“When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.”
Few books leave a lasting mark on upper elementary students quite like Wonder by R.J.Palacio.
The inspiring story follows August “Auggie” Pullman—a 10-year-old born with facial differences—as he transitions from homeschooling to entering a mainstream private school for fifth grade. Told through multiple perspectives, Auggie’s journey gives students a powerful look into empathy, bullying, perspective-taking, and the true meaning of friendship.
Whether you are teaching Wonder as a whole-class read-aloud, running literature circles, setting up independent reading stations, or in homeschool, this novel is one of the most effective ELA anchors for 4th, 5th, and 6th-grade classrooms.
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Here is how you can teach Wonder with zero prep time while building critical ELA skills and fostering a culture of kindness in your classroom!
🌟 Why Wonder Is an Essential Read for Upper Elementary
1. Drives Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) & Character Building
Wonder is more than a reading unit—it’s a tool for SEL. By examining the story through the eyes of Auggie, Via, Jack Will, and Summer, students learn to appreciate differences, reflect on their own behavior, and embrace the #ChooseKind mindset.
Palacio’s novel alternates between six distinct narrator voices. This unique structure provides a perfect framework for teaching point of view, character motivation, tone, and author’s craft without overwhelming middle-grade readers.
3. Engages Reluctant & Advanced Readers Alike
With short, fast-paced chapters and deeply relatable themes, even your most hesitant readers will stay hooked from chapter one.
I offer a complete novel study to accompany Wonder for use in the classroom or homeschool. The unit includes both a printable format and a Google Drive™ format for use in a paperless classroom or with Google Classroom.
📦 What’s Included in the Wonder Complete Unit (Print + Google Apps™)
Planning a comprehensive novel study shouldn’t require spending your weekends creating worksheets and grading assessments. This all-in-one unit contains everything you need to teach Wonder from start to finish—available in both printable PDF and interactive Google Drive™ (Google Slides & self-grading Google Forms) formats.
1. Teacher Planning & Management Packet
Detailed Daily Lesson Plans & Pacing Guide: Open, print (or click), and teach with confidence.
Vocabulary Word Wall Cards: Printable cards and digital Google Slides formats to build academic vocabulary.
Proactive Parent Letter:Pre-written communication explaining the themes and educational goals of the unit.
Complete Answer Keys: Stress-free grading for every assignment.
2. Student Practice & Skill Workbooks
Vocabulary & Grammar Activities: Direct instruction covering 126 context words across the book.
Chapter-by-Chapter Comprehension Questions: Short-answer questions designed to push students beyond basic retrieval into deeper critical thinking.
In-Depth Character Studies: Analytical writing prompts for each section of the novel.
4 Exclusive Post-Reading Analysis Tasks: Deep-dive extension tasks available only in the complete unit bundle.
3. Cross-Curricular Nonfiction Connections
Build real-world background knowledge with two complete informational reading activity guides:
👂 Hearing Loss Informational Reading & Activity Guide
🐕 Therapy Dogs Reading & Activity Guide
4. Self-Grading Quizzes & Assessments
4 Section Quizzes (Print & Self-Grading Google Forms™): Easily monitor comprehension after Part 1, Part 2, Part 5, and Part 8.
Bonus Activity Packets: Includes a Story Elements Interactive Notebook Packet and End-of-the-Book Projects usable with any book!
Want to test out the unit before committing? Download a Free Sample that includes all student activities and teacher plans for Day 1 of the unit!
You can purchase this novel study at the following locations:
💬 Connect with Fellow Educators!
Are you teaching Wonder this school year? How do you celebrate kindness in your classroom?
Join our free community, Book Talk with The Teaching Bank, to share ideas, grab freebies, and connect with 3rd–8th grade teachers using novels in the classroom!
*The Teaching Bank participates in the Amazon Associate Program and earns a fee from qualifying purchases made on the Amazon.com site.
f you’re looking for a high-interest novel that will engage upper elementary readers while providing meaningful opportunities for reading comprehension, discussion, writing, and critical thinking, add The One and Only Ruby by Katherine Applegate to your classroom reading list.
As the final book in the beloved One and Only trilogy, The One and Only Ruby allows students to reconnect with familiar characters while learning more about Ruby, the young elephant whose story began in The One and Only Ivan.
Ruby’s journey is filled with friendship, courage, family, belonging, and resilience. It also gives teachers plenty of opportunities to spark thoughtful conversations and connect literature to real-world topics such as animal welfare, conservation, empathy, and human responsibility.
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Why Teach The One and Only Ruby?
Katherine Applegate has created a story that is both accessible to young readers and rich enough to support deeper literary analysis. Students can enjoy Ruby’s story while exploring important themes and practicing essential ELA skills.
Here are just a few reasons The One and Only Ruby makes an excellent classroom novel.
1. It Builds Empathy and Compassion
One of the greatest strengths of The One and Only Ruby is its ability to help students see the world from another perspective.
Ruby’s experiences encourage readers to think about what it means to be separated from home, experience change, form relationships, and find a place where you belong.
These experiences create natural opportunities to discuss empathy, compassion, kindness, and caring for others.
Try asking your students:
How do Ruby’s experiences shape the way she sees the world?
How do other characters demonstrate compassion?
What does it mean to understand someone else’s feelings?
How can we show empathy in our own classroom?
These conversations can extend beyond the novel and help students make meaningful connections to their own lives.
2. The Themes Encourage Meaningful Discussion
The One and Only Ruby is much more than an entertaining animal story. It provides opportunities to explore several universal themes that students can connect to.
Some important themes include:
Friendship
Belonging
Courage
Facing your fears
Family
Growing up
Change
Empathy
Resilience
Finding your place
These themes make the novel especially effective for whole-class novel studies, literature circles, reading groups, and independent reading.
Students can support their ideas with evidence from the text while learning that a story can have multiple meaningful interpretations.
3. It Encourages Critical Thinking
A great novel study should do more than ask students to remember what happened in each chapter.
The One and Only Ruby provides opportunities for students to infer, analyze, predict, explain, compare, and support their thinking with text evidence.
Instead of simply asking, “What happened?” encourage students to ask:
Why did this happen?
How did this event affect the character?
What does this reveal about the character?
What evidence from the text supports your thinking?
How might the story have been different if a character had made a different choice?
These types of questions turn reading into an active process and help students develop stronger comprehension and critical-thinking skills.
4. It Opens the Door to Environmental and Animal Conservation Topics
Because Ruby is an elephant, the novel also provides a natural bridge between fiction and nonfiction learning.
Students can investigate topics such as:
Elephant habitats
African elephants
Animal conservation
Wildlife sanctuaries
Animal behavior
Human impact on wildlife
Captivity versus life in the wild
Protecting endangered animals
This creates an excellent opportunity for cross-curricular learning.
After reading about Ruby’s experiences, students can research a related topic and use information from nonfiction sources to expand their understanding.
You can even have students compare what they learn from informational texts with Ruby’s fictional experiences.
5. It Supports Strong ELA Instruction
One of the biggest advantages of using a high-interest novel in the classroom is that you can teach a wide variety of ELA skills within an authentic reading experience.
The One and Only Ruby novel study can support instruction in:
Reading comprehension
Making inferences
Summarizing
Character analysis
Theme
Story elements
Vocabulary
Grammar
Text evidence
Reading response
Opinion writing
Essay writing
Critical thinking
Nonfiction reading
Literary analysis
Instead of teaching these skills in isolation, students practice them while reading a story they actually care about.
The One and Only Ruby Novel Study Ideas
If you’re planning to teach The One and Only Ruby, consider incorporating a combination of comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and discussion activities.
Character Analysis
Have students track Ruby’s development throughout the story.
Students can identify:
Ruby’s character traits
Challenges she faces
Important decisions she makes
How she changes
Relationships that influence her
Evidence that supports their thinking
A character development chart can be especially useful for helping students see how a character changes over the course of a novel.
Vocabulary Activities
Create a vocabulary list from the novel and have students use context clues to determine word meanings.
Students can then:
Define words in their own words
Identify synonyms and antonyms
Use words in original sentences
Illustrate vocabulary
Find examples of words used in context
Reading Comprehension Questions
Instead of relying only on basic recall questions, include a mixture of literal, inferential, and analytical questions.
For example:
Literal: What happened?
Inferential: Why do you think the character made that choice?
Analytical: How does this event contribute to one of the novel’s themes?
This progression helps students move from understanding the text to thinking deeply about it.
Opinion and Essay Writing
The novel also provides excellent opportunities for text-based writing.
Students can respond to questions related to animals, conservation, friendship, belonging, or decisions made by characters.
Require students to support their opinions with specific evidence from the novel.
This is a great way to combine reading comprehension and writing instruction.
Teaching The One and Only Ruby With a Complete Novel Study
If you don’t want to spend hours creating The One and Only Ruby worksheets, comprehension questions, vocabulary activities, assessments, and writing assignments, a ready-to-use novel study can save you valuable planning time.
What’s Included in the The One and Only Ruby Novel Study?
Chapter-by-chapter comprehension questions
Vocabulary activities
Grammar activities
Reading responses
Writing activities
Nonfiction reading
Opinion writing
Character and story element activities
Assessments
Answer keys
Teacher lesson plans
Common Core standards alignment
Printable PDF resources
Digital Google Slides activities
Digital Google Forms assessments
It’s designed to give you the structure of a complete novel unit without requiring you to create everything from scratch.
Try a Free Sample
Want to see what the novel study looks like before purchasing?
Download the free sample and preview the activities included in the complete unit.
Bring The One and Only Ruby Into Your Classroom
The best classroom novels are the ones that make students want to keep reading while giving teachers opportunities to teach important skills.
The One and Only Ruby does both.
Ruby’s story can lead your students into conversations about empathy, friendship, courage, belonging, conservation, and what it means to find your place in the world.
Pair the novel with thoughtful comprehension questions, vocabulary activities, writing assignments, nonfiction connections, and discussion, and you have the foundation for a rich and engaging upper elementary novel study.
If you’re ready to make teaching The One and Only Ruby easier, check out the complete The One and Only Ruby Novel Study for grades 4–6.
Less prep. More meaningful reading. More opportunities for your students to think, discuss, write, and connect.
Is The One and Only Ruby a Good Book for a Novel Study?
Absolutely!
If your students enjoyed The One and Only Ivan and The One and Only Bob, The One and Only Ruby is a natural addition to your classroom library and novel study plans.
Even students who haven’t read the earlier books can find plenty to appreciate in Ruby’s story. The novel’s themes of friendship, courage, belonging, empathy, and resilience give students opportunities to connect personally with the characters while developing important reading and writing skills.
And because the story connects naturally to animal conservation and nonfiction research, it can become the starting point for much more than a traditional book unit.
Connect with Fellow Educators!
Are you teaching The One and Only Ruby this school year?
Join our free community, Book Talk with The Teaching Bank, to share ideas, grab freebies, and connect with 3rd–8th grade teachers using novels in the classroom!
*The Teaching Bank participates in the Amazon Associate Program and earns a fee from qualifying purchases made on the Amazon.com site.
Looking for a Bunnicula novel study that will keep your students engaged while making your reading instruction easier?
Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe is a fun, humorous, slightly spooky chapter book that makes a great choice for an upper-elementary novel study. But finding enough meaningful comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and assessment activities to teach an entire book can take a lot of time.
That’s why I created this Bunnicula book unit for grades 3–5.
This complete, no-prep Bunnicula novel unit gives you ready-to-use activities for teaching the book while helping students strengthen reading comprehension, vocabulary, critical thinking, writing, and other essential ELA skills.
Perfect for Fall and Halloween!
Because of its spooky—but not-too-scary—storyline, Bunnicula is especially fun to teach during fall and Halloween.
Students can enjoy the mystery surrounding Bunnicula while practicing important reading skills and discussing questions such as:
Is Bunnicula really a vampire?
Can Chester be trusted?
What clues does the author give us?
How do the characters’ actions affect the story?
What evidence supports different interpretations of events?
It’s a great way to turn a fun seasonal read into a meaningful ELA novel study.
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Why Teach Bunnicula as a Novel Study?
Bunnicula introduces students to the Monroe family and their pets, Harold the dog and Chester the cat. When the family brings home a mysterious rabbit named Bunnicula, Chester becomes convinced that the new pet is actually a vampire!
With its combination of humor, mystery, suspense, and memorable characters, Bunnicula is a great choice for an upper-elementary novel study. Students will have plenty to discuss as they make predictions, analyze characters, make inferences, and decide whether Chester’s suspicions might actually be true.
The story also provides plenty of opportunities to work on important reading comprehension, vocabulary, critical-thinking, and writing skills while students are engaged in a book they genuinely enjoy.
A No-Prep Bunnicula Novel Study
If you don’t want to spend your valuable planning time creating activities to go along with every chapter, I’ve done the work for you!
This Bunnicula novel study for grades 3–5 is a complete, ready-to-use ELA unit that can be used for a whole-class novel study, small-group reading, literature circles, independent reading, or a classroom read-aloud.
The activities are designed to help students dig deeper into the novel while giving you everything you need to teach it with minimal preparation.
What’s Included?
This Bunnicula book unit includes:
Detailed lesson plans and pacing guide
Chapter-by-chapter comprehension activities
Vocabulary activities
Writing and extension activities
Assessments and answer keys
Story elements activities
Common Core alignment
Printable and digital resources
The unit is designed to make teaching Bunnicula easy while giving students meaningful opportunities to practice essential ELA skills.
Instead of searching for Bunnicula comprehension questions, vocabulary activities, writing prompts, and assessments, you can have everything ready to go in one resource.
This no-prep Bunnicula novel study lets you spend less time planning and more time enjoying the book with your students.
Try a FREE Sample!
Want to see what’s included before you purchase?
You can try a FREE sample of the Bunnicula novel study to preview the activities and see how the unit will work in your classroom.
Get the Complete Bunnicula Novel Study
Ready to bring Chester, Harold, and Bunnicula into your classroom?
This ready-to-use Bunnicula book unit for grades 3–5 is a fun and easy way to combine a high-interest novel with meaningful ELA instruction.
Connect with Fellow Educators!
Are you teaching Bunnicula this school year?
Join our free community, Book Talk with The Teaching Bank, to share ideas, grab freebies, and connect with 3rd–8th grade teachers using novels in the classroom!
*The Teaching Bank participates in the Amazon Associate Program and earns a fee from qualifying purchases made on the Amazon.com site.
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!
*The Teaching Bank participates in the Amazon Associate Program and earns a fee from qualifying purchases made on the Amazon.com site.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry is a powerful historical fiction novel that gives upper-elementary and middle-grade students an opportunity to explore courage, friendship, resistance, empathy, and standing up against injustice.
Set in Denmark during World War II, the novel follows Annemarie Johansen and her family as they help their Jewish friends escape the Nazi occupation. Through Annemarie’s eyes, students encounter a difficult period in history while experiencing a story that is accessible, engaging, and filled with opportunities for meaningful discussion.
If you’re planning a Number the Stars novel study for your 4th, 5th, or 6th grade students, this guide will give you ideas for connecting the novel to reading comprehension, vocabulary, critical thinking, history, and social-emotional learning.
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Why Teach Number the Stars?
One of the greatest strengths of Number the Stars is that it allows students to encounter history through the experiences of a child.
Rather than simply reading facts about World War II, students follow Annemarie as she begins to understand what is happening around her. This creates natural opportunities to discuss questions such as:
What does it mean to be courageous?
Why do people sometimes have to make difficult choices?
How can ordinary people respond when others are being treated unfairly?
What makes someone a good friend?
How do fear and courage influence the decisions people make?
Why is it important to learn about difficult moments in history?
These questions can move students beyond simple recall and toward deeper reading comprehension and critical thinking.
Teaching Historical Fiction Through Number the Stars
Number the Stars works particularly well as a historical fiction novel because students can examine both the story and the historical context surrounding it.
As students read, encourage them to distinguish between what is happening in the fictional story and what they can learn about the real historical events that inspired it.
You can explore:
World War II
Nazi-occupied Denmark
The Danish Resistance
The rescue of Danish Jews
The Holocaust
Geography of Denmark and Sweden
Courage and resistance
Friendship and loyalty
Prejudice and discrimination
Human rights
This makes Number the Stars an excellent choice for connecting ELA and social studies.
Number the Stars Reading Comprehension
A novel study shouldn’t turn a great book into a stack of worksheets.
The goal is to help students think more deeply about what they’re reading while still allowing them to become immersed in the story.
When teaching Number the Stars, comprehension questions can focus on:
Character motivations
Making inferences
Cause and effect
Predicting
Making connections
Identifying themes
Using text evidence
Analyzing character development
Understanding historical context
I recommend using a small number of thoughtful questions rather than overwhelming students with questions after every few pages.
The questions should encourage students to explain why they think something happened—not simply identify what happened.
Vocabulary and Grammar in Context
Number the Stars also provides an excellent opportunity to teach vocabulary in context.
Instead of giving students a long list of unrelated vocabulary words, have them encounter words as they appear within the story.
Students can:
Determine meaning from context
Identify parts of speech
Use new words in sentences
Practice spelling
Explore synonyms and related words
Apply vocabulary through writing
This approach allows vocabulary instruction to become part of the reading experience rather than something completely separate from the novel.
The unit can be used with a whole class, small reading group, homeschool student, or independent reader. It includes both printable materials and digital resources for Google Drive.
What’s Included?
The complete Number the Stars Novel Study includes:
Teacher Resources
Detailed daily lesson plans
Pacing and Standards Guide
Chapter/Section Guide
Vocabulary Word Wall Cards
Answer Keys
Parent Letter
Student Resources
Spelling list
Vocabulary activities
Grammar activities
Chapter-by-chapter comprehension questions
Short-answer questions designed to encourage deeper thinking
Book-related extension activities
End-of-book activities
Story Elements Interactive Notebook activities
Assessment Resources
Part 1 assessment covering Chapters 1–6
Part 2 assessment covering Chapters 7–end
Vocabulary questions
Comprehension questions
Essay questions
Digital assessment options
The unit also includes Common Core Standards alignment for grades 4–6.
Print or Digital? You Get Both!
Today’s classrooms aren’t one-size-fits-all, so this novel study includes both printable and Google Drive-compatible formats.
Use the printable version for traditional instruction, or assign the digital activities through your classroom platform.
The digital format can be especially helpful for:
1:1 classrooms
Paperless classrooms
Students working from home
Absent students
Small-group instruction
Independent work
The assessments also include digital options, with multiple-choice Google Forms quizzes available for self-grading.
Save Time With a Ready-to-Teach Novel Unit
Teaching an entire novel is rewarding, but the planning can be time-consuming.
This Number the Stars novel unit was created to give you a complete framework so you don’t have to create every comprehension question, vocabulary activity, lesson plan, and assessment yourself.
It is designed to be low-prep and ready to teach, while still giving you flexibility to adjust the pacing and activities for your students.
You can purchase this novel study at the following locations:
💬 Connect with Fellow Educators!
Are you teaching Number the Stars this school year? How do you celebrate kindness in your classroom?
Join our free community, Book Talk with The Teaching Bank, to share ideas, grab freebies, and connect with 3rd–8th grade teachers using novels in the classroom!
*The Teaching Bank participates in the Amazon Associate Program and earns a fee from qualifying purchases made on the Amazon.com site.
Connect with Fellow Educators!
