JUST WHAT YOUR LESSON PLAN BOOK NEEDED

via CORI Middle School

Is your lesson plan book looking a little lean...or maybe empty the last weeks of school?

Today I'm sharing an engaging strategy that I was introduced to years ago; it is definitely a class pleaser and perfect for this time of year!

Get a book that you have multiple copies of for your students.  Ideally, you would have enough for each of them.  If not, sharing with one other student is the next best thing.

The perfect book is a novel with cliffhangers at the end of each chapter.

STEP 1

Assign each student or partner group a chapter to read and summarize.  Also, you can ask them to look for any other elements.  I often ask students to look at elements of the characters they have discovered. 

STEP 2

Give students adequate time to read and make notes.  Usually 20-30 minutes works.  This is a good time to let them move out of their seat and even use a pillow if they brought one.

STEP 3

Then, reconvene and let the sharing process begin chapter by chapter.  As the plot unfolds your students will be glued.  I've seen students who don't even want to take a bathroom break so that they can keep the process going.

As you can imagine, this works best in a self-contained classroom or a day when you have more than 1 hour with students so that there is enough time to get through everyone.

Depending on the length of the book, plan on using about 1.5 hours for sharing. 

Wrap it up by doing a comprehension activity or two.

Here are just a few of the benefits:

- development of a variety of reading skills

-renewed interest in reading

-summarization practice

-community building

If you are considering giving it a "go" and have some questions, I'm happy to help.  I do promise your kids will love this day, and you can check another date off the calendar as well spent!