English Prompts

English Fiction Skills

How do you know it's fiction?

Who is the author?

What is the author's style?

What is the author trying to tell you in this story?

Tell me some words that the author uses to describe the setting.

Share a place in the story where the author describes something well.

Why do you think the author wrote this story?

Why do you think the author chose this title?

What do you like about how the author has written this story?

Setting

Where does this story take place?

Does this story take place in multiple locations? If so, where else?

What time period does this story take place?

How much time passes in the story?

How can you tell when and where this story takes place? Give some details.

Characters

Who are the main characters in the story?

Can you describe their characteristics using color, size, shape, personality traits?

What are they like?

What do they want?

Tell how a character changes throughout the story.

How does a character from this book remind you of someone in your life?

Who is the most interesting character and why?

What did you learn from <character> in the story?

Were the characters believable? Why or why not?

Which character are you most like and why?

Problem

What got in the way of the characters getting what they wanted?

How did the problem get worse?

Solution

What were some of the choices that the main character had to make?

If you were the main character, what would you have done and why?

How did the main character solve his/her/their problem?

How did the characters solve their problem?

Plot

How were you reminded of something in your own life when you read this story?

What did you wonder about when you read this story?

Tell about the problem in the story.

Tell about some of the important events in the story.

What would happen if ____?

What is this story trying to teach you?

Summarize a single subject or theme of the story.

Lesson

Has to do with living a good life or being a good person

What can we learn from this book?

What advice would the characters give?

General

Can you show me a place where your thinking changed?

Do you have any unanswered questions about the story?

What do you think is most important about what you just read?

Mood

How did you feel while reading this book? Why?

What was the most exciting/strange/funny/sad/confusing/etc… part of the story? Why?

What do you remember most about the story?