Read and Remember: Fiction

Explore the three reading levels—easy, just right, and challenging—using a handout and activities that guide you to sort books by level and identify which level fits each book.

Choose a book by genre and subject matter you enjoy, consider your prior knowledge, then evaluate the cover, back blurb, and reviews to select your course reading.

Explore four types of conflict in fiction — character versus character, society, nature, and self — and learn to identify how multiple conflicts unfold from the opening pages.

Practice active reading by limiting distractions, reading in a quiet morning with good lighting, visualizing scenes, using a pacer, and setting daily page goals to finish a novel.

Take notes while reading fiction using a character chart, event timeline, and plot map to track key elements; organize with margins, highlights, and tools like Evernote, OneNote, Google Docs.

Organize your notes, paper or digital, with a consistent system: title, author, date, and searchable tags, to quickly locate character traits, mysteries, turning points, and climaxes.

Trace how theme emerges from a story’s plot—from exposition to denouement—and discern whether the lesson is stated or implied, guiding students to write a review.

Write a helpful book review that evaluates an author's writing, plot, and characters. Apply guiding questions on pace, believability, and reader suitability to help others decide whether to read.