find some ways to be more creative about dealing with this very fun novel, so I did some searching. I came up with a bunch of things that can make all novel studies fun! These activities are engaging and interactive, and they help students deal with the novel they’re studying in a more interesting way than just checking their comprehension. Let me tell you what I do!
Check out one of the activities I will mention below: the Literary Elements Speed Date! Grab these free speed dating sheets free and watch students talk excitedly about the book they’ve read!
What is a novel study
Novel study means reading and studying a book together. Classes will often do this as a group with a novel that is assigned by the teacher. It involves reading the book and checking everyone’s understanding of it. And there’s the task of making sure the whole group got any underlying meanings or messages that the novel was trying to convey. To achieve this goal, I have come up with a host of activities that I do with my students. I will explain each one, and then you can pick and choose the ones you think would suit your students, and try them out for yourself!
Here’s a quick list if you can’t wait:
- Venn Diagram
- Drawings of the setting
- Mindmap of characters
- Themes movie poster or book cover collage
- Speed date on literary elements
- Watch an interview with the author
- Creative book report
- Plot rollercoaster
- Digital quiz
Fun novel study activities
Venn Diagram: One of my favorite activities for novel study is filling in a Venn diagram. Give students an empty diagram of two partly overlapping circles. Then have students fill in key words that apply to the life of the main character in one circle. They put key words that apply to their own life in the other circle. And some words for things that are the same in both their lives they put in the overlapping part of the diagram. Students can then clearly distinguish between the main character’s life and theirs, and well as see similarities that might also be crucial.
Drawings of the setting: Get students to draw important settings in the story. Provide students with a blank piece of paper and have them fold it in two, twice. They’ll end up with 4 rectangles. Get them to draw a different setting in each rectangle, and have them explain why and how that setting is important to the storyline.
Mindmap: I love using mind maps to clarify things! I always have students create a mind map with the name of the protagonist in the center. Then everything else should be linked to him or her with lines and sublines. There must also be little drawings, for example of settings, or characters, or symbols that have a role in the story. If you google Macbeth mind map, you’ll find some awesome examples; just saying 🙂
Themes movie posters book covers collage: In order to understand Theme, I get students to create a collage of the 11 most common themes in literature. They must write down these themes and then find an example of each in movie posters or book covers. Then they’ll create the collage with those! This way, students will practice identifying Theme in known works of art. And that will help them apply that skill to the new novel that we’re reading.
The activities for novel study I mention in this blog post can be applied to all novels!
Speed date on literary elements: My students always enjoy when I use a speed dating setting to check understanding. This is because it provides an intimate setting in which students don’t have to speak in front of a whole group but only one person at a time, and only about one topic at a time. I will organize the desks so that they face each other and they are in a long line next to each other.
What I do is I put a sheet of questions relating to one literary element between each two desks. I have a bunch of these sheets, for theme, setting, plot, characters, conflict, title, and author. So these each go on another set of two desks. Students sit down. When the alarm sounds, students must discuss the questions on the sheet between them. When the alarm sounds (after 2 minutes or so) students all move one seat to the right. They end up with a new partner and a new sheet. They discuss the set of questions they then have between them and their partner, and the process repeats itself until all questions are discussed.
Watch an interview with the author: It can be really insightful for students to hear the author of the book they’re reading talk about their work. It also helps them see there is a person behind the novel, and that their life might be closely related to what is in it.
Creative book report: A novel study guide should also include some written or spoken tasks to transfer what students learned about the story. Fun options include:
- writing a new ending or beginning,
- adding a new character,
- writing a letter to the protagonist or antagonist,
- creating a brochure for the place the novel was set in,
- creating a diary entry for one of the supporting characters,
- and finding 10 objects that apply to the novel’s story with an explanation of why they do.
These tasks ensure that students show you they have understood what’s in the novel.
Necessary novel study activities
Comprehension questions: All novel study guides should have a set of comprehension questions that just ask for factual information. ‘What is the main character’s name?’, ‘Where does the main character live?’, ‘What did they get for their birthday?’, etc. These are questions that should be asked to help students know whether they didn’t miss anything. I try to think of a set of questions for each chapter. If students can answer the questions, they know they’re on the right track.
Plot diagram / pyramid / rollercoaster: Explain to students how plot works and then get them to fill out a plot diagram. I really like the image of the rollercoaster myself, because that’s a very visual way of thinking about a story. It has ups and downs and a climax at the top, but it always starts at the bottom and ends at the bottom too (or near the bottom actually :p)
Digital quiz: Use Kahoot! / Quizziz / Blooket / Google Forms / Socrative. Use them to ask students quick questions about the book or one of the chapters. Students really enjoy the digital part, the interactive part, since they’ll be able to click things on their device that will end up on the screen, and most of all: the competitive part! They love ranking higher than their classmates. I love using Kahoot! for this the most!
Some extra things that I always do in novel study, but that are a little more boring yet useful:
Vocabulary practice: Get students to write new sentences with interesting words from the novel. You can have them keep track of words they don’t know the meaning of while they read. Or you can come up with a list yourself. Or steal one from the Internet 🙂 I also love Quizlet for vocabulary practice! I either steal a list from another teacher, or I get my students to build one together as our own class set. It’s easy to enter new words and their meanings. And when you’ve got your list, you can have students practice the words in a variety of ways, including a fun matching game!
Essay questions: Have students answer essay questions in which they go into more depth about the literary elements. Genre, title, author, setting, themes, conflict and character developments are all great topics to really get students to dive deep into what they have understood.
Books to study English
Just some tips for books to study with students that I use:
- 11-12 year olds: Flat Stanley, How to Eat Fried Worms, graded readers of The Wizard of Oz & Frankenstein
- 12-13 year olds: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian & The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole
- 13-14 year olds: The Giver, In the Sea there are Crocodiles
- 14-15 year olds: Holes, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Of Mice and Men, Refugee Boy
- 15-16 year olds: The Kite Runner, Catcher in the Rye
Related articles:
How to give students amazing writing prompts for fiction writing
Why this novel study worksheets pdf contains everything you need for fun lessons
