Reading Discussion Questions

Literature Discussions

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?