This book is perfect for the skills we've been covering the past two weeks, plot and theme, and is filled with tons of rich vocabulary. Before we read each chapter, we record "juicy" words in our vocab books. We learn the meaning, come up with synonyms, and draw a picture that will help us remember the word's meaning. Going over the words before we read them in the chapter helps students to understand the word when they see it in context. They also get excited to see the words as they read!
During the first week we focused on writing the plot of the chapters. I modeled this a lot for the students before they practiced with partners.
We're reading this novel in whole group, with partners and independently. There is always an activity to accompany the end of each chapter.
Probably my favorite activity so far was making a self-to-text connection with our very own book cover! After coming up with their very own "fever" they made their cover and then a little snapshot of their pretend book. They wrote about the supporting characters, the illness, the cure, and the setting. They absolutely loved making these!
For the second half of the book, we are making "brochures" outlining the characters, setting, plot, vocabulary and at the end students will give the book a rating, write a review and a note to the reader. These are done independently or with partners. This is showing me they can apply what we've practiced the past two weeks.
On Thursday we will wrap up our novel unit with a chocolate celebration! I'm sure this will be a huge hit!
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