Pressure

 of a social issue that is at the root of the pressure. Example: A pressure in life can be thought of as something that influences us; that presses in us on, and usually requires some sort of push back. Sometimes, when a reader zeros in on the cause of a character 's pressure, they find an underlying social issue. It's really the social issue that's causing the pressure on the character. 

For example,  experience story that relates to the teaching point. Example: When I was a kid, I swam competitively-just as many of you play baseball, cheer, or do another competitive sport. I always felt pressure to practice harder, to be better, so that when swim meets came, I would win. Feeling this pressure helped me be a better athlete. There is another kind of pressure that is not positive or helpful- like social pressure. When I was a kid, others made fun of kids other for the stores they shopped in and for the lunches they ate in the cafeteria. If you weren't wearing the right clothes, you were ridiculed. There was pressure to get good grades, plus the pressure of being good in sports, plus the pressures of what brands to wear and not to wear, plus the pressure of buying lunch versus bringing lunch... lots of pressure. Some of them help us. But some just make life harder. Just like the pressure I felt and had to find a way to deal with, our characters deal with pressure, too. 

So, looking at and understanding how the pressure makes the characters feel might point us to a social issue in the book 

• What are you noticing about pressure that affects how the story is being told? 

• Who is feeling pressure?

• What is that pressure making them do?  

What Readers Think About When Reading Critically

• We notice the impact of the setting on the characters.

• We think about whether a character's traits affect him/her..

• We see the story from different characters' points of view

• We consider how the social issue affects the story.

• We think about whether a character's actions are fair or unfair.

• We try to understand what the author is trying to teach us.

• We notice the pressure that characters face.

• We try to understand what a character really wants and feels.

• We study and interpret symbols to better understand the story.

• We think about who in the story has power over others.