The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday Novel Study

This is a novel study for the book, The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday. Reading to students is one of the best ways to foster a love for reading, especially for emergent and/or struggling readers.

This novel study covers the majority of reading skills for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade, but it has been differentiated so you can also use it for special education students, students working below grade level, or ELL students. Each skill has a short explanation of what it is and can be read to students prior to beginning the page (I have found that this repetition is very beneficial for my students).

I teach special education inclusion and also co-teach in a second grade ability grouped classroom with students at a Kindergarten to first grade reading level and these novel studies are a wonderful way to give them exposure to the skills but in a way that is not a worksheet with concepts and/or reading levels above their current ability level. I have done this by using a lot of fill in the blank and multiple choice options, which will still benefit students working on grade level.

There are several pages in this novel study that the students can work on independently and there are several you can do as guided practice if you'd like. There are also questions by chapter, as well as a comprehensive test when you finish the book, along with a vocabulary test. There are 54 total pages, 48 of which are content pages and the rest are answer keys. The novel study consists of the following:

Cover page (with an option to draw a new book cover or prediction)

Pre-reading/Prediction (Title, Author, Make a prediction)

Vocabulary cards (can be cut apart and used as a matching game)

Vocabulary study (known/unknown word sort and sentence)

Vocabulary in Context (lists page numbers and sentences with vocabulary word)

ABC order (14 words, some with the same beginning letter)

Word Unscramble (12 words with word bank)

Word Search (14 words)

Synonyms/Antonyms (5 of each)

Affixes (5 prefixes and 5 suffixes)

Homophones/Contractions (5 of each)

Fact & Opinion/Fiction & Nonfiction (6 fact/opinion and 5 fiction/nonfiction)

Compound Words/Showing Possession (6 compound words and 5 possession)

Dictionary (sample dictionary entry with 5 questions covering part of speech, definitions, syllables, number of definitions)

Rhyming (5 find the rhyming words and use them to fill in the blanks of a poem)

Main Idea (3 four-five sentence passages, identify the main idea and the detail that does not belong)

Chapter questions for each chapter (combination of multiple choice and free response)

Summarizing (formatted as first, next, then, last; students write a sentence for each)

Cause and Effect (6 mixed cause/effect questions related to the story)

Visualization (draw a picture for two examples from the story)

Setting (draw the setting and write a sentence about it)

Character Analysis (x2) (using bubble maps)

Compare and Contrast (with Venn diagram)

Sequence of Events (10 events)

Vocabulary Test (x2) (10 words; matching) (10 definitions with limited answer choices)

Comprehensive Test (20 questions, 19 multiple choice and 1 free response; 1 Bonus question, and a place to draw their favorite scene from the book)

Answer keys for 33 total pages

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The file is in PDF format