But when you're 8, how do you know if you're asking a good question?
This month, the students will begin their very own Reading Response Letters. They're writing the letters to me, using the ten-step formula featured here:
How to write a Reading Response Letter
I'll start by reading the boys and girls just half of The Lotus Seed. You see, at the halfway point of this story, there are loads of questions a reader has.
When marking this assignment, I'm looking to see the quality of the questions the children ask. We want students to ask questions that fully demonstrate their comprehension of the text and show they are really immersing themselves in the story. We want to see students asking higher level thinking questions that demonstrate the following:
- I read/listened to this story with full attention
- I'm making connections to this text
- I'm trying to put myself in the story
- I'm thinking outside the box
- I wonder why/how/what...
When students work with these five ideas in mind, they're able to ask "thick" questions and get more from their reading experience. Thick questions often require some time to answer and typically, the reader uses that information to really gain more from the reading experience.
Thin questions, on the other hand, aren't silly or foolish, they're just often more literal in nature. They're helpful, but they tend not to contribute in an super-meaningful way to the overall understanding of the text. So for example, What kind of cat is the Cat in the Hat? knowing the answer to that doesn't really change your understanding of the character.
But, consider the following question taken from my sample story: I wonder why Ba's country was at war? When a reader knows this answer, it helps them more fully relate to the characters and their experiences.
We'll have lots of time to work on our first Reading Response Letter.
We'll even create our own checklist to be used when we finish our letters. Checklists are effective for so many reasons. One, they help students to make sure their work meets expectations prior to handing it in, and two, they teach students that good writing isn't a coincidence or luck, it's hard work and there are many pieces to the puzzle. Checklists also help kids improve future writing tasks because criteria once included on a checklist quickly becomes a habit and before you know it, the bar is raised higher and higher.
We'll have lots of time to work on our first Reading Response Letter.
We'll even create our own checklist to be used when we finish our letters. Checklists are effective for so many reasons. One, they help students to make sure their work meets expectations prior to handing it in, and two, they teach students that good writing isn't a coincidence or luck, it's hard work and there are many pieces to the puzzle. Checklists also help kids improve future writing tasks because criteria once included on a checklist quickly becomes a habit and before you know it, the bar is raised higher and higher.
