Teaching Reading Skills with Louis Sachar’s Holes

Louis Sachar’s novel, Holes is one of my favorite novels to teach in upper elementary, especially fifth grade! I especially love teaching reading skills with Holes because of the point of view it’s told from.

The character development and theme in this popular novel helps teachers incorporate reading skills and literary elements while keeping students engaged.

Teaching reading skills with Louis Sachar’s Holes has never been easier with novel studies! Learn how to use Holes to review reading skills and literary elements in your ELA classroom!

DISCUSS AND COLLABORATE

Part of becoming a good reader is being able to discuss and collaborate with classmates. The Holes unit incorporates discussion questions by using Socratic Seminar.

What is Socratic Seminar? Students have open-ended interpretive questions from a chapter or section of the text that they prepare for. Discussion leaders participate, and other students can add to the discussion.

Learn more about using Socratic Seminars with novels in your ELA class!

POINT OF VIEW

So many young adult novels are told in first person. Holes, on the other hand, takes a third person limited omniscient perspective. The reader gets to know everything that Stanley Yelnats, the main character, is thinking. The limited is added since we don’t know the thoughts and feelings of all of the main characters in the novel, but we certainly get in Stanley’s head!

Challenge your students by asking them to reflect on other points of view. What if Stanley was a first person narrator? How would that change the dialogue or what we know about Stanley? What if another character was the narrator? Have your students rewrite a paragraph or small section using a different point of view.

The Holes novel study starts with a guiding question about point of view in Lesson One. This helps students focus and see the impact of point of view throughout the novel.

CHARACTERS

There are so many characters at Camp Green Lake! The Holes novel unit interpretive and comprehension questions reflect on direct and indirect characterization as well as identifying each of the important characters your readers meet throughout the novel.

Keep track of the characters introduced in the digital notebooks in the novel study unit! I love that the comprehension questions provide answer keys, so if it’s been awhile since you’ve read Holes, you can prep and remind yourself of the amazing characters in the novel that your students will meet!

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Sure, your students can compare and contrast settings and characters, but why not compare the book and the movie? The popular movie, Holes has some key differences from the book, but the theme remains the same. Use the Holes novel unit to teach about theme as well as incorporate the final lessons that integrate with the movie version. It’s a win-win for your students as they watch an entertaining movie and practice finding similarities and differences.

Teaching reading skills with novel studies is one of the cornerstones of the ELA classroom. Whether you are using Holes as a whole class novel, in literature circles, or for independent study, the Holes novel unit provides everything you need to review reading skills and introduce literary elements. How will you get started teaching reading skills with Louis Sachar’s Holes?

Check out these additional novel reading units, perfect for 5th grade!

FREE SHORT STORY UNIT TO TRY

My Socratic Seminar reading units are very different than your typical novel study.

Because of that, I have since made a FREE Socratic Seminar short story unit, so teachers can try out this format before purchasing any of my novel unit.

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