Stepping on the Cracks Novel Study

This novel study for Stepping on the Cracks includes chapter questions, before reading activities, key idea and details activities, vocabulary activities, inferencing activities, a follow-up performance task, writing prompts, and a card game for review. Questions are text dependent and written specifically for this novel.

There are fourteen pages of chapter questions for this novel, Stepping on the Cracks by Mary Downing Hahn. Each page has main idea and detail questions, vocabulary questions, and inferencing questions with space for students' answers. These activity sheets can be used for interactive notebook pages or for chapter assessments of these important reading skills.

The three key idea and details activities include:

- A Character Map for Margaret

- Describing the Settings

- Plotting the Structure

The two vocabulary pages are about finding and using context clues, story vocabulary, and figurative language.

The three inferencing activities include:

- Making Inferences from Evidence

- Inferring Character Traits

- Inferring and Understanding Themes

The performance task is a project about quotes from a favorite character.

There are three writing prompts - one narrative, one informational, and one opinion.

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

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.

You can see more novel study assignments here, and for specific reading skill activities, see Task Cards and Informational Text.

From Classroom in the Middle