Talk with your child about what they are reading! ***Literature Responses*** If you have the time, it would be very worthwhile for you to have discussions with your child about his/her reading material. You can use the following response prompts with your child. These are also helpful for tutors and babysitters. Just choose a few to discuss, and this can be done orally.
CHARACTERS *Who are the characters? *Describe the changes in (character) from chapter ____ to now, or how does the character change from the beginning to the middle of the story, middle to the end of the story? *What character traits describe the characters? *What advice would you give the character? *At the end of chapter ___, how does the character feel? *Describe the problem in chapter ____. What does the character do to try to solve the problem? *Do people you know in real life behave like the characters? *Was the behavior of the character right or wrong? Why? *Would you like having one of the characters in the story as a friend? SEQUENCING and SUMMARIZING *What is the most important idea from this part of the book? *Name in correct sequence, the 3 most important events in the story. *Name an important event that happened in the story (effect), and then tell why it happened? (cause) *What do you predict will happen next? SETTING *Where does the story take place? Describe the place. *Could there be a place like this? *Would you visit this place? Why? *When did the story take place? Did the story take place a long time ago or in the future? How do you know? *What does the place remind you of? Have you ever been somewhere like this?
OTHER LITERARY ELEMENTS *Were there any examples of similes or metaphors? (2 things being compared) *Were there any examples of personification? (Giving human traits to nonliving things) *Did the story end like you thought it would? *If you could change the ending, how would you change it? *What special sensory words or phrases did the author use to help you see, hear, smell, feel or taste things? *Did you learn any new words in the story? ABOUT THE AUTHOR *Who is the author? *What is the author’s purpose for writing this story/chapter? (To entertain, to describe, to persuade or convince, to inform) *What would you say in a friendly letter to the author? *Would you read another book by this author? GENRE *What genre is this? (Fiction, nonfiction, short story, novel, journal, letter, instructions, recipe, biography, autobiography, play, poem, newspaper article, magazine article, essay) HOW DID YOU LIKE THIS BOOK? *Rate your book. (1-10) *What was your favorite part of the story? *If you wanted to suggest this story to a friend, what would you say? NON-FICTION *For nonfiction material-Name five facts you learned. *What did you find out you didn’t know before?
*What types of text features were in your book? (charts, maps, bold print, text boxes,
diagrams, etc.) How were they helpful? *When was your book published?
*Does your book have an index, table of contents or glossary? How could
they be helpful to you?