The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan Novel Study & Lessons – Jasmine Warga

Description

Have you used the new book The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan in your classroom? If you want to use this book to help your students cite text evidence, practice deep comprehension, and study characters all with NO PREP for you, I’ve got you covered! From book clubs to whole class read alouds–let me help you get to the “meat” of this book! And if you are an animal lover, this book will melt your heart!

Some key features of this book that make it amazing for upper elementary:

• The chapters switch back and forth between characters which is great for teaching about perspective.
• There are plenty of places to talk about character feelings and setting description and how the author “shows, not tells” with vivid words.
• The chapters are short which makes it great for working in reading time throughout the day AND for practicing retelling and summarizing.
• Although the story is fiction, there is a tie to nonfiction with facts about cheetahs and dogs woven in which is a great minilesson as well.
• AND SO MUCH MORE…all of which is worked into the chapter guides to help you teach it with minimal prep. I did the work for you!

NOTE: This novel unit is a little different than others out there… there aren’t a ton of question pages… vocabulary in isolation… quizzes… worksheets… or projects. Instead, it helps you dig into the book at just the right level for upper elementary students. This book has so much to offer–from talking about the many themes to a number of key social issues that impact the characters.

This resource is meant to nurture discussion–about character feelings, decision making, and requiring students to prove ideas with evidence from the text.

If you are looking for an in-depth resource to use

• with small groups
• as a class read aloud
• or to support individual students with quality instruction and deep thinking

You’ve come to the right place!

My goal is to help teachers nurture a love of reading and talking and writing about books while giving them guidance on lesson ideas and discussion points–especially those that might be tricky.

What do you get?

• A page of teaching “tips” and suggestions FOR EVERY SECTION! After using this book with students many times, I have gathered a collection of “things to notice”, places where students sometimes struggle, and other literary elements that I like to highlight with the text. Teachers absolutely love this component and how much time it saves them! I even give you anchor chart ideas, note vocabulary words to highlight, give you places to pause and discuss, and so much more!

• Full page reproducible copies of open ended, constructed response comprehension questions focusing on key plot elements, deeper thinking, and proving ideas with examples in the text for EACH chapter—providing students the opportunity to show their understanding and to give them a way to organize their thinking for discussions. The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan is a book that can be read on so many levels and with so many purposes–and this resource can help you.

• The same questions or “prompts” in a format that makes it easy to cut and glue into notebooks.

• The same prompts with DIGITAL access so you can send questions to your students using technology.

• A sample response checklist to help you assess and to help students recognize the level of expectations required of their work

• A list of the grade 4 and grade 5 standards connections to see how this book can help meet the requirements of the CCSS and other rigorous standards

• A set of “bonus” response pages that can be used with this resource to cover certain areas in more depth, to use as assessments or as enrichment, or to extend the learning further

• A set of graphic organizers to provide even more ways to help students show their deeper thinking about the text

Parental “guidance” warnings: The mother cheetah does pass away “off scene”. The two human main characters do get engaged and hug and have a celebratory kiss. Hints for handling it are included. 😊

I hope you enjoy this novel study resource–and other novel units in my store.

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Looking for more high-quality literature resources?

• Fish in a Tree Novel Unit

• Historical Fiction Unit for Any Text

• Sarah Plain and Tall Novel Unit

• Esperanza Rising Novel Unit

• No Talking Novel Unit

• The Tiger Rising Novel Unit

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All rights reserved by ©The Teacher Studio. Purchase of this resource entitles the purchaser the right to reproduce the pages in limited quantities for single classroom use only. Duplication for an entire school, an entire school system, or commercial purposes is strictly forbidden without written permission from the author at fourthgradestudio@gmail.com. Additional licenses are available at a reduced price.