When I read a book with my class, I want my students to keep track of the story elements. I have tried several different methods like:
1. A plot diagram.
I added a lot of structure to this diagram to be sure that students could give me ALL the story information. I have even used the school's poster machine to hang this in the room so we always had a nice reference.
Also, depending on the class, I have taught the students what each part of the diagram was first using this video and notes.
2. A double entry journal. (Springboard, anyone?)
These are great because they serve a double purpose - they track story information and allow the students to collect evidence and commentary for an essay. The downside is that they are pretty difficult for students who are not advanced so those students need a lot of help. I used to fill in some of the information (as seen above) and then ask my challenged students to fill in the missing parts. That helped but sometimes they still fell off the wagon.
3. Storyboards
Students really enjoy these at the outset as they get to draw pictures in the boxes. The trouble is with the summarizing. Even though we do a few chapters together, when left to their own devices, these summaries get less and less complete.
4. And even just a plain 'ol graphic organizer
(which are actually pretty darn effective)
(which are actually pretty darn effective)
With this graphic organizer, I made a blank one for some students to fill in on their own (advanced) and with pre-printed plot events that other students (not advanced) had to glue into the boxes in the correct order.
All of those work reasonably well for most students but then some students begin to feel overwhelmed and stop fully participating. Why? Because they are basically one size fits all.
Once I realized this, I just knew that making my own notes was going to be necessary. And since I had already had success with Pixanotes, I thought why not try it with novel study?
So I did! And these notes are perfect for all levels because there are different versions to suit different learners.
5. Novel Study Pixanotes - 4 versions to help meet all students' needs.
These Pixanotes got the seal of approval from my ELL students this year as they truly struggled with the required in-class novel. Of course, this isn't the only thing I did to help them understand and process the novel, but that's a whole other post!
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