Using Jip: His Story As a Novel Study

Jip: His Story was a book I stumbled upon in a Scholastic book order several years ago. It was on sale, so I ordered a set to do a novel group (I break my kids into groups of 4-6 kids per novel) and was looking for some fresh material. I had been using Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia, so I thought I'd give Jip a try, beings that it was written by a well-known and well-written author. This book exceeded my expectations. I enjoyed Bridge to Terabithia and enjoyed using it in my novel groups, but Jip, in my opinion, is a better-written book.

Set in 1855, Jip is an orphan boy that lives on a poor farm in rural Vermont. His life isn't easy and he has to work hard to earn his keep. He befriends a "lunatic" that is mistreated by the residents of the poor farm and is surrounded by a large cast of characters. He later has to come to terms with his own identity as he discovers why he was orphaned and what it means for his future.

This is a more challenging read; I reserved it for my higher readers in 5th and 6th grade. It could be taught whole-class as part of a unit on this time period in history and older students would enjoy it as well. If you are teaching a unit on slavery, abolitionists, and/or pioneer life this book would be a great one to use. In addition, this book allows for deep discussion on moral right and wrongs. The strong protagonist of Jip allows students to connect with him, and students always finish this book happy that they experienced it. It isn't one they would normally pick up on their own and it hasn't been made into a movie, but I liked that it was new to all my readers. That helped a lot too with making predictions and recognizing foreshadowing, since nobody tried to base it off of seeing the movie!

At the time I bought it, there weren't any study guides to accompany it, so I made my own. I assigned a couple of chapters at a time with a some vocabulary practice and comprehension questions. I shrunk the questions down to a small strip of paper they could glue into a notebook and write their responses on notebook paper. I liked this strategy instead of a fill in the blanks worksheet and I tried to ask deeper questions to help fuel discussion. To save yourself time, you can purchase the strips on my Teachers Pay Teachers store! Just click here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jip-Novel-Study-Comprehension-Strips-3154103?aref=ahpb4ot6

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