This Blood on the River Novel Study for the book by Elisa Carbone includes no prep student printables for comprehension and vocabulary activities, along with a teacher guide and answer keys. This novel study divides Blood on the River into a 4-5 week novel unit, grouping chapters to foster student understanding of big ideas.
Standards-aligned and engaging, this isn't your typical book study. Instead of overwhelming learners with a list of daily chapter questions that don't require them to think beyond the text, Blood on the River novel unit is meaningful and targets a specific comprehension skill each day.
Your download includes:
✔Daily comprehension prompts in 2 formats for differentiation
- Foldable trifold brochures
- Cut & paste journal prompts for interactive notebooks
✔ Weekly word of the day flip books for text-based vocabulary
✔ Easy-to-follow directions for printing & prep
✔ Instructional planning guide
✔ Answer keys
In this Blood on the River Novel Study you'll find:
1) Student comprehension practice (up to 25 instructional days)
- Each day's work focuses on a single standards-based comprehension skill
- Short, written responses include opportunities to apply thinking to text
- Designed with reluctant and struggling learners in mind
- Built-in graphic organizers to support skill acquisition
- Approachable questions help make connections & start conversations
- No boring multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions!
- Available in both printable trifolds and pasteable journal prompts
2) Approachable practice with key reading standards and skills including:
- Generating main ideas and a summary of key events
- Text analysis and responding to literature
- Exploring character development & relationships through events of the plot
- Making inferences and drawing conclusions based on text clues
- Utilizing context clues to establish meaning
- Analyzing point of view & its impact on the reader.
- Examining the author's craft in the context of historical fiction
- And so much more!
3) Text-based & academic vocabulary
- One target word identified for each day's reading
- Includes opportunity to generate a personal definition and use the word in context
- Fosters connections between vocabulary knowledge through synonyms and antonyms
- Opportunities to make connections to academic vocabulary for daily skills
4) Teacher support materials
- Unit scope & sequence lay out the day's comprehension & vocabulary focus
- Answer Keys for all comprehension activities
- Tips for preparation and implementation
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How Novel Units from Differentiated Teaching Work...
▸ Teachers can introduce the day's vocabulary word & discuss it before reading.
▸ Students complete just one section of the trifold or a single Google Slide each day.
▸ Daily work focuses on target skills needed for success in reading vs. plot recall.
▸ The low-pressure format provides novelty & encourages student engagement
▸ Less overwhelming to reluctant readers and writers
▸ Requires deep analysis and application of text-based knowledge
▸ Encourages discussion about skills & strategies
Here's why teachers love these novel units...
♥ We used these for a whole-class novel study. Pre-printed brochures fully encompassed ELA skills for the novel. This is an extremely easy, but very rich set of activities for understanding and enriching student's ELA skills. I will be using this for our first novel study again in class this fall. I highly recommend this! -Allison M.
♥ This does a really good job of focusing on vocab and using context clues, practicing quoting from the text, and target skills. I really liked the way it focused on one skill for every two chapters, which made things really manageable for my students. - Beth A.
Here's what homeschool families have to say about the novel studies...
★ I LOVE the layout and how it guides my son and I through our reading time. As a homeschool parent, I still wanted to give him that opportunity to discuss and grapple with the text and I love this quick format as a brochure. I also love the vocab focus for each section and the skill listed so I can monitor his understanding of these as we move through a variety of texts this year. - Antonia S.
★ My kids LOVED this book companion. The vocabulary was rich, and I liked the focus on one word a day. I also liked that they had to use context clues rather than dictionary definitions... The tasks were a great review of skills I covered throughout the year. Parent-friendly and easy to implement. - Corinne M.
★ I am a homeschool mom and my daughter is enjoying the book and I am loving that she is able to respond to the reading through various aspects and not just answer questions. She is more engaged in her reading and asks more questions after she completes each task. - Terri B.
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Terms of Use:
© Rebecca Davies. All rights reserved by the author. These materials are intended for personal use by a single classroom only. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. For use in multiple classrooms, please purchase additional licenses. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Clipart and elements found in this PDF are copyrighted and cannot be extracted and used outside of this file without permission or license. See product file for clip art and font credits.