Some of my most vivid childhood memories of school were the novel studies I read for various subjects. It was my favorite way to learn skills, history, and any topic! I love books, and being allowed to read an entire book from cover to cover as a school assignment put me in heaven! I am sure this is a major reason why, as a teacher, my passion is to create and teach novel studies! I love introducing new books to my class, and as a community, being immersed in the book together. I love it when a student pulls us off the schedule with a question or comment from something they read and leads the class into a lively discussion. That’s where the real memorable learning takes place, after all!
I create novel studies more than any other product line simply because I like to focus on what I love. I want to work with my passion! I often get questions from readers asking how I would set up novel studies in my classroom. I decided to write a small series explaining my methods. For the most part, my novel studies include comprehension questions, vocabulary/grammar skill work, extension activities, and assessments.
Today’s post, part 5, is the conclusion of the series dealing with the assessment aspect of using novel studies. You can read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 here.
Novel Studies Part 5: Assessment
Assessment of a novel study can be a tricky thing to handle. My main objective, in addition to hitting skills, is to hook the student on the enjoyment of reading a good book. Too much assessment can kill that joy, but we need some way to assess that the skills are met. It’s a delicate balance.
I often get questions from potential buyers asking if there are assessments after every chapter of my novel studies. I kind of cringe when I get these questions because I can only imagine the dread the students must have if they are tested after every chapter! Testing is not the only way to assess if a student has read and understood. In my experience, class discussions and the writing in the comprehension answers are more than sufficient evidence of learning and understanding by the student. It is imperative when using novel studies not to lose focus and kill the joy of reading for your students! Your goal is for them to voluntarily pick up another book to read when a novel study is over, not run as far as they can from books!
I understand that assessments are helpful and necessary, but they should be appropriate and not overwhelming. For many of my novel studies, I have split the book into logical sections and have an assessment after each section. For example, you’ll find my Wonder,Projekt 1065, and Tuck Everlastingnovel studies in this format.
For some, I only offer assessments after completion of the book for comprehension, vocabulary, and longer paragraph-writing essay questions. The end-of-the-novel comprehension quiz includes both a multiple-choice and a short answer format for differentiation. A multiple-choice quiz for vocabulary and a paragraph-writing assessment is included with each novel study. You can see an example of this from my Turtle in Paradise Novel Study.
All of my novel studies offer a Google Drive™ format, in addition to the printable format, shown above, to use with your students. This allows you to use novel studies in a 1:1 classroom, save paper, and easily engage students who are absent. The assessments are included as multiple-choice questions in a Google Forms™ format so that they are self-grading. Here’s an example page from the Google Drive™ format of my A Wrinkle in Time Novel Study.
The key, in my opinion, is not to overdo the testing. You need to be able to assess the students’ understanding of what they are reading, which can be done in many different ways that aren’t paper and pencil testing. Don’t kill the love the student is developing for the book you are reading!
I hope this series has been helpful to you in planning to use novels in your classroom. I promise you will not be sorry, you may just be the spark that takes your student on a lifetime love of reading!
Are you interested in reading about and sharing ideas with other educators on using children’s literature in your classroom? My goal is to bring together teachers and homeschoolers who teach grades 3-8 and use novels with their students. I’d love for you to join me to learn, share, and grow together!
Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe is a novel that has stood the test of time, captivating the hearts and minds of young readers for generations. Bunnicula is a great novel to use in early fall to get your students into the spooky mood of Halloween.
Bunnicula blends humor, mystery, and unforgettable characters, and offers teachers a unique and engaging way to enrich their classroom experience. So, grab your garlic and wooden stakes (just in case), and let’s dive into the world of this fang-tastic literary classic!
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The Benefits of Using Bunnicula in Your Classroom:
Contains a Captivating Storyline: Bunnicula introduces students to the Monroe family and their lovable pets, Harold the dog and Chester the cat. When the family brings home a new pet rabbit named Bunnicula, Chester becomes convinced that this peculiar bunny is a vampire. This humorous and suspenseful premise sets the stage for a thrilling adventure that will keep students eagerly turning the pages. The story’s unique blend of mystery and humor makes it an excellent choice for engaging young readers and sparking their imaginations.
Encourages Critical Thinking: As students delve into the pages of Bunnicula, they’ll encounter a range of complex characters and situations that invite critical thinking. They can analyze Chester’s paranoia, Harold’s loyalty, and Bunnicula’s mysterious behavior, all while drawing conclusions and making predictions about the story’s outcome. Teachers can use these elements to stimulate classroom discussions, promote inference-making, and encourage students to think critically about character motivations and plot development.
Vocabulary Enrichment: The novel’s rich and varied vocabulary provides an excellent opportunity for vocabulary enrichment. Teachers can introduce students to new words and concepts, helping them expand their language skills. Vocabulary activities like word walls, context clues, and vocabulary journals can enhance students’ ability to understand and use unfamiliar words, fostering better communication skills.
Promotes Literacy Skills:Bunnicula serves as a gateway to developing essential literacy skills. Students can practice reading comprehension through discussions about the plot, characters, and themes. Additionally, the book can be used as a springboard for writing activities, such as book reports, character analyses, and creative writing assignments, allowing students to strengthen their writing skills while connecting with the text on a deeper level.
Opportunities for Multidisciplinary Learning: Teachers can integrate Bunnicula into various subject areas, creating a multidisciplinary learning experience. For instance, science lessons can explore nocturnal animals and vampire bat behaviors, while social studies can delve into superstitions and folklore. This interdisciplinary approach not only enriches students’ understanding of the book but also enhances their overall education.
Fosters a Love of Reading: Perhaps one of the most significant benefits of using Bunnicula in the classroom is its potential to ignite a lifelong love of reading. When students become engrossed in a story and connect with the characters, they are more likely to view reading as an enjoyable pastime rather than a chore. This enthusiasm for reading can have a lasting impact on their academic success and personal development.
Incorporating Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe into your classroom curriculum is a choice that promises to bring excitement, critical thinking, vocabulary enrichment, and a love of reading to your students. This timeless novel offers educators a wonderful way to engage young minds, spark their imaginations, and create an enriching learning experience that extends beyond the classroom. So, sink your teeth into this classic tale and watch your students become enchanted by the world of Bunnicula.
I offer a complete novel study for Bunnicula which is great for whole-class novel study, a small book group study, individual novel study, or whole-class read-aloud. I guarantee your students will love it and it’s the perfect complement to any classroom in the fall!
Try a free sample of the novel study for Bunnicula
You can purchase this novel study at the following locations:
Are you interested in reading about and sharing ideas with other educators on using children’s literature in your classroom? My goal is to bring together teachers and homeschoolers who teach grades 3-8 and use novels with their students. I’d love for you to join me to learn, share, and grow together!
In today’s classrooms, fostering empathy, promoting inclusivity, and celebrating differences are more vital than ever. Literature has always been our most effective tool to build these connections—and few books do it as masterfully as Cece Bell’s Newbery Honor-winning graphic novel, El Deafo.
Whether you are looking to engage reluctant readers, deepen your Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum, or build genuine disability awareness, El Deafo provides an unforgettable lens into the real-world experiences of growing up with hearing loss.
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A Personal Perspective: Why El Deafo Touches My Heart
As someone who has lived with hearing loss for over 25 years, I know firsthand the daily friction of trying to communicate in a world built for the hearing. Hearing loss has affected almost every area of my life—it even led to the end of my classroom teaching career.
A while back, I participated in an online discussion with fellow educators about the factuality of the novel Wonder by R.J. Palacio. While I love Wonder and believe it holds a valuable spot in the classroom, I’ve always been concerned about how it portrays hearing loss and hearing aids. (In fact, when I created my Wonder Novel Study, I included a non-fiction article to help students understand the real-world science behind hearing loss so they could spot the story’s inaccuracies.)
During that discussion, an educator asked me:
“Shelley, have you read El Deafo by Cece Bell? How realistic is it to someone who actually walks in those shoes?”
I immediately ordered a copy. From the moment I opened it, I was nodding my head in complete agreement.
Cece Bell’s autobiographical journey captured feelings I’ve carried for decades—isolation, self-consciousness, social fatigue, and the exhaustion of putting up with awkward interactions out of fear or embarrassment.
Most importantly, the book highlights a critical truth the hearing world often overlooks: Volume does not equal clarity.
Shouting, talking unnaturally slow, or exaggerating mouth movements does not help someone with hearing loss. In fact, it ruins lip-reading and makes communication much harder! Cece’s story shows how she took these everyday struggles and transformed them into her superhero alter ego, “El Deafo.”
You don’t need to have hearing loss to fall in love with Cece’s journey—but reading it will make anyone a more compassionate, understanding human being.
6 Key Benefits of Teaching El Deafo in Grades 4–6
1. 🤟 Promotes Real Disability Awareness & Deaf Culture
El Deafo offers an authentic, first-hand look at what it’s like to navigate school and friendships with a hearing impairment. It strips away misconceptions and gives students an accurate understanding of assistive technology and accessibility.
2. ❤️ Builds Deep Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) & Empathy
By following Cece’s internal monologues and social triumphs, students learn to recognize the feelings of others, reflect on their own behaviors, and navigate complex friendship dynamics with kindness.
Cece’s creation of “El Deafo” teaches young readers that the things that make us different aren’t weaknesses—they can become our greatest strengths. It encourages students to embrace their unique traits with confidence.
4. 📖 Hooks Reluctant & Visual Readers
As a graphic novel, El Deafo pairs rich visual context with accessible text. It is an extraordinary format for striving readers, ESL/ELL students, and visual learners to practice high-level literary analysis without feeling overwhelmed.
5. 🗣️ Sparks Meaningful Classroom Discussions
Cece’s story naturally opens the door for class discussions on tough topics: standing up to bullies, overcoming social anxiety, effective communication strategies, and true inclusion.
6. 🌐 Blends Fiction with Non-Fiction Learning
Pairing Cece’s memoir with non-fiction research on audiology, ear anatomy, and famous figures with hearing loss allows teachers to connect ELA standards directly with Science and Health topics.
Take Your El Deafo Unit Further (Zero Prep Required!)
Teaching a graphic novel comes with unique opportunities—and unique challenges! To help you deliver a comprehensive, standards-aligned unit without spending your weekends planning, I created the El Deafo Complete Novel Study.
Designed specifically for Grades 4–6, this 147+ page resource combines deep ELA reading comprehension with interactive non-fiction research.
🌟 What’s Included in the Unit?
3-Week Pacing & Daily Lesson Plans: Structured, step-by-step teacher guides aligned to Common Core Standards.
Chapter-by-Chapter Comprehension: Short-answer questions that analyze both textual content and visual graphic panel cues.
6 Non-Fiction WebQuest Foldables: Interactive research activities covering ear anatomy, audiology, assistive technology, communication strategies, and deaf history.
End-of-Book Assessment Packet: Comprehensive final test available in printable format and self-grading Google Forms™.
Printable PDF & Google Drive™ Formats: Ready for traditional paper workbooks or paperless 1:1 Chromebook classrooms.
Give your students a reading unit they will talk about for the rest of the school year while saving yourself hours of prep time!
You can purchase this novel study at the following locations:
💬 Join the Conversation!
Have you taught graphic novels in your upper elementary or middle school classroom? How do your students react to Cece’s journey in El Deafo?
Come share your ideas, lesson tips, and book recommendations with hundreds of passionate educators in our free Facebook community: Book Talk with The Teaching Bank!
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Some of my most vivid childhood memories of school were the novel studies I read for various subjects. It was my favorite way to learn skills, history, and any topic! I love books, and being allowed to read an entire book from cover to cover as a school assignment put me in heaven! I am sure this is a major reason why, as a teacher, my passion is to create and teach novel studies! I love introducing new books to my class, and as a community, being immersed in the book together. I love it when a student pulls us off the schedule with a question or comment from something they read and leads the class into a lively discussion. That’s where the real memorable learning takes place, after all!
I create novel studies more than any other product line simply because I like to focus on what I love. I want to work with my passion! I often get questions from readers asking how I would set up novel studies in my classroom. I decided to write a small series explaining my methods. For the most part, my novel studies include comprehension questions, vocabulary/grammar skill work, extension activities, and assessments.
Today’s post, Part 4, deals with the extras added to the novel studies, from writing activities to non-fiction research activities. You can read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 here.
Novel Studies Part 4: The Extras!
Of course, when using novel studies in the classroom, you must hit the basics of comprehension and vocabulary. One of the wonderful bonuses of using novel studies is the opportunity to pull other areas of the curriculum into a larger thematic unit. The various topics of the different books can lead to a plethora of inquiry and learning.
As I create a novel study, I open my mind to all the places the story is taking me. Some books are easier to explore outside the reading domain than others. Some take me down the rabbit hole of investigation with a deep-thought question that allows for longer writing passages that can lead to some really inspiring class debates!
With The One and Only Ivan Novel Study, students can research gorillas and elephants. They can learn about and compare life for these animals in the wild vs. captivity. The most interesting to me was the true story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla that inspired the story!
A book like Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH leads to some deep-thought questions regarding animal testing that can be debated and discussed in-depth in the classroom.
All of my novel studies offer a Google Drive™ format, in addition to the printable format, shown above, to use with your students. This allows you to use novel studies in a 1:1 classroom, save paper, and easily engage students who are absent. The “extras” of the novel study are included in the Google Drive™ format as well. Here’s an example page from the Google Drive™ format of my The Lightning Thief Novel Study.
I love how you can combine the theme from a full novel throughout different curriculum areas in a way that you just can’t do with short passage reading instruction. This allows for even deeper learning by using novel studies!
Join me for the conclusion of my series to learn how I handle the assessments to end my novel studies.
Are you interested in reading about and sharing ideas with other educators on using children’s literature in your classroom? My goal is to bring together teachers and homeschoolers who teach grades 3-8 and use novels with their students. I’d love for you to join me to learn, share, and grow together!
Some of my most vivid childhood memories of school were the novel studies I read for various subjects. It was my favorite way to learn skills, history, and any topic! I love books, and being allowed to read an entire book from cover to cover as a school assignment put me in heaven! I am sure this is a major reason why, as a teacher, my passion is to create and teach novel studies! I love introducing new books to my class, and as a community, being immersed in the book together. I love it when a student pulls us off the schedule with a question or comment from something they read and leads the class into a lively discussion. That’s where the real memorable learning takes place, after all!
I create novel studies more than any other product line simply because I like to focus on what I love. I want to work with my passion! I often get questions from readers asking how I would set up novel studies in my classroom. I decided to write a small series explaining my methods. For the most part, my novel studies include comprehension questions, vocabulary/grammar skill work, extension activities, and assessments.
Today’s post, part 3, deals with pacing the novel study. You can read part 1 and part 2 here.
Novel Studies Part 3: Pacing
One of the challenges of using novel studies in the classroom is finding the time. It’s a balance between not moving too fast and not letting the unit drag on for too long because we all know you have a million other things to squeeze into your curriculum!
Each of my complete novel studies includes detailed daily teacher lesson plans that include the objective and directions for the day. You can see how this is designed fo my Freak the Mighty Novel Study.
I also create a pacing guide for each novel study that helps you map out your long-range plan. You can see an example here from my Crenshaw Novel Study.
It’s a delicate balance to set the pacing. I generally try to aim for approximately 20 pages to read per day. This will be altered based on the chapter sizes. I don’t schedule split chapters as I feel this disrupts the reader. I know I hate to stop reading mid-chapter. That’s just mean!
All of my novel studies offer a Google Drive™ format, in addition to the printable format, shown above, to use with your students. This allows you to use novel studies in a 1:1 classroom, save paper, and easily engage students that are absent. Here’s an example page from the Google Drive™ format of my Wishtree Novel Study. The same pacing would apply for the Google™ version as you would use for the printable version.
This pacing is a suggestion as it has worked for me, but it is very adaptable, so you can work to fit it into the schedule that you are working with. The planning pages are written for a whole class novel study, but can be easily adapted to fit small book groups or individual novel studies. How much teacher interaction you want to have during the course of the study is up to you and can be worked in with the suggested pacing.
Join me for part 4 of my series to learn how I add extra experiences to my novel studies for deeper learning and growth.
Are you interested in reading about and sharing ideas with other educators on using children’s literature in your classroom? My goal is to bring together teachers and homeschoolers who teach grades 3-8 and use novels with their students. I’d love for you to join me to learn, share, and grow together!
Novel Studies Part 5: Assessment
I often get questions from potential buyers asking if there are assessments after every chapter of my novel studies. I kind of cringe when I get these questions because I can only imagine the dread the students must have if they are tested after every chapter! Testing is not the only way to assess if a student has read and understood. In my experience, class discussions and the writing in the comprehension answers are more than sufficient evidence of learning and understanding by the student. It is imperative when using novel studies not to lose focus and kill the joy of reading for your students! Your goal is for them to voluntarily pick up another book to read when a novel study is over, not run as far as they can from books!
Novel Studies Part 4: The Extras!
All of my novel studies offer a Google Drive™ format, in addition to the printable format, shown above, to use with your students. This allows you to use novel studies in a 1:1 classroom, save paper, and easily engage students who are absent. The “extras” of the novel study are included in the Google Drive™ format as well. Here’s an example page from the Google Drive™ format of my 
Novel Studies Part 3: Pacing
All of my novel studies offer a Google Drive™ format, in addition to the printable format, shown above, to use with your students. This allows you to use novel studies in a 1:1 classroom, save paper, and easily engage students that are absent. Here’s an example page from the Google Drive™ format of my 
