In his book The Power of Reading, Stephen Krashen says "Language acquisition comes from input, not output, from comprehension, not production" (p 136). Even though most teachers agree that reading is a powerful way to provide students with the input that is required for language acquisition, many teachers are hesitant to being reading a novel with their students. As a teacher who teaches four different levels and around eight classes a day, I'm here to assure you of one thing: novels are your friend, not your enemy! For me, using novels has been a total lifesaver for the following reasons:
My 4th graders are currently reading Las aventuras de Isabela by Karen Rowan. I spent months pre-teaching the vocabulary words so that my students could read straight through this novel. In my experience, pre-teaching the vocabulary makes it so when you read the novel you don't lose momentum and the class can get lost in the story!
This book is set in México and offers opportunities to explore different cultural topics. As a teacher it was awesome to expose my students to such a wide variety of authentic resources while reading this book! Check out my top 3 cultural resources for this book: