The Year of the Book Novel Unit
Have you been looking for a realistic fiction series to teach comprehension and vocabulary skills and important SEL concepts? Well, look no further! This Novel Unit for Anna Wang #1:The Year of the Book is a 3-week book study designed to engage learners while building important reading and thinking skills.
With options for both printable and Google Slides versions of this novel unit, you can use it as a part of your homeschool curriculum, in your digital classroom, or with in-person learners. And if that wasn't enough - this Literature Study Guide for The Year of the Book also offers a great introduction to conversations about friendship and issues related to social-emotional learning that often arise in 3rd & 4th grades.
The print option 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
The digital option includes:
✔Daily comprehension prompts available in a student-friendly Google Slides format
✔Text-based daily vocabulary
✔ Easy-to-follow directions for assigning in Google Classroom
✔ Instructional planning guide
✔Answer keys
The print & digital bundle includes both options.
In this Novel Unit for The Year of the Book you'll find:
1) Student comprehension practice (up to 15 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 student-friendly Google Slides format
2) Approachable practice with key reading standards and skills including:
- Text analysis and responding to literature
- Exploring how character development and change occurs through events of the plot
- Making inferences and drawing conclusions based on text clues
- Analyzing problems and solutions
- Generating a summary of key events
- And so much more!
3) Text-based & academic vocabulary
- One target word identified for each day's reading
- In the daily slide with an embedded link to an online thesaurus
- 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 lays out the day's comprehension & vocabulary focus
- Answer Keys for all comprehension activities
- Tips for preparation and implementation
*Digital Access Note: This resource includes digital access via GOOGLE SLIDES. For the digital versions, you will need Internet access and a free Google account OR Google Classroom. Learners will work on computers or iPads. Upon purchasing, you will download documents containing links to the digital files, along with easy-to-follow instructions that will get you started in minutes! These are easily shared digitally between you and your students.
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How Novel Units from Differentiated Teaching Work...
▸ Teachers can introduce the day's vocabulary word & discuss 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 has helped me so much in teaching Holes to my students this year. Other resources overwhelm students with too much vocabulary and literal comprehension questions but these slides give students one vocabulary word for each chapter and a grade-level higher-order comprehension skill to practice. - Kristin P.
♥ 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 answering questions. She is more engaged in her reading and asking more questions after she completes each task. - Terri B.