1. The document provides guidance for introducing a whole-class novel. It recommends choosing three novels to introduce through short excerpts and assessments before selecting one book.
2. Lesson plans should build students' background knowledge, vocabulary, and reading skills to prepare them for the novel. An final assessment uses sample questions on the novel excerpts to check students' understanding and readiness.
3. If most students pass the assessment, the class is ready for the whole-class novel. Additional support may be needed for some students before starting the full novel.
1. The document provides guidance for introducing a whole-class novel. It recommends choosing three novels to introduce through short excerpts and assessments before selecting one book.
2. Lesson plans should build students' background knowledge, vocabulary, and reading skills to prepare them for the novel. An final assessment uses sample questions on the novel excerpts to check students' understanding and readiness.
3. If most students pass the assessment, the class is ready for the whole-class novel. Additional support may be needed for some students before starting the full novel.
1. The document provides guidance for introducing a whole-class novel. It recommends choosing three novels to introduce through short excerpts and assessments before selecting one book.
2. Lesson plans should build students' background knowledge, vocabulary, and reading skills to prepare them for the novel. An final assessment uses sample questions on the novel excerpts to check students' understanding and readiness.
3. If most students pass the assessment, the class is ready for the whole-class novel. Additional support may be needed for some students before starting the full novel.
1. The document provides guidance for introducing a whole-class novel. It recommends choosing three novels to introduce through short excerpts and assessments before selecting one book.
2. Lesson plans should build students' background knowledge, vocabulary, and reading skills to prepare them for the novel. An final assessment uses sample questions on the novel excerpts to check students' understanding and readiness.
3. If most students pass the assessment, the class is ready for the whole-class novel. Additional support may be needed for some students before starting the full novel.
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How to Introduce a Whole-Class Classic Literature Novel
1. Once you’ve decided that you want to teach a Classic literature novel in your class, create a mitigated choice list of at least three novels you might want to teach and think would be appropriate for your specific class of readers. 2. Once your three novels are chosen, create and conduct three different “Book Demos” for each novel. Plan out a short section from each novel that is representative of most of the book, then have students read that section. Afterwards, test students on their ability to: a. Retell what they just read b. Define some key vocab you’ve chosen beforehand c. Answer a couple of general inferential questions And finally… d. Ask which section they enjoyed reading the most 3. Based on the results from each student, determine which book choice might provide the best mixture of challenge and engagement for the MAJORITY of the readers in your class. 4. Once a book is selected, create a few lesson plans following Anne Crout Shelley’s “Workout Plan” of Scaffolded Study, to help build students up to the whole-class novel. Focus lesson plans around: a. Building background knowledge of the work and author b. Developing the difficult vocabulary found within c. Facilitating the reading of the text through activities such as DTRAs (Directed Reading Thinking Activity) and Read Alouds d. Enrichment and Extension 5. After students go through the lesson plans, give students a final assessment test and use a checklist to determine if they’re ready to move on the whole-class novel. a. Make a small assessment sheet with checklist here (See Sample Question below) i. Sample assessment questions can be based on any classic novel 1. Does the example text’s language resemble the language of a proposed whole-class novel? 2. Does the example text require a lot of context to understand? 3. Consider using a short story or poetry from the author or era rather than an excerpt from a larger novel. b. Checklist Items: i. Can the student define at least 90% of the vocabulary in the book section? ii. Can the student accurately describe/summarize most of what is happening in the book section? iii. Is the student intrigued or interested in reading more? iv. Has the student developed the skills necessary to read the text? 1. Are they ready to further develop the skills you wish to teach with the text? v. Does the student require any outside reading supports? I.e. audiobooks, other material? 1. Can you provide those supports to that student? 6. If the majority of students pass the assessment, the class should generally be ready for the whole-class novel. If not, you might want to either go back through some of the build up lessons again, or shift your reading focus back to independent reading and return to the whole-class novel unit at a later date.
Sample Pre-Assessment Questions:
Pyramus and Thisbe are lovers who live in connected houses, but are forbidden by their parents to be wed.
“A thing which they could not forbid, they were both inflamed, with minds equally captivated. There is no one acquainted with it; by nods and signs, they hold converse. And the more the fire is smothered, the more, when so smothered, does it burn. The party-wall, common to the two houses, was cleft by a small chink, which it had got formerly, when it was built. This defect, remarked by no one for so many ages, you lovers (what does not love perceive?) first found one, and you made it a passage for your voices, and the accents of love used to pass through it in safety, with the gentlest murmur. Oftentimes, after they had taken their stations, Thisbe on one side, and Pyramus on the other, and the breath of their mouths had been mutually caught by turns, . . .” --from Metamorphoses; Book IV
1. Underline two sentences that show Pyramus and Thisbe experience a shared love. 2. Rewrite this sentence in your own words: “The party-wall, common to the two houses, was cleft by a small chink, which it had got formerly, when it was built.” 3. Identify and explain a metaphor Ovid uses in the passage.
