Introduction

The Pivot/Action/Activities character was created using Pivot Stickfigure Animator.  Create your own Pivot Stickfigure by clicking on the link.

In the past, it has been a struggle to find projects that would met the learning needs of ALL students.  In my quest for this, I scoured the internet and gathered a variety of activites for a novel study.  They were intially generic in nature and then I added some assistive technology so that all students could take part.  Many of these activities have been created using ideas from the learning styles, strategies, performance and assessments from a PDF from Saskatchewan Schools. 

According to Dave Edyburn, one method that he has 'found to be very helpful for enabling teachers to begin using principles of Universal Design for Learning principles in their own classroom involves Tic-Tac-Toe. Essentially, teachers create a menu of learning activities that involves selecting learning activities for diverse learners and ordering the various activities on a Tic-Tac-Toe grid. Then, students are responsible for selecting three (in a row) activities to complete their assignment. A valuable resource for teachers interested in getting started with instructional planning for diversity.'

On the Tic-Tac-Toe graphic organizer below there are nine novel study activities.  They can be used for any novel that you are studying. In the preceding word document that is in this section I have created/adapted and modified numerous other activities that I have found along the way that can be used when studying any novel.  You can choose to use the ones already in the Tic-Tac-Toe grid or you can switch the activities to include ones from the Word document below or create your own.   

For more activites...click on the following: Universal Design for Learning Novel StudyActivities_MLaFleche.doc

More ideas for the contents of the tic-tac-toe....Three teachers, including one from Summerland, B.C., have collaborated to produce a list of 341 ways to write book reports.  You should be able to find something for every type of learner in this list.  Many of these activities do not involve writing at all, so perhaps a better title would be 341 ways to respond to literature.

If you're looking for a ready-made unit plan to teach the novel, consider this downloadable .pdf Holes Educator's Package from Disney, apparently written by a star-studded cast of teachers.  The activities in this unit contain adaptations and extensions to accomodate a variety of student levels, always an important UDL consideration.  The package also contains numerous graphic organizers which can be used to scaffold student learning and remove curriculum barriers.  The unit includes many experiential activities and suggestions for teacher and student-created rubrics.  There are also many photos embedded in the .pdf and links to other media and useful websites.