Because of Winn-Dixie Novel Study

This novel study for Because of Winn-Dixie includes chapter questions, a before reading activity, main idea and details activities, context clue activities, inferencing activities, a follow-up activity (performance task) , and a review card game. Questions are text dependent and written specifically for this novel.

There is one page of text dependent questions for every two chapter of Because of Winn-Dixie, the novel by Kate DiCamillo - a total of thirteen pages of chapter questions. Each page has eight questions including main idea and detail questions, context clue questions, and inferencing questions with space for students' answers. These can be used for interactive notebook pages or for chapter assessments of these important reading skills.

The three main idea and details activities include a character map for Opal, a setting activity, and a plot map activity.

The two context clues pages include locating context clues to define words, choosing the best definitions, and defining vocabulary that is unique to the story.

The inferencing activities include:

Making inferences from evidence

An inference chart about quotes from the story

Inferring character traits

Inferring themes, and

Making inferences with figurative language

The I Have . . . Who Has . . ? game is a fun whole-class activity for reviewing details from the story after reading.

The follow-up activity is a performance task in which students create either a picture book or a poster using ideas suggested by the novel.

The Easel Activity is ready to use with answer boxes for student responses. It includes all of the chapter questions and activity sheets. The printable card game and the directions for the performance tasks are located in the PDF file.

This novel study supports a number of the Reading: Literature standards, especially those involving using text-based evidence, determining main ideas and details, using context clues, and making inferences.

Also see more novel study assignments here.

For specific reading skills, see Task Cards and Informational Text.

From Classroom in the Middle