We asked students in a survey what helped them understand the class novel the most Here are some of the most descriptive answers:

• I understood the chapter a lot better when we acted the chapter out because I understood more of the words. The summaries on classroom also helped a lot.
• The posters on your walls that said words that I didn’t know that could help me figure out the plot using context clues. Also, you would write words on the board so that also helped.
• Talking about the translations from Spanish to English
• Going over the chapter and summarizing
• Looking at sentence structures in real life scenarios.
• When profe went over and talked about the things people didn’t understand
• Acting out the scenes before we read them
• When you stopped and explained what they were talking about and acting out the chapter before we read it.
• The audio book lady reading it out loud helped a lot because I could understand a lot by her tone of voice. I understood chapters with the audio book a lot more than the chapters we read to ourselves.
• Listening to the audio book and pausing it to explain helped me understand more, though I already understood most of it.
• When we did the pages or when you went over words that you might think that we don’t know or going to the little dictionary in the back.
• Sometimes, when Profe stops the audio and translates some of the words I don’t understand. It is very helpful.

So to summarize:
1) Listening to the audio book. Such a great resource and I loved how one kid mentioned how the tone helps understanding.
2) Stop every so far and check for understanding by asking a student to translate what you just read.
3) Acting out the chapter! Kids love to participate. But it also gives them a great visual reference.