Back to Reading Responses
Fall Term Reading Response Questions
Directions: Refer to the expectations and requirements handout. Select four questions that you can really sink your teeth into. Make sure your responses are both complete and reflective. Support your responses with examples. Writer's Tip: Don't just tell what you mean, SHOW what you mean. Hint: Use Quotes.
1. Setting: Where and when does the story take place? What kind of details does the author include to establish a sense of time and place?
2. Lead-in: What incident, problem, conflict, or situation does the author use to get the story started?
3. Technique: What does the author do to create suspense and to make you want to read on to find out what happens?
4. Plot: Trace the main events in the story. Could you change their order or leave any out? Why or why not?
5. Resolution: Think of a different ending to the story. How would the rest of the story have to change to fit the new ending? Does your replacement ending seem more appropriate? Why or why not?
6. Resolution: Did the story end the way you expected it to? Reflect back on the story. What clues did the author offer along the way to prepare you for the ending? Did you recognize these clues as important to the story when you were reading it?
7. Character Development: Is there one character you know more about than the others? Who is this character and what kind of person is he/she? What words would you use to describe the main character's feelings in this book? How does the author reveal the character's traits and feelings to you?
8. Turing Point: Are the beliefs, ideas, or feelings of any character dramatically changed during the story? If so, describe the turning point which facilitated this change. Compare and contrast the character before and after the transformation. Did the transformation seem believable and true to the character? Why or why not?
9. Secondary Character: Some characters play small but important roles in the story. Name such a character and explain why this character is necessary for the story? How would the absence of this character affect the outcome of the story?
10. Voice: Who is the teller of the story? How does the author create a sense of voice through the teller? Describe the author's technique. Why do you think the author chose to tell the story this way?
11. Mood as setting: Does the story as a whole create a certain mood or feeling? What is the mood? How is it created?
12. Theme: What is the overall message or theme of the story? Give examples of how the author makes you think of this theme as you read.
13. Compare/Contrast: Is this story like any other you have read or watched in terms of characters, plot, setting, or theme? Briefly summarize the stories and then compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the two.
14. Ideas and Content: What ideas or issues does the story make you think about? How does the author get you to think about this? How has your own understanding of these ideas or issues been enriched?
15. Connections: Do any particular feelings come across in this story? Does the story make you feel any certain way or does it make you think what it's like to feel that way? How?
16. Style: Is there anything that seems to make this particular author's work unique? If so, what? Discuss.
17. Patterns: Did you notice any particular patterns in the form of this book? Describe. If you are reading this book more than one sitting, are there natural points at which you can break off your reading? If so, what are these points?
18. Voice: Does the story language seem natural for the intent of the story and for various speakers? How does the author employ language or dialect (ways of speaking) to add depth to the setting and characters?
19. Every fiction writer creates a make-believe world and peoples it with characters. Even where the world is far different from your own, how does the author make the story seem possible, probable, or real to you?
20. If you could engage in a meaningful discussion with the author of your book, what kinds of questions would you ask and what would you discuss?
Some questions were adapted from:
Child as Critic, 2nd Edition, Glenda Davis Sloan, Teachers College Press.
Child and Story, Kay Vandergrift, Neal-Schuman Publishers
Developed by Michelle Tabor, Bellingham, WA. 1996.
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Winter Term Reading Response Questions
1. Write a diary entry for one of the characters in your book. Indicate the precise data and why you chose that data for this entry. Explain how this entry fits into the life of your character.
2. Compare and contrast yourself with one of the characters.
3. What kind of friend would a make character make? Would he or she fit in with your group of friends? Why or why not?
4. Write a letter to a character in the story offering your advice.
5. Write a letter from one character to another. And then explain how the letter fits into the story.
6. Discuss how the author creates an interesting character, or fails to do so.
7. What values does a particular character have? For example: honesty, courage, or a sense of fair play. Use examples from the story to support your answer.
8. Interview a character in the story. No 'yes' or 'no' answers, please. Answers should reveal feelings, issues, and personality.
9. Discuss how the strengths and weaknesses of a character are revealed in the story.
10. How did the central character change from beginning to the ending to the end of the story? What did he or she learn?
11. If the book has a villain, how or why was his/her punishment justified?
12. Invite one character to dinner and write a note of explanation to your mother. Based on the text tell your mother what she can expect from this guest by describing their likes and dislikes but also indicating the kind of "person" your character is.
13. For a film for your book, which actor would you choose for the leading character? Why? Your answer should reflect personality traits of your main character and include specific book reference.
14. Describe what you think happened to the main character after the book ended. Explain how your conclusion has roots in the main story.
15. Consider one of the minor characters in your story. Why do you think the author included this character? Consider how the minor character helps develop plot, character, theme, or setting.
1. Could your story take place in a different setting? Explain why or why not. What about the story requires it to remain in this setting or allows it to be moved? Remember that setting is both time and place.
2. When and how does the author introduce setting? Quote several sentences from the book which show setting.
3. Write a letter to the author discussing your thoughts about the setting -that is, what you liked most and what you did not like-or suggest how the setting could be improved and why. Discuss the technique the author uses to develop the setting.
4. Compare where you live with a neighborhood or town in your book. Make specific reference to setting particulars in your book and compare them to actual places in your life.
5. Find several references to setting in your book and rewrite them to change the setting. Quote the text which you propose to change. How will the new setting change the plot or characters? Why?
1. Discuss your view about an issue in your book. For example: child abuse, meaningless violence, drug abuse, divorce, dealing with death, cruelty to animals etc. When you express your opinion, be sure to make specific reference to the text.
2. Identify a theme in your story and discuss how it relates to your own life. For example: how hard work and tenacity has affected your school work and has created in you a person who others respect and depend on.
3. Interview the author and discuss the theme. Try to reveal through your interview why your author wrote about this theme.
4. What advise or message is the author trying to get across to the reader? Who would you give this same advise to and why? In other words who should read this book and why?
5. Pretend you're the author and explain about your life and how this book fits into it and why this theme is important to you.
6. Often a theme message is embedded in many layers of a book. Explain how the author develops theme through the action, thoughts, statements and interactions of characters.
Plot
1. Rank the plot of your story from 1 to 10 and defend your opinion using details from the story. (1= very poor, 10= excellent) A substantial argument will present three reasons for your opinion with careful book reference.
2. Write about a time in your life when you experienced something similar to a situation in the story. Describe the parallel between your experience and the book events.
3. Explain why the ending of the book was predictable and or unpredictable. Search the book for clues and carefully reference them.
4.Write a different ending for the story. Explain why you would change the story's ending. Why in your opinion is your ending superior to the story's ending?
5. Write a newspaper article about an event in your story. The lead sentence should cover the 5 W's of an effective news story. Include your byline and imitate the style of an actual news story. See Write Source 2000 pp. 171 to 177
6. Describe the climax to your story. Explain how it is the turning point in the plot.
7. Write any kind of poem about your book. Select a style from Write Source 2000 pp. 230-234. Explain why that style is appropriate for your book and explain the terms and special references (with page numbers) you use in your poem so that the unfamiliar reader can appreciate the complexity of your work.
8. A good book always poses dilemmas, difficulties, challenges, and problems to the main character. What challenges did the main character face and how did he/she solve them?
Jump to Fall, Winter, or Spring Questions
Reading Response Questions Spring Term
For each book you read this term you will be doing one of the following response questions. A quality response will require at least a page of thoughtful well organized prose. I will particularly look for careful references that cover the breadth of the text.
1. How does the author use metaphors or similes to compare two unlike items and make language and images more vivid? Unlike similes, metaphors do not use words "like" or "as" to compare items. Consider the following examples:
*The old crate was the little boy's castle. (metaphor)
*The diary was a window to the past. (metaphor)
*The road stretched ahead like a silver ribbon. (simile)
*He was as old as the hills. (simile)
2. How does the author use onomatopoeia or alliteration to give the text variety and interest and to allow the reader to appreciate the sound and beauty of words?
*Onomatopoeia is a literary form in which words sound like their meaning: "snap" "hiss" "clash" "boom" "buzz"
*Alliteration is a literary term referring to words in which the initial consonant sound is repeated: "The willows were whispering in the wind."
3. Provide examples of the author's use of personification to give animals, ideas, or inanimate objects qualities such as emotions, intelligence, personality, or form.
*Personification extends our human experience to non-humans. How does the author's use of this technique help us better understand our human qualities all the more?
4. How does the author's voice, or the voice of the teller of the story come through as you read? Give examples and analyze how they:
*sound like this writer and no one else
*provide punch, flair, style, and flavor
*make you feel something strongly
5. Theme is a central message, concern or purpose in a literary work. A theme can usually be expressed as a general statement about human beings or about life. The theme of a work is not a summary of the plot. Most themes are not directly stated but are implied. When the theme is implied, the reader must figure out what the theme is by looking carefully at what the work reveals about people or about life. Write an essay in which you look carefully at the theme or central idea that the writer communicates.
6. Conflict is an important literary element because it creates action and interest. There are two kinds of conflict: external and internal. An external conflict is one in which a character struggles with an outside force such as other characters or even the elements of nature. An internal conflict is one that takes place within the mind of the character. The character struggles to make a decision, take an action or overcome a feeling. Discuss how the author uses the element of conflict and identify whether the conflict is internal or external.
7. The plot of a story usually begins with a problem, situation, or conflict. The conflict then increases during the development until it reaches a high point of interest or suspense. The turning point or climax of a story is the point in the plot when tension is the greatest and when one of the opposing forces, whether external or internal, wins the struggle. At what point in this story does the turning point, or climax, occur? Which force wins the struggle at the climax? What is the resolution of the conflict?
8. Foreshadowing in a literary work is the subtle use of clues that suggest events which are yet to occur. Writers use foreshadowing to build a reader's expectations and prepare the reader for what lies ahead. A careful reader will discover theses clues and the suspense adds enjoyment and anticipation to the reading. An example of foreshadowing appears in Tuck Everlasting:
"Mae Tuck didn't need a mirror, though she had one propped up on the washstand. She knew very well what she would see in it; her reflection had long since ceased to interest her. For Mae Tuck, and her husband, and Miles and Jesse, too, had all looked exactly the same for eighty-seven years."
In this example the author causes the reader to wonder why people might look the same for eighty-seven years. Indeed, this passage sets the stage for exploring the character's immortality. A closer look at the title, Tuck Everlasting, discloses possible foreshadowing even in the author's choice of title. Give specific examples of how the author uses foreshadowing to hint at what lies ahead....
9. Create your own response question. Submit a copy of your question to me before you begin writing so that I can approve or negotiate alternatives.
References:
Prentice Hall Literature, Copper Edition, Prenticec Hall, 1991.
Prepared by Michelle Abernathy-Tabor, Fairhaven Middle School, 1996.