When I teach novels in my classroom, I like to provide my students with a consistent routine that enables them to anticipate what we will be doing. In doing so, my students know what to expect work wise, and then they can focus more on understanding and analyzing the novels.
After introducing the novel to my students, I make sure I include these elements in all of my novel study units: vocabulary, comprehension questions, quote analysis, and writing tasks. As I plan each unit, I work from the end of the novel first. I look at the overall message and theme of the novel, and select my writing prompts (essays and mid-novel writing tasks). From there, I select the important quotes and passages to analyze, that way my less proficient students have additional exposure to quotes that can easily be incorporated into their responses and essays.
In order to include all of these elements into my novel unit instruction and provide consistency for my students, I teach every novel with foldable, interactive bookmarks. Each bookmark is printed (double-sided) on a single piece of paper and spans several chapters and includes novel vocabulary, comprehension questions, a space for students to keep track of a timeline of events, and a space for quotation analysis. There is actually quite a bit of work for the students to complete on each bookmark, but since we work on the bookmarks as we go, the workload is much more manageable for the students.
In my opinion, the most important part of the bookmarks is the quotation analysis section because this is where I can truly tailor the bookmarks to what I am working on with my students. When I have an upcoming writing assignment, I have my students look for and analyze quotes that will fit with that writing prompt. When I am working on a particular literary device with my students, I will have them look for and analyze an example of that particular device. If my goal is for my students to be able to identify how the author uses foreshadowing in the novel, I will ask my students to identify quotes that are foreshadowing and then explain how the quote is significant to the novel and to the audience’s understanding of the novel.
The last thing I love about using the foldable and interactive bookmarks with all of my novel study units is that the students gain more from the novels when using them. My students understand the storyline more because in addition to answering comprehension questions, they are also writing their own timeline and finding quotes to analyze. Before quizzes and tests, my students frequently look over their previous bookmarks and use them as study guides.
Available Interactive Notebooks:
Interactive Bookmarks for Any Novel
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
