With the drive of comprehensible input in the World Language arena, my classes are each reading 1-2 novels in the curriculum per semester (we are on a block schedule, so one year is complete in a semester). Just as in English, the more input that one has from good sources, the brain will begin to recognize the patterns of language and the student will eventually be able to turn that input into output. Because of a companies like @Fluency Matters, there is finally content written at the language level of my high school students that encompass topics that are interesting to them. Fifteen to twenty years ago children's books were pushed because of their short number of pages and “easily” understood topics. Sadly, though, these were so juvenile that the content didn’t capture the HS students’ attention and even many of these have advanced grammar that is incomprehensible to the novice and intermediate language learner. Hence, my rejoicing to find small chapter books that have engaging content and use I +i comprehensible input. They are full of cognates and language structures that these language learners can understand without becoming too frustrated and giving up.
It isn’t just enough to have your students read then answer questions, you must engage them in the novel and the material. Push their thinking to the higher critical level in order to analyze the novel and make connections. Protest the drill and kill novel and move beyond the worksheet, the question and answer drudgery. Engage your students with movement, technology, pair work and group work. Tap into their creative skills and have them create, allow them to have small group chat circles, play games, and role play. Create silent movies to show comprehension, use roll a question to encourage conversation, create a balloon pop scrambled story activity,etc. (Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers link here to see what I have created to teach the book Rival by Mira Canion. A complete 2-3 week curriculum with all activities and assessments! goo.gl/IvryLP )
Think about what activities you do to differentiate on a daily basis, then apply those same concepts to your novel chapter reviews. By doing so, your students will be engaged and look forward to reading not only the next chapter, but the next book as well!
It isn’t just enough to have your students read then answer questions, you must engage them in the novel and the material. Push their thinking to the higher critical level in order to analyze the novel and make connections. Protest the drill and kill novel and move beyond the worksheet, the question and answer drudgery. Engage your students with movement, technology, pair work and group work. Tap into their creative skills and have them create, allow them to have small group chat circles, play games, and role play. Create silent movies to show comprehension, use roll a question to encourage conversation, create a balloon pop scrambled story activity,etc. (Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers link here to see what I have created to teach the book Rival by Mira Canion. A complete 2-3 week curriculum with all activities and assessments! goo.gl/IvryLP )
Think about what activities you do to differentiate on a daily basis, then apply those same concepts to your novel chapter reviews. By doing so, your students will be engaged and look forward to reading not only the next chapter, but the next book as well!
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