The following are a list of discussion questions to use with your son/daughter. Digging deeper into text will create active, engaged readers!
* During reading, encourage your son/daughter to stop and make predictions.A correct prediction does not have to be what happens next. It has to make sense!
1. Was the book fiction or non-fiction? How do you know?
2. Was there a problem in the book? What was it? How was it solved?
3. Have you ever had a problem? How did you solve it?
4. Who was the main character? Did you like him/her? Why?
5. How would you describe the main character? Why would you describe him/her that way?
6. Do you know anyone like the main character? How are they like the main character?
7. As you read the book, did you picture anything special in your mind? What was it? Can you describe it to me?
8. What was your favorite part of the book? Why?
9. Did you learn anything from the book?
10. Did you like the book? Why or why not?
11. What was the MOST important event in the story? Why?
12. Describe a connection you had while reading. It can be a text to self, text to world or text to text.
13. What new words did you learn. What words were interesting or "perky?"
14. At the conclusion of a story or chapter, encourage your child to retell the story. They should use specific details like character's names and vocabulary. Additionally, they should retell the story sequentially.
Helpful hints:
When discussing a story with your child you not only want to ask for concrete material from the book, you want to promote critical and creative thinking as well as text to self connections, text to world connections, and visualization. These skills will be hard for your child at first but the more they practice, the better they will become. We will be working on these higher-level skills every day in class as well!
Happy Reading!