Adventures in 3 Book Reading Activities Your Students Will Love
So you’ve finished a novel or story with your middle schoolers….now what?
Wouldn’t it be great to have a comprehension activity where they can summarize….or express their thoughts…..or even dig in a little more through the concept from the book?
We can’t (or at least we shouldn’t!) read a novel or story and be done with it! I always want to hear about what really ‘stuck’ with my students. That’s exactly why I’ve used these three post-reading activities over and over again in my own Spanish class.
Book Activity #1- Explore Cultural Ideas
Every year in my class, I like to choose the book Me perdí en Medellín because it conveys a lot of Colombian culture. We’re planning on breaking down the culture that students read about in the book (like greetings in Latin America) and doing some intercultural comparisons to where we live here in Colorado / US as well as other Spanish speaking countries.
When choosing a novel or book, consider something that lends itself to discussions about culture. Not only will this help your students compare, contrast, and learn, but it will help with their vocabulary practice as well.
Breaking down these cultural representations and themes allows students to review the content that they’ve read about AND allows them to level up their understanding with some compare / contrast and intercultural discussions.
For this novel here are some cultural components that we discussed: Typical greetings, typical clothing, Haggling / Bargaining for prices in markets, Fruit juices and tropical fruits, words that are the same with different meanings in different Spanish speaking countries.
Book Activity #2- Hexagonal Thinking Map
This blog post has some examples and descriptions for you to dig into, so I’ll just share why I love this activity for post reading! My favorite thing about hexagonal thinking maps is the fact that they can be differentiated for students or your world language class level.
Students can demonstrate their understanding in a variety of connections and explain their connections in the language skills that they have instead of being expected to meet the same language skill across the classroom. Hexagonal thinking maps can very easily include presentational and interpersonal skills by having students share their maps with the class or comparing and contrasting them with a partner.
Book Activity #3- Independent Demonstrations of Understanding
Okay I am cheating a little bit here because technically this isn’t just ONE post-reading activity, but my students love these so much that I’m grouping them together.
Activities like story maps, “Netflix” style summaries, or Instagram feeds allow students to summarize their own learning while embracing creativity and the unique perspective they had with the text.
These activities can be reused for a presentational or interpretative skill with a gallery walk to see what classmates learned and displayed. They are so versatile!
Conclusion:
When starting any book – but especially a new book – thinking of pre and post reading goes to the top of my mind. There is definitely no “right” way to do post reading, but there are some options that I find myself turning to again and again each school year.