How to Steal a Dog Novel Study Unit

This How to Steal a Dog Novel Study includes comprehension questions and vocabulary activities to create a well-rounded book unit. If you're tired of spending hours planning your novel unit, you can rest assured your students are developing stronger skills in text analysis and deep thinking about literature through How to Steal a Dog, a realistic fiction novel by Haley O'Conner.

Unlike many novel studies, you won't find countless lists of chapter questions for How to Steal a Dog in this novel unit. These can be overwhelming and only require students to regurgitate the text. Instead, this book study includes meaningful comprehension activities and vocabulary practice that is standards-aligned & perfect for engaging students in discussion and literature responses.

Designed to be used whole-class, small group, or as an individual book study. Each day of the no prep How to Steal a Dog literature unit aligns with state and Common Core standards and is designed to engage even your most hesitant readers.

What's Included in this How to Steal a Dog Novel Study Unit?

✔Daily comprehension prompts in 3 formats for differentiation

• Foldable trifold brochures
• Cut & paste journal prompts for interactive notebooks
• Google Slides

✔Weekly word of the day flip books for text-based vocabulary

✔ Easy-to-follow directions for printing & prep

✔ Instructional planning guide

✔Answer keys

Examples of Comprehension & Higher-Level Thinking Skills addressed:

• drawing conclusions & inferring
• main idea & summary
• text analysis
• character traits
• theme
• cause and effect
• and more!

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Benefits of this Literature Unit over Traditional Novel Studies:

❑ Unique formats and question styles provide novelty, support differentiation & encourage student engagement

❑ Targeted daily comprehension focus builds transferrable skills vs. plot recall

❑ Skill-per-day focus allows for instruction and intervention where needed so ALL learners can benefit from novel studies vs. only advanced learners who are more independent with comprehension skills

❑ Less overwhelming to reluctant readers and writers

❑ Engaging questions support deep analysis and have students demonstrate an understanding of plot vs. retelling or copying from text

❑ Encourages discussion about skills & strategies

Here's why teachers love these novel units...

♥ We used these for a whole-class novel study. Pre-printed brochures fully encompassed ELA skills for the novel. This is an extremely easy, but very rich set of activities for understanding and enriching student's ELA skills. I will be using this for our first novel study again in class this fall. I highly recommend this! -Allison M.

♥ This has helped me so much in teaching my students this year. Other resources overwhelm students with too much vocabulary and literal comprehension questions but these slides give students one vocabulary word for each chapter and a grade-level higher-order comprehension skill to practice. - Kristin P.

♥ This does a really good job of focusing on vocab and using context clues, practicing quoting from the text, and target skills. I really liked the way it focused on one skill for every two chapters, which made things really manageable for my students. - Beth A.

Here's what homeschool families have to say about the novel studies...

★ I LOVE the layout and how it guides my son and I through our reading time. As a homeschool parent, I still wanted to give him that opportunity to discuss and grapple with the text and I love this quick format as a brochure. I also love the vocab focus for each section and the skill listed so I can monitor his understanding of these as we move through a variety of texts this year. - Antonia S.

★ My kids LOVED this book companion. The vocabulary was rich, and I liked the focus on one word a day. I also liked that they had to use context clues rather than dictionary definitions... The tasks were a great review of skills I covered throughout the year. Parent-friendly and easy to implement. - Corinne M.

★ I am a homeschool mom and my daughter is enjoying the book and I am loving that she is able to respond to the reading through various aspects and not just answering questions. She is more engaged in her reading and asking more questions after she completes each task. - Terri B.

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Other Novel Study & Literature Circle Resources You Might Also Enjoy...

• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
• Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
• Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

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Terms of Use:

© Rebecca Davies. All rights reserved by the author. These materials are intended for personal use by a single classroom only. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. For use in multiple classrooms, please purchase additional licenses. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Clipart and elements found in this PDF are copyrighted and cannot be extracted and used outside of this file without permission or license. See product file for clip art and font credits.