Teaching novels: Las aventuras de Isabela

In his book The Power of Reading, Stephen Krashen says "Language acquisition comes from input, not output, from comprehension, not production" (p 136). Even though most teachers agree that reading is a powerful way to provide students with the input that is required for language acquisition, many teachers are hesitant to being reading a novel with their students. As a teacher who teaches four different levels and around eight classes a day, I'm here to assure you of one thing: novels are your friend, not your enemy! For me, using novels has been a total lifesaver for the following reasons:  

• Novels provide a clear map of the vocabulary structures that I need to teach throughout the year. When I meet teachers who are thinking of making the switch to Teaching with Comprehensible Input (T/CI) they often ask me "How do you know what vocabulary structures to teach?". In the lower grades I focus heavily on Terry Waltz's Super 7 (the verbs that express location, existence, possession, identity, preference, motion and volition), but after these structures are acquired it is easy to get overwhelmed with the possibilities of what to teach next. This is where novels come in--I backwards plan to teach the novel by pulling out vocabulary structures that are in the book. Not only does this make it so my students can confidently read the novel, but is also gives me focus and structure in my lesson plans throughout the year.  
• Reading a novel in Spanish is exciting! I can write stories and print them on printer paper until I'm blue in the face, but when they are holding an actual book in their hands that is written in Spanish it is exciting! 
• Two words: Teacher's guides. Teaching a novel makes my lesson planning a breeze because I can pull activities and ideas from the teacher's guide for the novel. I have to give huge props to TPRS Publishing because their teacher's guides are awesome! They have quizzes, games, cultural activities, picture slideshows, discussion questions and video clips that relate to the novel. 

My 4th graders are currently reading Las aventuras de Isabela by Karen Rowan. I spent months pre-teaching the vocabulary words so that my students could read straight through this novel. In my experience, pre-teaching the vocabulary makes it so when you read the novel you don't lose momentum and the class can get lost in the story! 
This book is set in México and offers opportunities to explore different cultural topics. As a teacher it was awesome to expose my students to such a wide variety of authentic resources while reading this book! Check out my top 3 cultural resources for this book:

1. This video of Guanajuato takes you up the steps of the University of Guanajuato, into the Basilica and down the streets of the city. It provides the students with a great visual of what the city looks like. 
2. I loved showing this street view of the steps of Universidad de Guanajuato when my students were reading chapter 2. It made the scene with the students running up and down the steps come alive.  
3. My favorite resources was this video of a panadería in México. All of my students were starving after seeing all of the pan dulce!
   
   

Besides including compelling and authentic cultural resources, here are some other activities that kept my students engaged while reading the book:

• Freeze Frame
  In secret, the teacher selects a sentence from the text and calls up students to act out that sentence (the number of actors depends on the number of characters in the sentence you select). The actors read the sentence, but the rest of the class doesn't know what it is. The students have a copy of the text in front of them and the teacher tells the students what page the sentence is found on. The actors then act out the sentence, but there is a catch: the action of the sentence is frozen in time. The class looks at the 'frozen' actors and tries to find the exact sentence that is being acted out (remember, you told them which page to look on). The students raise their hand when they have found the sentence--the student that finds the correct sentence gets to be the next actor.
•  Freeze Frame 2.0
  The students are in pairs and the teacher reads a sentence from the novel and the students act out the sentence with their partner. When the teacher rings a bell the students have to freeze where they are and the teacher comes around and take pictures of the students in their frozen poses. When the game is done, the teacher projects the pictures on the SmartBoard and re-read the sentences to the students while they look at their classmates acting out the scene. To make it more of a game, have the sentences on the board and display the pictures in a random order to see if the students can match the sentences that corresponds to the picture. 
•  Partner draw
  The teacher picks 10 sentences from a story that contain target vocabulary structures and puts them on the SmartBoard (for my younger students I broke the sentences up into 2 groups of 5). Before starting the game the teacher should read each sentence to the students to make sure everyone understands what they mean. In groups of 2 the students secretly select one of the sentences that is on the board--they then have 20 seconds to draw a picture that depicts the sentence that they choose. When the 20 seconds is up the students have to guess what their partner drew (they must read the sentences from the board in Spanish). If they correctly guess they earn a point. 
• Taco caliente
  I have a giant taco pillow in my classroom. During this game the students stand in a circle and underhand toss the pillow to each other while Spanish music is playing in the background. When the music stops whoever has the pillow must respond to a comprehension question in Spanish that is displayed on the SmartBoard. Depending on the level this could be a yes/no question, multiple choice or open ended. I tell the students that they each have 1 phone a friend--one time during the game they can ask a friend to help them with the answer. If a student incorrectly answers a question he is out for one round.
  
  

Do you read novels with your students? What are some of the benefits that you have found from using novels in your classes?