STEMS

Reader's Workshop (STEMS)

If you get stuck when creating sticky notes to answer the question “What are you thinking?”, select from the following sentence starters:

Monitoring for Sense

(checking understanding of text/vocab)

• “What just happened…?”
• “I’m confused by…”
• “I know this happened because on page…”

Empathizing/Making Connections

(Making connections to experiences in own life)

• “ This reminds me of when I…”
• “This is just like…”
• “ This connects to my own life because…”

Predicting

(Making a logical guess at what will happen next in the story)

• “ I think________ will happen next because…”
• “ I predict that…”
• “ I think the character will…”

Retelling

( Restate characters, setting, and plot)

• “_____ is a boy/girl who…”
• “ The story takes place in…”
• “The story is about____ who…”

Questioning

(Asking critical questions)

• “I wonder why…?”
• “Why is _____ like that …?”
• “ Is this situation fair…?”

Inferring

(Learning about characters through their words, thoughts, and actions)

• “When ______ said that, I realized that he/she is…”
• “I can tell that he/she…”
• “He/she thinks…”
• _________ is _________ because

(character) (trait)*

* See Character Trait Handout

Envisioning

(Forming a mental picture of a scene)

• “I can imagine
• “I can picture in my mind…”
• “When I read this, I saw…”

Interpreting

(Able to articulate the theme, moral, author’s purpose, or main idea)

• “I’m thinking this book is really about…”
• “The way I see this is…”

Determining Main Idea

(The most important details to the plot of the story)

• “This book is mostly about…”
• “The author keeps mentioning…”

Synthesizing

(Putting the parts of the text together)

• “This connects to the other part of the story because…”
• “Now I’m seeing…”
• “Now I understand why..”

Adapted From: Reader's and Writer's Workshop, Columbia University