Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli: A Complete Literature Guide

This is a complete 52 page literature guide for the novel Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. Included in the literature guide is comprehension questions and vocabulary activities for each chapter, writing assignments for each of the six traits, and sections focused on literary elements. The overall goal of the unit is to improve reading, vocabulary, and writing skills using the novel Stargirl.

Improve Reading Comprehension Skills:
*Throughout the unit, different questions will work on building students� reading comprehension skills. Each comprehension skill has been assigned a different symbol so students and teachers can identify the specific skill focused on for that question. The unit works on six specific skills: Making Connections, Drawing Conclusions, Creating a Mind Picture, Inference, Making Predictions, and Sequencing.
* In addition to working on reading comprehension skills, students will also identify different literary elements used by the author such as similes, characterization, foreshadowing, sensory details and idioms.
*Students are also asked to interact with the text and work on skills such as considering different perspectives, facts and opinions, comparing and contrasting, making decisions, and making predictions.

Improve Writing Skills:
*There are five writing assignments, each one helps students focus on one of the six traits (organization, ideas, voice, word choice, sentence fluency) The goal is to allow teachers to teach meaningful writing assignments while also teaching the six traits of writing. Included are rubrics for scoring as well.
*There are also sections entitled �Writing Connection.� The goal of these short writing activities is to have students relate what is happening to the characters in the book with their own lives.

Improve Vocabulary Skills:
*The vocabulary activities assigned to each section are aimed at having students use the vocabulary words in a way that demonstrates understanding, not just writing the definition of the word.

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