Classroom activities

Focus on a character's relationships with others - write about three incidents in the story in which he or she interacts with another character. What does the interaction tell the reader about the character?

Use information about author from blurbs, the Internet, reviews, reference books, etc to:

Students present a short talk with a given focus and time frame - eg tell us about the characters, give us a broad outline of the story, explain the setting, tell us about the author.
Retell the story to the class or small group orally.
Students can work in small groups with others who have read particular books to design an 'adaptation' or consider how they would alter the book for a movie presentation or come up with an alternative title or change the ending.
Students prepare a chapter or an excerpt from the story to read aloud - this can be done individually or in a shared way such as 'Readers' Theatre'. Focus on expression and fluent reading to engage the audience's interest and encourage them to read the book themselves!

Students explore the features of a book which help to classify its genre - eg language, plot, written structure, author's use of imagination or fact, vocabulary etc.
Students use chosen genres as models for their own story writing.

Students find out about those books form the list which have been made into films or videos.
View one or two films - perhaps one before reading the book and a different one after reading another book. Compare and contrast - what was 'lost' or 'gained' in the change of medium? Did you enjoy the book or the movie more? Was the movie true to the author's original story? How different was the style of the movie from the style of the book? What significant things remained/were changed?

Each student may enter a 'contract' in which he/she is expected to read, for example, five books by five different authors or in five different genres, over a given period of time.
Each time a book is read, the student selects from a range of activities and completes a given task, such as those outlined here. (These can be tailored to suit the level at which different children may be working, thus extending or enriching to cater for individual abilities).
Teacher and student document what is read, what activity has been chosen and when it is completed.

Students can keep a journal as part of a reading contract or as an extra literature response activity. The reading journal can be an ongoing collection of comments and reflections on books that have been read by the individual, as part of small group work or in serial reading. Time may be given at regular intervals for the students to write or illustrate quietly in individual journals.