This activity involves students in a collaborative process of discovery. Rather than "instruct" students on the linkages between text features, or ask students to craft arguments on their own, this activity incorporates manipulatives in the form of small honeycomb-shaped cards that challenge students to work together to assemble the honeycomb in such a way that all of the touching sides work together.

The manipulative aspect of this activity is what excites students the most. When they initially begin assembling their honeycomb, they rush into the task, believing it to be a simple assignment. When they are forced to explain how all of the different components connect, however, they quickly find that one or more pieces is an outlier that becomes harder to link to other textual components. This forces them to reassess their initial thoughts and, based on my observations, requires them to begin discussing smaller and smaller elements of the text in question in order to find a way to connect all of their pieces. With very little prompting from the teacher, students are actively engaged in considering how the author "assembled" the narrative to shape meaning and they are incorporating close-reading, revised thinking, and collaboration in the process. 

What I love most about this activity is that it forces students to consider the intentionality of an author's choices and requires them to consider how many seemingly "random" parts of a story connect across the larger narrative.  This activity is also *very* easy to plan.  Simply decide what text features you want your students to consider, label the honeycombs accordingly, and provide each discussion group their stack of cards.