Bull Run Novel Study

This year I began reading the novel Bull Run by Paul Fleischman with my 5th graders. For those who are unfamiliar with the story, Bull Run is an historical fiction novel that contains diary entries from characters from the Civil War, leading up to the Battle of Bull Run. Each character is involved in the war in a completely different way.


I had some trouble finding resources to accompany the novel, so I decided to begin building a novel study unit. I began with my first resource, a character study analysis. There are 16 characters and the diary entries go back and forth between the many characters, so I found that it was difficult to keep track of them all. Here's how I decided to organize it:

Sample Character Study page

Since we began the book, my students have had a much easier time with keeping up with the characters and getting to delve further into details about each one.

Here is a view of the many pages that I've included in my novel study, along with a link to where it is available on my store through Teachers Pay Teachers Bull Run Novel Study Unit. Included in the unit are Figurative Language activities, discussion question activities, short answer response questions, an entire vocabulary study, compare/contrast activities aligned to common core, a final test and project with included answer keys/grading rubrics, and much more!

Feel free to respond with any questions you may have! I'd love to hear comments and feedback.