Digging Deeper with Novel Studies

Reading and discussing novels are popular with adults and students. Doing a novel study allows readers to think deeply about the characters and themes in a story.  As a teacher, you want to be intentional about the topics and skills you want to discuss during your small group time. However, it can be a daunting task trying to figure out how to go deeper with a piece of literature that doesn’t come bound inside a textbook or basal anthology.

With that in mind, I started writing a series called Learning Through Literature.

Learning Through Literature is a series designed to help you and your students get the most out of a popular children’s books and novels.

Whether you are using this title for guided reading, small group instruction, or as a whole-group read aloud to your class, you will find plenty of ideas and resources to support your literacy program.

Donavan’s Word Jar Novel Study is one of my best selling resources.

This is a story of a boy who has a unique collection: words. Donovan finds words everywhere he looks and writes them down. His dilemma is what to do with them once his collection becomes larger than the jar that is holding them.

This book is a terrific way to inspire your students to become more observant of unique and descriptive words they come across in their reading and everyday life.

Each chapter has a chapter review sheet that helps the student dig deeper into the text and make connections with the story. Other skills include drawing conclusions applying context clues.

VOCABULARY BUILDING –  include vocabulary wall cards and context clues. There are these large word cards for tier 2 and tier 3 words used in this book. I like to display the words as we discuss their meaning.

EXTENSION IDEAS  include identifying character traits, summarizing, and creating word collection envelopes for each student.

I have each student be more intentional about finding unusual and interesting words. They bring them to our class meeting to share.

ANSWER KEYS are provided for questions that are not open ended.

Want to learn more? I encourage you to download the 15 page FREE PREVIEW to see sample pages.

Also available:
Donavan’s Word Jar

GOOGLE SLIDES Version

Other Novel Studies:

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