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 novel study includes a curriculum map and pacing guide that offer our day-by-day suggestions for planning your weeks of lessons. Our pedagogy section explains the instructional rationale behind the activity, offers implementation ideas, and aligns it with 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.
If I Stay by Gayle Forman is a heartbreaking story about seventeen-year-old Mia, a young girl and classical music cellist, who must choose between life and death after a devastating car accident. Award-winning author Gayle Forman, a journalist, has written several bestselling novels. This New York Times bestseller was later adapted into a major motion picture starring Chloe Grace Moretz.
The whole story unfolds through Mia’s point of view, written in first person and present tense. Mia’s flashbacks and memories reveal her life before the tragedy hit. Readers watch each scene play out as Mia struggles to decide whether to stay alive or let go. Her own damaged body lies in a hospital room while she floats outside of it, witnessing family friends and loved ones gather around her.
TEXT: IF I STAY by Gayle Forman
LEVEL: 7th-12th
TOTAL: 184 slides/pages
→ Pacing Guide and Answer Keys included
This resource can be purchased as part of IF I STAY Unit Teaching Package bundle.
What Other Teachers Are Saying About This Literature Unit
- I chose this unit because my group of sophomores HATED To Kill a Mockingbird, so I decided to find a book more to their tastes, 10/10 would make the same choice again. My kids were engaged and liked the unit. Thanks for providing such a great unit!
- This is a great novel study for If I Stay! I am looking forward to using it with my high school special education students.
- This source was amazing for reading the novel with my students and the activities to go along with it! Great resource and loved it! Thanks for sharing!
- Used this with a classroom of boys who needed intervention in reading, and they enjoyed the book and the materials to work through the book.
- I used your unit on The Giver and LOVED IT! So excited to use this unit with my high school students.
- I used this for tutoring a student. The vocabulary section was great as well as some of the Quickwrites.
Literature Plan Contents
Below is a breakdown of all activities and resources included in this If I Stay novel study bundle.
IF I STAY Movie Trailer (from YouTube)
Use the official movie trailer as a hook before reading. This is a great way to build interest and get students excited about Mia’s story.
Pre-reading Bias Intro Activity
- Answer thematic questions to get students thinking about the novel
- 11-page/slide activity
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2
Plot Chart Organizer Diagram Arc
- Organize the 6 parts of the plot
- 1-page organizer
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2
Conflict Graphic Organizer – 6 Types of Conflict
- Students analyze the 6 different types of conflict in stories
- 2-page organizer
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2
Characters Organizer
- Analyze the main characters using novel quotes
- 5-page organizer
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3
Settings Organizer
- Analyze the main settings using novel quotes
- 1-page organizer
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2
Symbols
- Students analyze the 6 different symbols in the story
- 8-page organizer
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2
Figurative Language Instructional PowerPoint
- A 70+ slide PowerPoint to introduce your learners to all the various figurative language
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7
Figurative Language Activity
- Analyze and complete 32 figures of speech specific to the novel
- 5-page bundle (3 parts)
- Similes vs. Metaphors, Figurative Language Analysis
- Similes, Metaphors, Idioms, Hyperboles, Analogies, Personification, Onomatopoeia, Allusions, Symbols
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4
Journal – Quickwrite Writing Prompts – PowerPoint
- Writing assignments to spur much deeper conversational thinking
- 32-slide PowerPoint
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1
5 Comprehension Pop Quizzes
- A 5-question pop quiz per 1 chapter
- 22 slides of PowerPoint Quizzes
- 10 pages of Printable Quizzes
- Students who read the chapters recently would ace the quiz. Students who didn’t read recently would not do well.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.10
Vocabulary List and Quiz Assessment
- 120 vocabulary words from the novel
- Four 30-question lists & quizzes
- 16-page bundle includes list of words, quiz, and answer keys
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4
Waiting for Vengeance Song Lyrics Analysis
- This is the song that Mia sings that her father wrote
- 2-page activity
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7
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 worksheet
- Students compare & contrast the movie and novel
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7
Enjoy! And remember that dying is easy…Living is hard.
Other IF I STAY Versions
Our Novel Unit Library
→ We’ve got 35+ more complete novel units for you, ready to save you precious time and sanity so you can have your life back to do what you do best … teach!
Poetry Units
→Poetry Unit Complete PowerPoint and Packet – Genres, Forms, Techniques, Devices
Bored w/ Teaching Grammar?
→ Introduce your learners to The Grammar Ninjas!
