I'm always trying to come up with fun new ways to have students do what are usually considered boring activities, like writing a summary of a book.  In my latest novel unit on Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume, I wanted to come up with an end-of-unit project that would have students summarize all the important events in the story without having them write it plainly on a paper.

So what did I do?  Headed to Pinterest for inspiration, of course!

And what did I find?

Well, I found some really fabulous ways to summarize text in non-traditional ways, but my favorite way was the novel summary lapbook.  Basically, students use a file folder and some paper flaps to summarize the story chapter-by-chapter and include an illustration for each flap.  The flaps are then glued to the center sections of the file folder.

They can also include important information about the main chapters as well, on the outer flaps of the folder.

To complete the project, students glue on cover pages to the outside of the folder.  When complete, you can staple the backs of the folder to a bulletin board for an eye-catching display.

Find a full tutorial of how you can do this for any novel in the video below.

You can also check out my complete Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Novel Unit below as well: