These 10 questions below will help ensure that you always have something to use with pretty much anything you want your students to read and discuss (these work best for fiction texts like novels or short stories, but I do have some for other genres as well).
Skim through the list (of course you can ask these in any order) and then check out the various ways you can use them that I’ve got below this list for you 🙂
- Could the character mean something different here?
- Who else is going to be impacted by this new development in the plot?
- Imagine this entire section as a single image… Can you sketch that image?
- Read this part of the dialogue aloud in different ways. How does the tone of your voice change what the meaning could be? How do you think the character sounds in this part?
- Based on what you know of the characters, what would happen if ________ said _______?
- What would it take to make this more believable or relatable for us as readers?
- Have we ever read anything similar to this before? (conflict, genre, theme, time period, etc.)
- Does this way of thinking always work? What will likely happen later in the plot if it’s wrong?
- Imagine a song playing as this event is happening (or as this character enters the scene). What song? Which lyrics? How would that song emphasize the events in the story?
- Which parts make sense to you, and which parts seem confusing?
Ok, I promised a few ideas on how to actually use these questions:
Option 1
Just keep them on a clipboard or on your phone (whatever you always seem to have with you as you’re teaching) so you can quickly refer to the questions at any time.
Option 2
Turn these 10 questions into 10 discussion task cards to use during or after reading something. I’ve already done this and I’m sharing the task cards for you > > CLICK HERE < <
Option 3
Small groups: Have students respond to just one of those questions independently (you assign them so you have an equal number of the same question throughout class). Then, students get into groups based on the questions and share responses or create a new group response.
Option 4
Simply use these as Exit Ticket ideas! Different students can answer different questions, or you can choose one that you want everyone to focus on in order to get a better view of how your students are interacting with the reading as it relates to the one question you chose for them.
Click Here to grab these 10 questions in a task card format!
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| OPTION A – CLICK HERE Engaging Test Prep Strategies for Middle School ELA (that don’t feel like test prep!) |
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