Teaching Charlotte’s Web

Are you reading Charlotte’s Web with your class? Make teaching Charlotte’s Web low prep for you and engaging for your students! These tips will help you plan out teaching the novel to your students. 

Teaching Charlotte’s Web: Unit Plan

When planning your unit, you want to make a plan of your goal for the unit.

Whenever I am reading novels, my goal is to review all of the comprehension standards that we have learned that year while reading. 

Keep the general format the same for each chapter/day. It makes planning so much easier! 

Introduction Lesson

Before reading, I always have an introduction day to the novel. Things you can do on that day include…

• Book Walk- Have students read the back, look  through the book, and make predictions on what the book will be about.
• Watch a Commercial- Watch the book commercial here to get students excited about the book. 
• Research the Animal- Have students research three interesting facts about a pig and three about a spider! You could even have them research a rat! This will help them get excited about the animals in the novel! 

Daily Lesson Plans for Charlotte’s Web 

Each day my lesson plan looks like this:

• Read 1-2 chapters from the story. Everyday I switch how this is read. You can have students read independently, read with a partner, or with a group. You can read to them some days and some days you can have students read aloud to a class. Check out YouTube to find some great audio versions of the chapters. 
• Focus on a Skill– With each set of chapters, I focus on a new skill whether that be cause and effect, inferencing, etc. I do a quick activity that focuses on reviewing and practicing that skill.
• Quiz Every Few Days– Every few days I will give a quiz over the novel. Often, I will make this quiz an open book!
• Practice Vocabulary- Everyday, we add two or three vocabulary words to our journal. Then, every two days we practice 4-6 words. By the end of week, you will have 12 vocabulary words learned and practiced. I typically just give a vocabulary test on all the words at the end of the novel. 

End of Novel Projects 

Once we have finished the novel, I allow my students to complete a project to show what they have read and learned! Some project examples include:

• Book Commercial-Plan, film, and create a commercial to advertise Charlotte’s Web.
•  Create a new spider web- Students will create their own spider web with a word on it. They will explain why that word fits Wilbur well.
• Make a new plan- Students will create a new plan to save Wilbur’s life and then explain why it is better than Charlotte’s.

This is what this novel study would look like in my classroom. If you want everything ready to go for you! Head here to grab the unit!