Alice in Wonderland Close Reading Novel Study 🐇📖

Alice in Wonderland Close Reading Novel Study 🐇📖

“And what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?” —Chapter 1, Down the Rabbit-Hole

Seriously...one of my favorite books in the world!  

Immerse your students in the enchanting world of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll with this comprehensive close reading guide! This resource includes engaging comprehension activities designed to enhance understanding and foster critical thinking.

What's Included:

• Thought-provoking discussion questions
• Fun, interactive activities
• In-depth analysis of characters and themes
• Opportunities for creative expression

Perfect for both individual and group work, this novel study is ideal for teaching this classic tale while making learning enjoyable! Bring the magic of Wonderland to your classroom today!

Keywords: Alice in Wonderland, close reading, novel study, comprehension, teaching resources, Lewis Carroll.

Explore the resource here!

You can also find me on these platforms!
  

My Top Five Books for Close Reading for the Upper Elementary Classroom

My Top Five Books 

for Close Reading for the 

Upper Elementary Classroom

Inside Out and Back Again is a wonderful book

written in free verse 

chronicling Ha's, a ten year old girl, 

journey from war-torn Vietnam to Alabama 

and her problems as a second language learner 

and with bullying.

Wonder is a wonderful book chronicling Auggie's, a young boy born with a facial deformity, journey through school and the adjustments he, his family and his classmates have to make.  There's a movie now too!

The One and Only Ivan is a great book 

on the power of friendship. 

It's a beautiful story about Ivan the gorilla. 

It is told from his point of view in captivity in a circus.

Come with Alice and the White Rabbit 

down the rabbit hole! Experience Wonderland. 

Read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, written in 1865,  chronicling Alice's adventures as she chases a Rabbit down a rabbit hole. You may have seen the movies but you need to read the book!

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures! 

This middle grade novel won the Newbery medal for 2014.  The story is about Flora, a self-described cynic, who witnesses a tragedy/miracle in her neighbor’s backyard. She is able to revive the squirrel and names him Ulysses. The book is very funny but also tackles some serious issues such as divorce, abandonment issues and more. The book is written as part narrative and part graphic novel.

I hope this was helpful.   

Do you need more help?  

Check out my close reading guides!  

I've already chosen the most pivotal parts 

and created the focus questions.  

 It's all done for you to make it easy 

to get deep with the literature. 

Jus click the hyperlinks to go straight there!

               

You can find me on these platforms (as well as my blog!)
  

How can I make your job easier this year?  Let me know in the comments.  If I use your ideas for a blog post, you will win $10 to Teachers Pay Teachers.  Even better, if I use your ideas to make a resource in my store, LisaTeachR's Classroom, I'll send you a free copy of that resource! 

It's time to get your TpT wish list in order!

It's time to get your TpT wish list 

in order!

Start putting your wish list on TpT ready.  

Then when the sale starts, you'll know 

exactly what to purchase!

A close reading guide for the novel, Wonder
by RJ Palacios.

It's a wonderful book chronicling Auggie's, a young boy born with facial damage, journey through school and the adjustments he, his family and his classmates have to make. Close reading is an integral part of teaching with the Common Core. Students need to know how to be analytic when reading texts and poems. I have outlined the components of authentic literacy and what it looks like in the classroom. I formatted the unit as follows. It begins with an explanation of close reading and how to format a lesson. Then, there is a story summary, themes listed and character descriptions. After that, I created focus questions for each chapter. There are explicit gradual release formatted lessons sprinkled throughout. I included a close reading sheet for each of the explicit lessons. You could use the focus questions to create more close reading lessons using the blank templates or for class discussions. At the end, there is a blank sheet for planning and to use with close reading of different chapters. I hope your students enjoy it as much as my students did. This isn't a bunch of worksheets as I don't teach that way. This is for going deep with the literature!

Another close reading guide is for the novel, 

Inside Out and Back Again 
by Thanhha Lai.

This is a guide to a close reading of Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. It's a wonderful book written in free verse chronicling Ha's, a ten year old girl, journey from war-torn Vietnam to Alabama and her problems as a second language learner and with bullying.

Famous Failures is an activity for students to see what successful people have overcome to become successful!

Researching famous failures! Even the most famous people had to overcome obstacles. Here are a couple activities I did with my students in working with Mindset. First we worked in pairs to rewrite fixed mindset phrases into growth mindset phrases. Then we researched famous people who struggled at some point in their lives and how they overcame those obstacles. What struggles and successes did they have in their lives? I also made sheets that can be blown up to poster size with famous faces and quotes. I hope these activities help your students come to a better understanding of mindset.

Head on over to my store, LisaTeachR's Classroom.

Keep your eyes peeled for a sale soon!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

This is the time to start your year off right with an amazing close reading lesson

Close reading in the Upper Elementary Classroom

This is the time to start your year off right with an amazing close reading lesson

As the school year starts, this is the best time to start with close reading.  This is not something I do in Reader’s Workshop.  For that, I read aloud a novel for pleasure and we discuss quickly before kids go read independently as I confer independently or in small groups.

Close reading is done in a few steps:
1. Read aloud for pleasure and for students to hear correct phrasing and intonation.
2. Students read chorally the next day.  Again this helps with prosody especially for those readers that need some extra support.
3.  Then I give my kids the close reading sheet.  The text is on one side and the right side is blank for their annotations.  Before they start, I ask if kids need clarification of any vocabulary.
4.  Finally, I read the focus question aloud.  Kids answer the focus question after they complete annotations.  I read it first because I want them to keep it in mind as they are reading the text and completing annotations.  Then kids complete the close reading sheet with their own annotations of the text.  It could be a comment or question.  Questions cannot be about vocabulary as we’ve already clarified that!  Close reading annotations can be completed digitally or on paper.

Some amazing novels for fourth and fifth grades that I use are:

• Wonder
• The One and Only Ivan
• Inside Out and Back Again
• The Cay
• Alice in Wonderland
• Flora and Ulysses
• Rain, Reign
• Tequila Worm
• Esperanza Rising

Don’t forget picture books too!  I like:

• Separate is Never Equal
• Last Stop on Market Street
• The Day You Begin
• Drum Dream Girl
• Happy Dreamer
• Dreamers
• The Day You Begin
• Each Kindness
• The Junkyard Wonders
• The Wretched Stone
• The Wolves in the Walls
• The Most Magnificent Thing

I hope this helps you get started with close reading this year!

Check out these blogs too!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

You can find me on these platforms (as well as my blog!)
  

How can I make your job easier this year?  Let me know in the comments.  If I use your ideas for a blog post, you will win $10 to Teachers Pay Teachers.  Even better, if I use your ideas to make a resource in my store, LisaTeachR's Classroom, I'll send you a free copy of that resource! 

Close Reading of Images with the help of Google Slides!

Close Reading of Images

You've heard of Visual Thinking Strategies, right?  It's where you go deep into an image.   They have a powerful three question protocol:

• What is going on in this picture?

• What do you see that makes you say that?

• What more can you find?

So I've found that sometimes the questioning needs to go deeper and I have to guide it a little more.   I wanted my kids to look deeply at The Bloody Massacre on King Street by Paul Revere.

You've all seen it, right?  We can go superficial and say "I see men shooting" but there is so much more!  I asked things like "What do you notice about the light?", "What signs do you see and where are they? Why were they placed there?" and "Look at the faces.  What do you notice about the people on each side?"  I made an image in Powerpoint and inserted it as a background in Google slides.  I do that so the kids can't delete the picture accidentally.  Then I made a new slide for each question.  It really helps the kids understand the image through different lenses.

I love putting it into Google slides for different reasons.

1. I can assign it through Schoology for easy grading.
2. You can create multiple slides with different questions.
3. I don't have to make any copies!
4. The zoom tool is great to allow the kids to go in close to see details in the picture.  

This can be done with any art you like.  I just thought this was great for studying the British occupation and propaganda.  

Try making this for your kids about any piece of art.
If you would like this specific digital activity, you can find it here! 

        

How to close read a novel with your whole class

How to close read a novel 

with your whole class

Choose wisely

Start with a great novel with a topic that your kids are interested in. If you want to build empathy, try reading Wonder, Rain, Reign or A Fish in a Tree.   

Are your kids excited about learning about WW2? 

Try reading The Cay.  

Do you want your Latino students to relate?  

Try reading Tequila Worm or Esperanza Rising.  

Animal lovers?  Read The One and Only Ivan.  

Do you want to talk about the refugee crisis? 

Read aloud Inside Out and Back Again.

How about building an appreciation for the classics?  Read Alice in Wonderland. 

How many do I need?

A class set is preferable but it's not necessary.  

Ten would be fine and kids can share.  Or buy ebooks and have kids read them on digital devices. 

Read together

Bring your kids together on the rug to read.  I

t's a great way to build community.  

I have pillows and kids are allowed to lay down or sit. 

Read with passion

 Read with passion!  If you're bored, so are they.

Read it loud and powerfully.  Make the kids feel the anger, the sadness, the intensity the author intended.

Pivotal Parts only

Close reading happens about once a week.  

You do not want to do more than that.  

Let the kids have a love of the literature. 

As for the close reading, 

after we've read a pivotal part of the book, 

I have the kids close read a small part.  

We read it aloud together.  

Then they discuss it with a peer before they annotate.

 Make sure your focus question is meaty 

and makes the kids think.  

I like to copy the text on the left 

and have kids annotate on the right.  

Do the first ones together so they understand what a 

good close reading of the text looks like.  

They need to see good ideas clearly supported with text evidence.

I hope this was helpful.   

Do you need more help?  

Check out my close reading guides!  

I've already chosen the most pivotal parts 

and created the focus questions.  

 It's all done for you to make it easy 

to get deep with the literature. 

            

Check out these cool blog posts!
An InLinkz Link-up