Connecting to Previous Experience
- What do you already know about this topic?
- How does the information in this text fit with what you already know?
- What have you experienced that helps you understand this topic?
- What does this text make you think or wonder about?
- What surprised you?
- How does this text remind you of other texts you have studied?
- Does this text provide information that you personally find useful?
- Why did the text creator think this subject was important?
- From this text, what did you learn about life, about different places, about history, about science, about religion, and so on?
Extending Meaning
- What is the text creator’s message?
- What is the text really about?
- Do you think the title is appropriate?
- Why do you think this text was created?
- Are different points of view presented?
- What are some of the most important ideas?
- Were there parts of the text you didn’t understand?
- What questions do you still have?
- What does the text make you want to learn more about?
- What lessons does the text teach about life?
- Does the style work well?
- What was more important: the plot or the characters?
Considering Setting, Time, and Mood
- Where and when does the story take place?
- Where else could the story take place?
- Could the setting be a real place that exists now?
- How much time passes in the story?
- In any other time or place, how would the story change?
- How did the text creator control the passing of time?
- Does the setting change over the person’s life?
- What was the mood or atmosphere of the story?
- If a friend planned to study this text, what music would you recommend as appropriate?
Talking about Characters
- Are there any powerful characters in the text? What makes them that way?
- Who is the most important character?
- Who is the most interesting character?
- Which character taught you the most?
- How does the text creator reveal the character?
- Which characters changed and which didn’t?
- Who is a character that plays a small but necessary role?
- What did you learn from a character in the text?