After completing each chapter, each student gets a “matchbook paper.” They fold the bottom “tab” up about 1/2 inch.  The top side then gets folded down until it lines up with the crease from the tab.

One the outside of the matchbook, students draw and color their favorite scene from that chapter.  On the inside of the matchbook, students write a summary of the chapter.  I require my students to write a 5-7 sentence summary; no more, no less.  This really forces them to pick and choose the most important events to include in their summaries.

I give each student a small ziplock bag to store all of their matchbooks for the duration of the novel study.  We don’t glue them into the file folder until the very end when all matchbooks are complete.  This allows them to arrange and fit them into the file folder appropriately.  They look so nice when they are all complete, and they come in handy when students need to refer back to the text, but aren’t exactly sure where a particular event occurred in the book.