Chapter 10 makes me sad because the end of this great novel is so near. Sigh.
Students do the pre-reading discussion questions using the cube template included in the Teacher's Guide. I made one class set of cubes the first time that I taught this novel, and I save it in a box with all the other reusable activities that I made for the novel. Students needed to write down each of the questions that they create and turn them in.
Before reading Chapter 10
I asked some of the questions that were handed in to the class.
We did the Line up! activity from the Teacher's Guide. Again, I recommend printing out one set and laminating it to use year after year.
I asked the students, "¿Qué va a ocurrir en el Capítulo 10? Haz una predicción". We discussed their answers.
Chapter 10 read aloud
I read the chapter aloud to the students, as dramatically as humanly possible, trying my hardest to build suspense and clarify meaning as we read.
After reading our final chapter, we discussed the after-reading questions. Then, Students completed a Story Elements Glove for the book (on paper), and then they used their glove to write a summary of the novel (writing assessment). We discussed what each student considered to be the climax and what the resolution was, since the book leaves with a bit of a cliff-hanger.
Culminating activity for El nuevo Houdini: keep it simple!
Finally, each kid illustrated their favorite scene from the book and shared it with their classmates with the inside/outside circle format. I also recorded each student talking about their drawing and used it as a speaking assessment.
The Teacher's Guide has a lot of other great ideas for end-of-the-book culminating activities, so if you haven't bought it by now....do it!!
