Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick is one of those perfect middle school novels that can motivate even your most reluctant readers. Your 5th/6th graders will love the friendship between Max and Kevin, and your intervention-level 7th and 8th graders will see themselves reflected in these characters.
I've taught Freak the Mighty for many years and my students LOVE IT!. The chapters are short and fast-paced, students connect immediately to the two main characters, and here's the bonus: this book is perfect for back-to-school timing in September or October. If you're looking for a novel study that will keep your students engaged from PAGE ONE, this is it.
Lesson Plan Basics
I use a fairly consistent lesson plan structure for all of the novels we read together in class. I lead off each day with a discussion around the assigned reading selection. For my favorite chapters, I highlight a couple pages to read aloud before beginning our discussion.
My standard pace for novel studies includes starting each day by reviewing the setting and characters of our reading selection. With Freak the Mighty, students immediately connect to the friendship dynamic between Max and Kevin. Class discussions like this not only give you an assessment of comprehension, but they also help students hear how their peers interpret and connect to the story.
After our daily discussion, I give students time in class to work on their novel study worksheets. Depending on the chapter, they will have comprehension questions, word work, and journal prompts to complete before beginning the next reading assignment.
Vocabulary and Word Work
Instead of handing out a list of vocabulary words to memorize, I like to utilize context clue worksheets that require students to go back into the text and decipher what a word means. The ability to utilize context clues is an important skill for state testing. My Freak the Mighty novel unit includes 3 context clue worksheets with about 30 different words from the text.
Character Analysis
Because Max and Kevin are so different, I like to focus some activities on studying their character perspectives and how they complement each other. Character study is important to help our students unlock their awareness of empathy and perspective so that they may become more fluent readers.
The goal is to have students think about each character's background, strengths, and how they support one another throughout the story. This friendship theme opens the door for meaningful classroom discussions about loyalty, disability representation, and overcoming obstacles.
Freak the Mighty Novel Study Unit
If you're considering Freak the Mighty as a whole-class novel study or literature circle book, I've created a comprehensive 60-page unit that covers everything featured in this post. This PDF download features chapter-by-chapter lesson plans, reading comprehension questions, word work, character analysis, and journal promptsâeverything you need to teach this book with minimal planning time.
Includes the following:
- Chapter-by-chapter lesson plans
- 24-pages of reader response questions for before, during, and after reading
- Context clue worksheets by chapter
- Character analysis activities
- Story map template
- Figurative language worksheets
- Post-reading journal writing
- End of novel project: character cards
- Answer key
Click Here for Full Description and Teacher Reviews
The bottom line is that Freak the Mighty is one of those easy wins for reading teachers. Students connect with Max and Kevin from the first chapter, which gives you the opportunity to dig deeper into character analysis, friendship themes, and reading strategies. When your students love the books they read, it becomes easier to motivate their learning!
Additional novel study units I use with my middle school students:
