Building Novel Study Engagement

Building engagement for your upcoming novel study is a crucially important but daunting task. Creating classroom “buzz” about the new book you are about to read helps to build anticipation and get kids excited about what they are going to be reading. Below I share some tips and tricks for building novel study engagement when you are about to introduce a new novel to your class.

1- Guest Book Talks

Inviting guests into your classroom to share about a new novel is a surefire way to build enthusiasm. My students are pretty used to me raving about different books, and many of them have pretty much tuned me out at this point. However, bringing in a guest to do basically the same thing is something new and different. The overall point of the book talk is to have someone other than you help hype up the book you are planning to read as a class.

Some guest ideas to consider:

-A teacher from another class

-The school principal

-The school or local librarian

-The author of the book – this can be wonderful if you choose a book by an author who lives locally! However, some authors are willing to do zoom calls with classes as well, and often their fees are quite reasonable.

-A local celebrity – could members of the local hockey team come out and do a book talk with your class? The mayor or local official?

You will be surprised by the guests that are willing to come in if you simply ask them. Bringing is a guest is a great way to boost engagement, and definitely gets the book buzz going!

2- Book Trailers

If you do a quick YouTube search of the novel, you are likely to find a wide variety of different book trailers available. These can be fun visual ways to get kids excited about the book they are going to read. However, be sure you pick and choose the trailers you watch carefully, as you want to make sure that they don’t give away any important spoilers.

3- Prop Museum

I have done several prop museums with my students over the years, with great success. To assemble your prop museum, simply gather a variety of items that are important to the novel and place them on a table at the front of your classroom. For example, if you are planning on reading “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton, you could place out a toy switchblade, a bottle of hair grease, a picture of a sunset, and a copy of “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost.

Next, have students examine the props and make predictions about what they think the novel is going to be about. Have students write their predictions on index cards and place them on a bulletin board. Making predictions is a great way to build engagement, and their ideas can be really interesting to re-examine at the end of your novel study!

4- Author Interview

Author interviews are another great way to help introduce a new novel in an engaging way. YouTube comes through once again here, as a quick search will often pull up a variety of different author interviews. Hearing an author talk passionately about their work can be a great way to build enthusiasm.

I often use this interview with Gary Paulsen when teaching “Hatchet”. I really like the way he talks about his life as a writer and his reasons for writing. While watching, I have the students complete some quick comprehension questions.

You can grab the activity I use along with this interview for FREE by clicking here or on the image below.

Looking for some free resources for help when planning a novel study?

Check out these FREE novel study resources by clicking on the links below!

Looking for more information on planning a novel Study?

Check out the posts below for tips, tricks, and resources for planning your next novel study!

Upper Elementary Novel Study Favorites

Middle School Novel Study Favorites

Benefits of Teaching Novel Studies

3 Ways to Cultivate a Love of Reading

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