The Whole Novel Approach to Reading—Honors 9

The Book Thief Introduction/Format

We are about to read The Book Thief. It’s an award-winning novel by Markus Zusak, set in Nazi Germany during WWII. It chronicles the life of Liesel Meminger during World War II in Germany and the relationships she forges and loses as her foster parents hide a Jewish man from the Nazis in their basement. It is a tale of love, loss, and resilience.

Our approach to this book will be a whole novel approach. Before we begin to process the book as a class through a book club type format, followed by non-traditional summative assessments, you will read the entire novel with very little direct instruction from me. I will be here to support your reading, but I want the reading experience to be uninterrupted, authentic, and hopefully more enjoyable than stopping after each chapter/section to process.

Expectations:

  • Follow the reading schedule (Read every night—15-20 pages is recommended)
  • Bring your book to class DAILY
  • Complete sticky notes for your daily reading (more on that will be provided). You will average 1-2 per chapter. (I will be checking in on these sticky notes at the end of each section).
  • Have high quality sticky notes to provide strong points for class discussions that will occur once we finish our reading of the novel
  • Complete reading checkpoints that summarize your sticky note thoughts at the half way point (parts 1-6: to page 324) and at the end of your reading (parts 6-10: to page 550)
  • Participate fully in the discussions (These will occur at the end of the unit—approx. 5 weeks from now)
  • Complete high quality summative tasks at the end of the discussions (more on that to follow)

Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday
March 19-25 / 1-15 / 19-35 / 36-56 / 56-72 / 72-90 / 91-108 / 108-122
March 26-April 1 / 125-142 / 142-156 / 156-170 / 173-187 / 187-204 / 204-223 / 223-243
April 2-8 / 243-266 / 266-282 / 282-299 / 299-316 / 316-335 / 335-350 / 353-370
April 9-15 / 370-388 / 388-403 / 407-430 / 430-451 / 451-471 / 471-491 / 491-507
April 16-18 / 507-525 / 525-539 / 543-550 (end)

Reading Schedule

The above schedule will help keep you on track with your reading—I expect 15-20 pages every night. The page numbers listed under each day are the pages you will be expected to read for homework that night (so you don’t have to read 15 pages by the first Monday, you need to have read them by the first Tuesday) All of the bolded days, I’ll be collecting your books during class as you and your classmates complete an in-class mini-project or side assignment. Be sure to be up to date on your sticky notes by that time! The second and third sections are combined in observation of the Easter/Passover Holiday.

Sticky Notes

For every night of reading, I will ask for 1-2 sticky notes per chapter. Be sure to clearly label each kind of note you’re using.

Types of Sticky Notes I’m Looking For:

Be sure to use a variety!

  • Open Response Note (ORN) – Anything that strikes you as you read. It can be an observation, a question, a connection, an emotional response to something, an opinion, a summary of something important, a prediction, an area of confusion, etc.
  • Character Note (CHN) – It can be an observation about a character and their personality, how a character has grown or changed, something profound a character says, a question or opinion about a character, etc.
  • Conflict Notes (CON) – Explain an important conflict that occurs and its importance to the plot. Identify what type of conflict it is (person vs. person, person vs. self, person vs. society, person vs. nature, person vs. fate).
  • Theme Notes (TN) – Explain how a passage illustrates a major theme from the book. Make sure to identify the theme in the note and explain how the passage fits the theme.
  • Mood Notes (MN) - Identify a passage that creates a noticeable mood and label it. Write down key words/phrases the author uses to create the mood.
  • Language Notes (LN) - Write down interesting uses of language and explain what makes this interesting or powerful to the story.
  • Vocabulary-in-Context Notes (VCN) – Identify an unfamiliar word. Write the sentence that contains the word and circle the word. Underline clues in the sentence or the word itself (roots). Write down your predicted meaning. Write down the dictionary definition.