Description
Your learners will enjoy the rigor and creativity of our engaging activities built from the best teaching practices. We want to make your lesson-planning journey easy so you can focus on your expertise. This Holes novel study guide includes a curriculum map pacing guide that offers our day-by-day suggestions for how to plan out your weeks of lessons. Our pedagogy section explains the instructional idea behind the activity, gives ideas for implementation, and aligns it to the standards. We’ve filmed some training videos on (1) how to assemble a Novel Analysis Packet that is unique to the academic needs of your learners and (2) how to effectively use our Quickwrite writing prompts.
Holes by Louis Sachar is a Newbery Medal-winning novel that follows Stanley Yelnats, a boy who is falsely accused of stealing and sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention camp in the middle of a dried-up lake. At the camp, the boys are forced to dig holes five feet wide every day. The story weaves together a complex plot involving a family curse, Kissin’ Kate Barlow, Madame Zeroni, and Stanley’s great-great-grandfather. With themes of justice, friendship, and fate, the novel gives young readers a gripping story full of rich characters and layered meaning.
Teaching Holes gives you a great opportunity to explore character analysis, plot elements, figurative language, and close reading with your students. Louis Sachar’s writing style makes the novel approachable for middle school students while still offering enough depth for classroom discussion. This novel study works well for book clubs, bell ringers, or a complete unit plan. Students will follow Stanley’s journey at Camp Green Lake and examine how the setting, secondary characters like X-Ray, and the rising action and falling action shape the story.
TEXT: HOLES by Louis Sachar
LEVEL: 5th – 9th (ideal for grade 4–7 students)
TOTAL: 204 slides/pages in lesson plan unit
→ Pacing Guide and Suggested Answer Keys included
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WHAT OTHER TEACHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS LITERATURE RESOURCE
♥ Awesome resource that I purchased last year and am about to use it again this year at the new school I am teaching at! Thank you so much!
♥ This is the complete package. I don’t use everything for my 5th graders, but I like that I can pick and choose. Thank you. I have several of your units.
♥ Just completed the novel with my 6th graders and loved having everything at my fingertips. Thanks for all the work you put into this.
♥ After quickly reviewing the materials, I am most impressed. I plan to use them for summer school and I am very excited! I especially love the quick reads! Thank you for your hard work that you put in to this unit. It’s a great story and I can’t wait to use the materials!
♥ Excellent! Used it with a group of students with disabilities!
♥ Excellent resource. Very thorough and a huge time saver. Thanks!
LITERATURE PLAN CONTENTS
- Suggested timeline of how a teacher could plan out the unit
- Detailed explanations of the goals of each activity and how to conduct the activities
- Meets Common Core Standards
- Easy to differentiate for different learning levels: Honors, 2nd language learners, and Sped
★ Pre-reading Bias Intro Activity
- answer thematic questions to get students thinking about the novel
- 11-page activity
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2
★ Plot Chart Analyzer Diagram Arc
- analyze the 6 parts of the plot
- 1-page analyzer & suggested answer key
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2
★ Conflict Graphic Analyzer – 6 Types of Conflict
- Analyze the 6 different types of conflict in stories
- 2-page analyzer and suggested answer key
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2
★ Characters Analyzer
- Analyze the main characters using novel quotes
- 4-page analyzer
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3
★ Journal – Quickwrite Writing Prompts
- 1/2 writing assignments to spur much deeper conversational thinking
- 50-question slideshow
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1
★ 10 Comprehension Pop Quizzes
- A 5-question pop quiz per 5 chapters
- 22-slide slideshow
- 20 pages of printables
- The purpose of these is so students who read the chapters recently would ace the quiz and students who didn’t read recently would not do well
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.10
★ Vocabulary List and Quiz Assessment
- 90 vocabulary words from the novel
- Three 30-question quizzes
- 12-page bundle includes list of words, quiz, and answer key
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4
★ Figurative Language Instructional Notes
– We set out to make the most helpful, most compelling, most graphically attractive teaching resource for you to introduce your learners to all the various figurative language. This 70+ slide PowerPoint will help you introduce how every many you need to teach your level of learners.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7
★ Figurative Language Activity
- analyze and complete 58 figures of speech specific to the novel
- 4-page activity
- Similes, Metaphors, Idioms, Hyperboles, Analogies, Personification, Onomatopoeia, Puns, Irony
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4
★ Symbols Analyzer
- analyze 6 key symbols / motifs specific to the novel
- 1-page analyzer
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4
★ Essay and Speech
- 3 response to literature essay options for students to choose from; optional delivery of essay as a speech
- Includes essay topics and speech grading rubrics
- 6-page bundle
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1
★ Movie vs. Novel Comparison
- 2-page activity
- Learners compare & contrast the movie and novel
- A fun way to wrap up the unit after the film adaptation
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7
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