Talking about the text Understand, describe, select and retrieve information, events or ideas from text

What is the title of the book that you are reading?

What is the main action of the story?

Why do you think the author chose this title?

What might the book be about? Can you describe the setting of this story? What do the illustrations /pictures tell us about the story?

Which word is used to describe …? Which words or phrases are important?

Can you think of an adjective that describes…?

How has the author created suspense?

What are the names of the main characters in the book?

 What sort of person is…? Can you describe the character…..? Can you explain…………..’s actions? What do……..’s actions show us?

Can you explain what happened in the story so far? Can you put these events in order?

When did …… happen?

What information are we told about in this paragraph?

Can you identify what is fact and what is opinion? What do you think will happen next?

What does this word mean…? Are there any other words that you found tricky?

Can you think of another word for…?

Giving Your Opinions about the Text

Why you liked it – or didn’t!

This was a good story because…. I didn’t enjoy the story because…..

The part I liked the best was … because …

When … happened I felt … because …

A different ending to this story could be …

This book made me think about …

I think that this picture/diagram/table or graph was used because …

The text/story made me think about … because …

I think that ... (character) said … because …

I think that … (character) reacted in that way because …

This story/text made me think about … This story/text made me feel …

Would you recommend this book to someone else? Who? Why?

Author’s Viewpoint

Identify and comment on writers’ purposes and viewpoints and the overall effect of the text on the reader

Why did the author choose to begin with a question?

What do the following words tell you about…?

Why do you think this is a good way to describe…?

Which word tells you that…?

Which words or phrases create suspense?

Why do you think the author chose to write the sentence in this way?                              

Who is your favourite character and why?

Why do you think the author chose to use short sentences in this part of the story?

Did you enjoy the start and/ or end of the book? Why?                                                                

What do you think is the most exciting part of the story? Why?

What can we learn from this story? Is there a message? Why?                                          

Social and cultural connections  

Using background knowledge to connect to the text

Have you felt like … does in the story?

Have you ever done anything like this?

How does the text compare to other books that you have read by the same author?

Have you read any books like this before?

What type of text is this? How do we know?

I would like to find out more about …

Other places I might find out about this are…..

Structure and organisation of the text

Know things in a writers toolkit and be able to say what they do

What kind of text is this?                                                                                          

What is the information at the back of the book called?

Where will you find an index? A contents page?

Why does this text have a glossary? How does a glossary work?

What information does this diagram/ picture tell us?

Why did the author use eg. bold print? What effect does this have?

Why did the text begin with a question?

What do these words tell you…?

Why do you think this is a good way to describe…? Why?

Which word tells you that…?

Which words or phrases create suspense?

Why do you think the author chose to write the sentence in this way?