Transcript

This is our Freak the Mighty novel study board. I knew that I wanted to do Freak the Mighty as a classroom read aloud. I find that 5th and 6th graders get fewer and fewer read alouds the older they get but the level of engagement when Im reading a story to the class is really high. 

Before we started the novel study, I knew that the class needed some work on paragraph writing. I could tell this just by reading through some of their reading samples. So we did some pre-teaching. We first started with how to write a paragraph. 

Our first step was just looking at paragraphs. We identified the different parts of a paragraph and the main idea was that the paragraph is about one idea, one topic. So, as a class, we chose a topic. Our topic was soccer, which is really popular with all of the students. Once we chose our topic, we identified the different parts of a paragraph; the topic sentence, the body, and the conclusion, and then we co-constructed the paragraph. This then acted as our anchor chart. So, we posted this on the wall and that remains on the wall for the rest of the year. 

Once we had a sample paragraph, I started the read aloud. I read the first couple chapters of Freak the Mighty and after every couple chapters I assigned them 2 questions. I ensured that the questions were rich enough; that they would elicit lots of ideas from the students. The students then had to write a paragraph to answer each of these questions. Throughout the novel study, I would read the paragraphs and I would give them descriptive feedback on how to improve their paragraph writing. The idea is that throughout the novel study, they get better and better at writing paragraphs. 

The second thing we did for our novel study was we focused on some vocabulary. After every couple chapters, once I stopped reading, I would ask the class some of the words that they had never heard before or that they werent sure of. Sometimes they had heard a word but they werent quite sure what it meant in the context of the book, so we would make a list of some vocabulary. If they didnt identify any words, I asked them about some of the words. So I would keep a mental list of them as I was going in the book or I may just stop the book or write down a word on the board as we were reading and then continue reading. These became our vocabulary words for the novel. 

So once we had a list of vocabulary words I would choose a student at random to bring home the vocabulary word for homework. Their task was to define the word using their own words and then to draw a picture to illustrate the definition and to try to draw it in context; so try to draw it how they used the word in the story. We then posted these vocabulary words on our Freak the Mighty learning wall.

The next thing we did, about half way through the book, is made predictions about what we thought was going to happen throughout the rest of the story. Theres definitely some building action in the middle of the story and so I chose a good point to stop and to ask the question "What do you think is going to happen next?" and "How do you think the story is going to wrap up?". So, the students made predictions and I used this activity as a ticket out the door. So, I gave them a post-it note and they wrote their predictions, stuck it on the board, and at that day, they went out for recess. The students were really interested in each others predictions and it kind of drew them to the learning wall. So, they would go up to it to read each others predictions.

At the end of the novel, the students were then presented with a final task. I used a choice board for this so that students had some options about how they would demonstrate their understanding of the book. Up to this point, we had learned about letter writing and how to write a newspaper article. I added one more thing to the choice board: a monologue. So they had 3 choices: writing a newspaper article, writing a letter, and writing a monologue. For each of these assignments, they had success criteria, they had a graphic organizer to use, and they had a sample that I posted on the learning wall. 

Once they had completed this assignment, we watched the movie. They were really excited about this and they knew all along that there was a movie coming at the end of the book. Once we watched the movie, we used Venn diagrams to compare the movie and the book. Clearly they had opinions about which one they preferred, so I had them write movie reviews. This became then a media literacy activity as well.

SUMMARY: A Multifaceted Novel Study Built Around a Teacher Read-Aloud 

Part 1: Paragraph
a) Pre-taught success criteria for how to write a paragraph
b) Started the read-aloud of Freak the Mighty
c) Every couple of chapters assigned questions to be answered in paragraphs

Part 2: Vocabulary Words 
a) As read-aloud progressed, co-developed list of unfamiliar words
b) Each vocabulary word assigned to a student to define and illustrate

Part 3: Made Predictions 
a) Selected a critical point about half way through read-aloud to prompt predictions
b) Asked What is going to happen next? and How is story going to wrap up?
c) All students posted their predictions

Part 4: Final Task after read-aloud to demonstrate understanding of the book 
a) Students selected from 3 Final Task options on the Choice Board
b) Graphic organizer, success criteria and sample posted for each choice:
    *write a newspaper article
    *write a letter
    *write a monologue

Part 5: Watched Movie based on Freak the Mighty
a) Created Venn diagrams to compare the movie and the book
b) Students wrote movie reviews