For my second graders this year, I'm supposed to use one semester to go over a book with them. The book was chosen by the school and it's a fairly simple book, "Why Pick on Me?" by Louis Sachar is for the first semester. I haven't had to teach reading before (I'm kind of excited) but just wondered if anyone in middle school has had to go through a book with their students. If so, what sort of activities or worksheet ideas did you do?

I plan on doing some popcorn reading at times when I can with the class, just so they can do some speaking and also ask comprehension questions, of course. Picking out certain words or phrases in the books they might not know or use (for example "pick your nose"/"pick on someone" and relating it to the title).These are just things I've thought about, but it's not much. It would be nice to know what other people did to teach a book effectively to their classes or any ideas you suggest. Thank you!