Lesson 6: Novel Study

Discussion

Novel Study

Building on the elements of literature you studied in previous lessons, you will utilize a variety of graphic organizers (charts, diagrams, etc.) to help you organize your thinking and learning. You will learn how to write a constructed response, which will help you learn how to write an essay. You will also use sticky notes, two-column note taking, and bookmarks to document your thinking as an active reader.

As you read, document your thinking using one of the four methods listed below. You can choose to use the same method for the whole book or try each method and see which works best for you.

Sticky Notes

My students love using sticky notes, because they allow them to put their questions, thoughts, and “wonderings” right there in the book as they are reading. Here’s how it works.

As you read, you will be an active reader. You already know what this means from earlier lessons, and you have had plenty of practice with the lessons in your Daybook. When you are reading a novel, you may not want to write directly in the book, so you can use sticky notes to do the same type of documenting of your thinking as you read. For the different sections of the book, you will focus on different skills, strategies, and elements of literature. These are good things to document on your sticky notes.

You might begin by setting a specific number of sticky notes you plan to use. For example, you might decide that you will stick on at least one note for every three pages. That does not mean that you can’t stick on a note more often, but try to do at least the minimum you set for yourself.

You are not focusing on “right” or “wrong” answers, but on your involvement with and thinking about what you are reading. That’s what good readers do. I’ll include some points to focus on for you for each section of your book, but don’t be afraid to make your own original connections.

Bookmarking

When you use a bookmark method of documenting your thinking as you read, you write down “noticings” and “wonderings” as you go. You will need to write down the page number on your bookmark as you read. Decide in advance on the number of entries you will put on your bookmark; this will remind you to remain an active reader. I have included a sample of the type of bookmark that you can use. You can print it to use as you read. Otherwise, you can make your own personal bookmark with space to jot down your thinking.

As you read, you will jot down questions, important information, vocabulary that is new to you, and connections with the novel that you make. You can change to a new bookmark as you fill one up.

Two-Column Note Taking

Any time you read, two-column note taking is an excellent way to organize your thoughts. It is especially useful when studying nonfiction material, because it also gives you a way to review what you have learned. Divide your paper in half lengthwise (my students think of dividing it like a hot dog bun!) and put the topic in the left column and the details in the right column. Here’s an example of how it might look:

Literature Log

A literature log is very much like the journal you may have been keeping for your Daybook exercises. A log might have writings and drawings along with page numbers that go along with your comments and questions. Some readers even include in their logs things they find outside of the novel. For example, if you read about something that interests you, and you go find out more information about it from an encyclopedia, you could put that in your log. You might decide to write a new adventure or a poem about something in the book. A literature log gives you more space to write down your thoughts than the other methods.

How to Write a Constructed Response

From time to time as you are reading, you will be asked to complete “constructed responses” for specific questions. A constructed response addresses a specific prompt and is organized to include information that supports the answer to the prompt. An essay is a type of constructed response.

These questions will not have “right” or “wrong” answers. They will ask you to make a statement about something and then support that statement with information from the book. Some of the terms you need to know in order to create a constructed response are listed below.

Explain:

When you explain something, you tell about it. Explanation is the “what” of a question. Explaining is providing details so that your reader knows what you mean. You need to be specific when you explain.

Support:

Support is the “why”of an answer. I tell my students, “Don’t just tell me what, tell me why.” Now that you are getting to be a more mature reader, you will find that questions often have more than one answer. It is not enough just to tell what you think the answer is; you must support your statement with examples and information from the text you are reading.

Compare:

Sometimes a question will ask you to compare one thing to another. That means to tell how two things are alike. Comparing shows that you understand concepts and can transfer what you know from one thing to another.

Contrast:

This means showing how two things are different. Contrast is often a part of comparison, because sometimes a question that asks you to compare two things is really asking you to tell not only how they are the same, but how they are different as well. Look closely at the question to decide what you are supposed to do.

Analyze:

To analyze something is to take it apart and look at individual pieces. When you analyze a piece of literature, you are generally looking at the elements of literature as they apply to that reading. You will look at what the author was trying to do and what you understand as you read.

Longer constructed responses are sometimes called essays. Here’s how to structure a constructed response. Begin by restating the gist (main idea) of the question in your first sentence. For example, if the question was:

What is the setting in chapter one?

You would begin the first sentence in your answer something like this:

The setting in chapter one is ….

It might seem like this sentence would be all that is needed. However, remember that you can’t just tell what, you also have to tell why. This is the second part of a constructed response. Now you would find two or three examples from the text to support your statement. You could use quotes or tell your reasons in your own words. You would write in complete sentences. Some responses require only a few sentences. Others are more complicated and require several paragraphs. Others are even broader and require several pages of writing. You can usually tell from the question what type of response is being asked.

Be sure to answer all parts of a constructed response question. Very often, you may need to do two or more things to complete a response and receive full credit. Look at the following question (prompt):

Looking back on their childhoods, some people remember a time when they realized their world was more complex than they had believed. Tell about a time when you realized that the world was not as simple as you thought. What did you learn from that time? How did it change you as a person?

In this question, there are actually three parts:

• Tell about an event from your own life that relates to the prompt (question).
• Tell what you learned.
• Show how you changed.

To receive full credit for this type of a question, you would have to answer all three parts and use complete sentences and specific examples to support what you say. This type of an answer will be longer and include more information than the question about the setting. Sometimes a long constructed response will need a conclusion. This is where you sum up what you have said. It is often just a restatement of the original question and may be only a sentence or two in most cases.

You will be asked to write several constructed responses during this lesson. You will also be required to answer this type of question for your next progress evaluation.