IXL has a new topic in English language arts: book study skills! 

These skills support instruction for critically acclaimed novels and nonfiction books, including The Giver, A Long Walk to Water, and many more. Each book has two accompanying IXL skills, which cover the first and second halves of the story.

Build essential literacy skills 

IXL’s book study skills invite students to immerse themselves in a passage from a book, analyze the text, and answer questions to demonstrate their understanding. Along the way, learners will develop important reading comprehension and critical thinking skills that are valuable for English classes and beyond. 

If you’re covering a book in your classroom, our skills can help minimize your lesson planning and let you focus on instruction. For example, teachers can assign Part 1 skills as pre-reading activities to excite students and introduce them to the story. After your class has finished the book, use the skills to guide post-reading discussions about major themes and events.

Teacher tip: Students can use the Scratchpad, available on mobile and desktop, to highlight and annotate text!

Spark a love of reading 

Even if you’re not planning to include the full texts in your curriculum, you can still assign our book study skills to help students practice reading and analyzing passages. They’ll also learn important historical context, background information, and fun facts about the work they’re reading. 

These skills might even inspire your learners to read one of the books on their own!

Explore IXL’s new reading skills for yourself: 

Grade 6: 

• Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief 
• Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
• Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Esperanza Rising
• Ann Petry’s Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad
• Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McCormick’s I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World
• Jim Murphy’s The Great Fire

Grade 7: 

• Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk to Water
• L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables
• J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit
• Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl
• Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember

Grade 8: 

• Lois Lowry’s The Giver
• S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders
• Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
• William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
• John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley

Grade 9: 

• Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
• Elie Wiesel’s Night

Grade 10: 

• Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
• Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air

Grade 11: 

• F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
• Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince

Grade 12: 

• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
• Henry David Thoreau’s Walden

Stay tuned for more skills covering popular novels and nonfiction books coming soon!