Here are some questions you can ask your child about their reading; choose a few each night to engage in conversation with your child about their nightly independent reading.
Before reading:
- Looking at the title, cover and illustrations/pictures, what do you think will happen in this book?
- What makes you think that?
- What characters do you think might be in the book?
- Do you think there will be problem in the story? Why?
- What do you already know about the topic of this book?
- Does the topic or story relate to you or your family? How?
- Do you think it will be like any other book you’ve read? If so, which one, and how do you think it will be similar?
- What has happened so far in the story? Can you tell me using sequencewords? (first, then, next, after, finally, etc.)
- What do you predict will happen next?
- How do you think the story will end?
- Why do you think the character did ____________?
- What would you have done if you were the character?
- How would you have felt if you were the character?
- When you read, what pictures did you see in your head? How did you imagine it looked like?
- Think about the predictions you made before reading; do you still think the story will go that way? Why or why not? How do you think it will go next?
- Were your predictions correct? Where did you have to fix your prediction as you read?
- If there was a problem, did it get solved? How did the character try to solve the problem?
- What happened because of the problem?
- Did any of the characters change through the story? Who changed, and how did they change?
- Why do you think the author wrote this?
- Can you retell the story in sequence order (use your fingers and sequence words: first, second, then, next, etc.)
What was your favorite part? Why? - Does this book remind you of another book you know?
- Does it remind you of something you’ve experienced in real life?