Pre-reading Activities to Generate Student Interest In Novels

One of my favorite things in the world is getting a new novel to read. I love the feel of cracking the binding open and diving into a brand new universe. Unfortunately, for many of my students, this is not the case. When I pass out a novel to my high school English students, one of the first things I notice is how they anxiously begin skimming the pages, checking to see how long the book is. I begin to hear low murmurs around the classroom, “Mrs. Cherry, this book is over 300 pages!" "How am I ever going to finish this book?" And, worst of all, "I hate reading!”

Pre-reading Activity

Since starting a novel can be an overwhelming experience for students, especially for students who don’t enjoy reading, I try to make the experience as painless as possible. So, before passing the book out to my students, I try to spark their interest. One of my favorite activities is called a “Tea Party.” The Tea Party activity requires students to make a guess as to what the book they are about to read will be about. They make their guesses based on quotes from the book that I choose to give them.

"Farenheit 451"

For example, one of the first novels that I teach in my sophomore English class is "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. There are many interesting and provocative quotes that will ignite, no pun intended, students interest. I go through the book and pick out some of the best quotes, such as; “I’m fifteen and crazy,”or “Those who don’t build must burn.” I select quotes that deal with some of the predominant themes in the novel, and get students interested in what the book is about. I pick out about fifteen to twenty quotes, and type them out on three-by-five index cards. On the day I introduce the novel, I pass out one quote to each student. I tell them to keep their card a secret. Then, after they have had a chance to read it over, I give them about five minutes to go around the room and read it to as many students as they can. They love getting out of their seats and sharing their quotes with one another. Usually, there are lots of giggles and chatter about what kind of book I could possibly be assigning them to read. I love hearing their interest beginning to pique. After the five minutes of sharing are up, I ask them to return to their seats and, based on the quotes they have heard, write a paragraph describing what they think the book is going to be about. It’s so much fun to hear their predictions! After about ten minutes of writing, I ask students to share their predictions. We usually have a fun class discussion about the book, before they have even seen it!

Delving Into the Book

Finally, after all this build-up, students are usually bursting at the seams to get the book. They are excited to see what the book is going to be about. When I pass out the book, I don’t hear the anxiety or frustration in their voices. Instead, I'm hearing excited anticipation about reading! Another great aspect about the Tea Party activity is the ownership of the text it gives students. Since the quotes come from the entire book, students look forward to finding out how all of their quotes fit into the book.

Pre-reading Activities to Get Students Excited About Reading:

Character Scripting

Students work to create profiles of different characters in the novel to gain a better insight of their motivations.

Reading for Relevance in High School Lit

Students work to utilize graphic organizers to help develop active reading strategies.

Student Created Webquests

Students create a webquest as a final project after finishing a novel to demonstrate their understanding of the novel.

The Talk Show

Students impersonate characters from the novel and create a talk show to discuss key events from the novel.