TOP 5 Ways to Know You’ve Found a Good ELA Novel Unit!

Finding novels for my students is both a challenge and a joy.

The TOP 5 ways I can always tell I have found that awesome novel unit is when my students are:

1. talking about the book outside of class…recess, lunch, to parents, the principal…LOVE this!
2. not wanting to stop reading when ELA class has come to an end.
3. asking to take the book with them to the next class…not a favorite of my incredible teammates:(
4. buying the book with their own money or going to the public library to check out their own copy.
5. demanding that Hollywood turn the book into a feature film!

The texts this has happened with…Crash by Jerry Spinelli, Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, and The Lottery Rose by Irene Hunt have all been those AMAZING finds for my students!  These just happen to be books with characters they connect with, and really make an impression…a reading teacher’s DREAM!

I just updated this novel study unit with better graphics that I have utilized in my classroom with tremendous success.  If you are looking for a novel and unit to grab your students…check this out.

The Lottery Rose is perfect for grades 6-8.  It is about a boy named Georgie Burgess who is abused by his mom and her boyfriend.  He is eventually taken from his home and brought to this wonderful school for boys.  It is not a “rainbows and lollipops story” as I tell my students.  At times it is a very emotional read.

I love that Georgie has all of the odds stacked against him, but is able to grow into a compassionate human being.  Reading this novel with my students helps them to grasp the idea that we don’t always know what someone is dealing with in their life and it is important to be kind to others ALWAYS! This print and go unit has all of the tools you will need to teach this incredible novel.

Keep me posted on those novels that possess “THE TOP 5 Ways You Know You Have Found that BEST BOOK!”  I would love to share those upon my return to the classroom.