| Using the story:
1. Organize a panel to debate it. 2. Dramatize an incident from it. 3. Tell about it over the school PA system. 4. Condense it to 15, 50, or 100 words. 5. Write about it to a friend. 6. Make a map of where it takes place. 7. Make a story map of its main events. 8. Create a crossword puzzle, using its setting and plot. 9. Create a scroll or hand-rolled movie to illustrate it. 10. Tell Why it would (or wouldn’t) make a great movie. 11. Tell its funniest (or most exciting) incident. 12. Make a poster about it. 13. Pick five to 10 adjectives that describe it. Tell why you chose them. 14. Describe an incident from it as though you were an on-the-scene TV reporter. 15. Make a model of something in it. 16. Draw objects from it and make them into a mobile. 17. Draw a significant scene on construction paper cut to the size of a coat hanger; attach it to the hanger; then suspend from the hanger a report about the scene. 18. Choose an idea or scene from it as the subject of a collage. Use old magazine pictures. 19. Make up a limerick or haiku about it. 20. Put an important item from it into a shoebox. Give clues so your class can guess what the item is. 21. Illustrate it with objects found at home or handmade, or with photographs you’ve take of people, places and events. 22. Create a mural about it, using charcoal, crayons, cut paper, water colors, or another art form. 23. Compare it to the movie or TV version. 24. Make a time-line of its events. 25. Create a new ending for it. 26. Make a mosaic to illustrate one of its settings or events. 27. Make up a lost or found ad for something in it. 28. Make a peep-box of an important scene or event. 29. Rewrite one of its incidents for a younger reader. 30. Use sketches or photographs to recreate one of its action sequences. Using the characters: 31. The U.S. President has learned that you’ve read this book and wants to know one thing a main character discovered about life that you think all Americans should know. What would you tell him? Why? 32. Describe the main character in 64 words. 33. Choose a character you’d like (or not like) to have as a friend. Tell why. 34. Make believe you were one of the minor characters.How would you describe a main character? 35. Role play one of the characters. 36. Plan an appropriate meal for a main character. 37. Do a cartoon strip based on a character. 38. Write a few pages in a diary as if you were a character. 39. Write a poem about a character. |
40. Design costumes for some of the characters.
41. Dress as one of the characters. 42. For stories that took place in another time, tell how one of the characters would act today, or would respond to a present day situation. 43. Tell why one of the characters should have a different role. 44. Tell what your home would be like if it belonged to one of the main characters. 45. Write a biography of one of the characters. 46. Write an interview between a character and the author, or between two characters. 47. Create paper dolls of the main characters. 48. Pick a book you think each of the main characters would enjoy reading. Tell why. 49. Prepare flannel board characters. 50. Develop a game of charades based on the characters. 51. Make puppets of the characters. Set up dialogue. 52. Pantomime a character and ask the class to guess the book. 53. Guess what would have happened if a character had made an important decision differently. Using the book itself: 54. Make a list of facts you learned from it. 55. Persuade an audience to read (or not read) it. 56. Tell why you would (or wouldn’t) recommend it to your principal, a parent, or another student. 57. Tell what the book would say about itself if it could talk. 58. List its five most interesting or critical sentences. 59. Use its theme or setting to create a postcard or greeting card. 60. Compare it to another book the author has written. Describe common elements, style, theme, and so forth. 61. Write a song about it. 62. Demonstrate something you learned from it. 63. Prepare a list of its most unusual, difficult, or exciting words. 64. Use its title and theme to write your own story. 65. Do a scientific experiment associated with it. 66. Present a review of it to a younger class. 67. Pretend to be the book and tell what you hold within your pages. 68. Make a bulletin board about it, showing the main characters, the setting, and so forth. 69. Compare it with a book of similar theme. 70. Prepare a book jacket for it. 71. Have someone who has read it try to stump you with questions. Using the author: 72. Become the author and tell why you wrote this book. 73. Plan the questions you’d use in a conference call interview with the author. 74. The author has written to you and wants to know how this book would have been improved. How would you answer? 75. Write a letter of appreciation to the author, asking questions and sharing thoughts. |
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