I need some new ideas for literature activities in my HS advanced Spanish class?

Question

We are reading a novel and they are getting bored. We have read silently and aloud (students taking turns or I read to them). They have split into groups and read specific paragraphs to tell the other class members what they read in order to put the story together (jig sawing) etc. Anyone have some ideas on getting the text off the page and into their heads?
I'm not looking for strategies (like determining means of words). Nor am I looking for pre/ post reading activities. Just looking for ways to make the actual reading part a little more interesting.
Can you help?

Answer 1

Get the students to play the parts. Allocate characters or let the students pick one for themselves that they think suits their persona.
Sit back and enjoy the experience.

Answer 2

You might consider having a kind of Reader's Theater, that is, have your students act out what they are reading.

1. Idenitfy characters and sections that will be read by narrators.

2. Let students volunteer for the part they want. (If you have more parts than students, let them double up.)

3. Ask everyone to prepare their part ahead of time.

4. Read through that section.

5. To get more mileage out of this and take it up to the next level, you might ask the students to evaluate themselves on expression and pronounciation. (Whatever is your main focus, specify that and ask them to judge that.)

6. Last of all, after a few times of doing this, ask them to evaluate each other on the same points: expression, volume, pronunciation etc.

Kids love acting things out. It's fun.

To keep things moving you may want to summarize the parts that don't lend themselves to being acted out and focus on the parts that move the action of the novel along.

Last Suggestion:
You may want to consider having a Spanish Tea/Convocation in which your students present a section of the novel for other students, parents, or whomever all of you choose to invite.

This gives them a purpose to put all that time and energy into what they are doing. Bottom line: it provides the motivation, a key element in teaching. Do I need to say you might include food at this event, a sure way of firing all who come and all who prepare.

Good Luck.