I’ve used word cards with my EAP students this term instead of vocabulary notebooks. We’ve used the cards for in-class practice with partners or small groups quizzing each other.

Having completed Part 1 of the book, it seems like a good time to review. I’ve compiled most of the student-selected words and the target words from Simon C’s cloze exercises to make a vocabulary list which could be used in several ways. This list is divided using Lextutor’s Vocabulary Profiler.

Download the Holes Part 1 Vocabulary Checklist

The list is lengthy, with one hundred words, but you might choose to only use the first 50 words on the front page.

Here are the directions:

Quiz your partner. Read each word and ask if they: remember seeing the word; can give a Japanese meaning for the word; or, can use the word in English.
Mark the words R/J/U for REMEMBER, JAPANESE MEANING, and USE.
Mark your own answers as well. Take turns every 4 or 5 words.

***Some words are not real English words, so think carefully.***

The fake words are:
• reckle
• flenge
• attionate
• trenture
• extond
• kouret
• nofflate
• rowte
• unbremle

Thanks to Jim and Simon C for feedback on this.

Each of these crossword puzzles are drawn from the list of vocabulary words in Simon Cookson’s cloze exercises. These might be good for students who need a little more spelling practice and recycling of vocabulary. If the Odakyu Line continues to be unstable, you could keep a few handy to fill some spare minutes until the whole class arrives.

Download a Holes Vocabulary Crossword for Chapters 1-10

And, get a puzzle for Chapters 11-22

Answer sheet? You’ll have to make your own. This puzzle was with Puzzlemaker’s Criss-Cross Tool.

Cloze activities for Holes, in the autumn EAP course, including master Hot Potato files as well as html files. To view the exercise in your web browser click on “index.html”.

These cloze exercises are based on chapter summaries available at the following website:
Holes lesson plans

Vocabulary lists to go with the EAP cloze activities. There are 10-12 vocabulary items for each chapter in the novel.

Holes vocabulary lists

Simon Cookson put some very handy course schedules for Holes on the Shared Files. The only problem is that Tuesday has one more class than Friday. In the Reading schedule, I’ve added a review day, made a few small changes to the description, and amended the Vocabulary part of the Assessment slightly.

Download the pdf version to use as-is.

Or, get the rtf version for easy editing to make it your own.

I’ve just added one more day for writing instruction and revision bewtween Assignments 1 and 2 for the Writing.

Get the pdf version

Or, download the rtf version to change for your own use.

Thanks for the originals Simon.

A short description of the novel Holes and biographical info about the author. This gives students instructions to buy the book. Usually given out last class of spring semester. Can be used again to launch the novel.