Each character has to justify her or his existence. How about making up a version of the card game 'Snap' with cards with characters' names and things they have said on them. Listening We've already looked at listening activities before and during reading. Many of these can be prepared by the students themselves - good practice for them and a welcome relief for you. You can draw a series of clocks showing significant times and ask students what happens at these times, or ask them to match beginnings and endings of sentences describing events and the days they happened on.
Visual clues are useful.
For example, draw the face of a character in an empty bubble surrounded by statements and quotations and ask who it is. Artistically talented students can draw the story or make a collage telling the story, while others can use copies of the pictures from the book to tell the story. Students can keep a 'reading diary' showing their reactions as they read. Finally a 'reading fair' at the end of term or year where students display posters they have made to persuade other students to read their favourite books is always a success. The above ideas have been contributed by teachers at seminars around the world and I am most grateful to them and those authors mentioned in the bibliography.