Literary Analysis Essay for Middle School ELA | Design a Book Themed Sandwich | Book Report Alternative

The words literary analysis essay can sound super intimidating to middle school students, but this engaging book report alternative actually makes writing literary essays FUN!

Bon Appetit!

Your middle school students have been hired as chefs at the most prestigious restaurant in town, and they have been tasked with creating a literary-themed menu for its high-brow patrons.

For their latest menu addition, they must design a sandwich that perfectly captures the essence of a character from the book they most recently read.

They will need to think carefully about the ingredients they choose and how they relate to the character's personality, motivations, and traits.

Will their sandwich be a classic staple or a bold culinary experiment?

How will their customers know without a doubt that this sandwich captures the essence of their chosen character?

Your middle school students will have fun cooking up a storm with this literary sandwich challenge!

This fun and relatable literary analysis essay assignment works with ANY novel your students are reading.

This assignment will help your students . . . 

✏️Develop a thesis statement

✏️Write logical topic sentences

✏️Support their claims with evidence from the text

✏️Build a logically organized literary analysis essay (5-8 paragraphs)

✏️Self-assess their writing

✏️And more!

Rather than starting with an intro and rambling their way through to the conclusion, your students will start with the most important building block of their literary analysis: the thesis statement.

From there, they will build their topic sentences and move on to the support/evidence.

Finally, they will finish with an introduction and conclusion that complement the content of their literary analysis essay.

Individual rubrics are included for each step of the process so your students can check their work as they go and YOU can grade their literary analysis essays AS they're being written!

What's included in this resource?

✅Teacher tips to guide you through the process

✅A student handout with a fun theme-park prompt

✅13 Fillable student handouts that build a 5-8-paragraph literary analysis essay when put together

✅Rubrics for each section of the paper (for student self-assessment and teacher grading)

✅A put-it-all-together handout that shows students how to organize their literary analysis essays

✅An example essay for students to reference as they write