[return to index]

Strategies for Any Novel ©2007 Nancy Polette

1. Predicting Action
In the Shadow of the Pali by Lisa Cendrich. Putnam, 2002.
Read the 1st paragraph of 3 chapters. After each ask what might happen next. List things related to the ocean. Tell what each reminds you of. Tell what each does that a person does. Put lines together in a poem.
Example: The storm was a battering ram pounding its angry fist against the sea.

2. Topic Talking/Improvisation
Fleischman, Sid. Disappearing Act. Greenwillow, 2003. Gr 4-6.
An unseen man is stalking 12 year old Kevin and his older sister. They flee in Holly’s beat-up car driving west. They hope to hide in plain sight as street performers in California, but can they really escape?
A. Partners do timed talking on 3 topics related to the story.
B. Audience members submit phrases:
Kevin and Holly have a conversation about how they can escape the stalker. Each must use three of the phrases in the conversation.

3. Pre Reading Sentence Starters
Hayden, Tory.The Very Worst Thing. HarperCollins, 2003. Gr 4-6
He has lived in six foster homes. David has never had anything to call his own until he sets out to hatch and raise an owl. But a wild owl belongs in the wild, or does it?
Before reading: Choose one sentence starter and write for 5 minutes.
A. Being bounced from one foster home to another...
B.When a bully deliberately upsets your lunch tray...

4. Topic Focusing
McDaughrean, Geraldine. Stop the Train! HarperCollins, 2003. Gr 5-8
Homesteaders in 1893 build near the town of Florence. Each is offered 50.00 for his land by the railroad. When all but one refuses to sell, the railroad says the trains will no longer stop in Florence, killing the town. With a small group, guess the answers.
The Homestead Act
How many acres of free land could a citizen get? ___
What was the youngest age one could get land? ___
How long did a settler have to live on the land before he could claim ownership? ___
How many families got land under the Homestead Act? ____

5. The Acrostic Book Report
Summarize Jackie’s Wild Seattle by Will Hobbs (Harper, 2003) using the title as an acrostic.

6. Problem Solving
Stone Fox by John Gardnier. HarperCollins, 1992.
Little Willie must get $500.00 to save the farm. It is 1932. Willie is ten-years-old.
IDEASFASTSAFECHEAPWILL WORKTOTAL
      
      
      
      


7. Categorizing Vocabulary
Group these words:
1. people2. places3. equipment
4. aircraft 5. a defense or offense strategy.
Guess if you do not know.
___Convoy___Axis___Blitzkrieg
___ RAF___Coventry___Dorniers
___Allies___Blenheim___Jerry
____Luftwaffe___Incendiaries___Blackout
___Radar___Lorries___Spitfires
___Stukas  
Read Chapter One of Blitzcat by Robert Westall to support or deny guesses.

8. Writing Fables to Explore Themes
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. Delacorte Press, 1999.
Bud’s rules are lessons he has learned about life. Create a fable to illustrate Bud’s Rule #63 "Never Say Something Bad About Someone You Don’t Know. Especially When You’re Around A Bunch Of Strangers. You Can Never Tell Who Might Be Kin To That Person Or Who Might Be A Lip-Flapping, Big-Mouth Spy."

9.Concert Reading: Beyond the Western Sea Book One by Avi. Orchard, 1996.
It is 1851. Maura and Patrick O'Connell, fifteen and twelve-year-old Irish peasants, seek to escape a country destroyed by famine and the greed of English landlords. For Sir Laurence Kirkle, eleven and son of one such English lord, America holds the promise of justice, though he steals a fortune from his father to get there. Read aloud a portion to mood music (four moods: happy, sad, scary, quiet)

10. Group Responses
A. Summarizer: Tell what the main character wanted. Name 3 difficulties. Give resolution.
B. Connector: How does this connect with other stories? Real events? TV shows? Movies? People?
C. Word Chief: Find difficult words, colorful language, figures of speech, words that paint pictures or create strong feelings.
D. Illustrator: Show the main idea in a picture, web, Venn diagram, story map or other graphic organizer.
E. Poet: Describe a character or the setting in a poem. Use 'action' words as rhyming words.

11. Individual Responses
A. Summarize the plot of the novel in a song.
B. Summarize the plot of the novel in an acrostic.
C. Use the five senses pattern to describe the London
Laurence saw at night. London is the color of ______. It sounds like_______, It smells like______, It tastes like_________, It looks like______, It made Laurence feel like____________________.
D.Write a riddle report about one of the settings in the story: Killony, London, Cork or Liverpool.
Begin your report with: Let’s go to long ago places and see the Earth’s changing faces. (List six to eight things one would see) But that’s not all.... (List six to eight additional sights) Where am I?

12. Research Projects
Pick a Project
VerbTopicProduct
ComparePotato faminepoem
CreateStory settingssong
DescribeFamous personinterview
RecordConnected with Great Britainjournal
Judgemystery report
Summarize


A. I will describe a famous immigrant in an acrostic poem.
B. I will compare story settings in an “If I Visited” report
C. I will summarize the life and work of a famous immigrant in a mystery report.
List ten facts (clues). Ask a classmate to give a number from 1-10. Read the clue. The student can guess or pass. The game continues until the mystery person is guessed or all clues are read.

13.Connecting Novels and the Internet
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck.
The death of a boy’s father, who slaughters pigs for a living, is the day no pigs would die. For novel anticipation guides see: www.westga.edu/~kidreach/antguide2.html
Visit this Internet site: www.pigfarmer.com Who should win? The pig farmer or the golfers?

Holes by Louis Sachar
At Camp Green Lake the boys must each dig a five foot hole a day in the hard earth. The warden claims that this pointless behavior builds character, but that’s a lie. Stanley must try to dig up the truth. Read about Gila Monsters at http://www.scz.org/animals/g/gila.html
Write an acrostic poem describing a Gila Monster.
Web site for Boys Town: http:/www.ffbh.boystown.org
Read about this place for troubled youth. Use this model to compare Boys Town with Camp Green Lake.
If I lived at Boys Town I would (list five things a boy would do there) but I wouldn’t dig a five by five foot hole everyday because boys at Camp Green Lake do that.

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. Yearling 1987.
Johnny feels his life is over because of the injury to his hand.
Activity: Prepare a mystery report giving ten clues about a handicapped person who has achieved fame. Visit: http://geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/4071/
Write a letter from the person you read about at this site to Johnny. What would this person say?

The Midwife’s Apprenticeby Karen Cushman, Clarion, 1996.
Jane, a midwife, Jane finds a girl seeking warmth in a farmer’s dung heap. So it is that Brat begins her career as a midwife’s apprentice. It is not a safe life. Jane is a hard woman. Still, Brat makes a place for herself, learning some of the skills the midwife tries to hide. Visit this web site and see how well you would do as a physician in the Middle Ages. http://www.learner.org/exhibits/middleages/medical/3.html

The Hunchback of Notre Dameby Victor Hugo.
Adapted by Bruce Coville. For a creative writing experience read on the internet the tale of Quasimido’s Bell Ringer and write a new ending. www.awpi.com/Combs/Shaggy/120.html