Re-wording our Reading Focuses for Students:

Fiction

Readers think and talk about what they read

Readers talk back to the text

Readers pay attention to the relationships in the text

Readers think and talk about how characters are thinking

Readers ask, “Did the character do anything surprising?”

Readers put themselves in the character’s place to better understand the character

If I were this character I …

If/when this happened to me …

Readers think about what they’re learning when they read

Readers think about the author’s message and/or the big idea

Readers pay attention to how time passes in a text

Readers work hard to feel, hear, and see the story

Non-fiction critical thinking involves:

Recognizing fact vs. opinion

Recognizing strong evidence vs. irrelevant data

Recognizing one-sided arguments

Recognizing connotative language and generalizations

Recognizing author’s point of view

Distinguishing between relevant and nonrelevant information

Questions an author’s reason for offering a particular interpretation

Non-fiction readers think and talk about:

The main ideas or points of view in an argument

How the text features worked to create a specific response in the reader

Their questions while reading, and they use their experience and knowledge as readers to find answers within the text

The main arguments in expository text

The author’s bias, and to what extent this bias effects the integrity of the text

The accuracy and clarity of the information (Is this true?) (Are parts of it true?)

The difference between what is interesting and what is important

How this information adds to or compares to what we already know about the subject

The strength of the evidence used to support a point of view

The conclusion they draw or the opinions they form using evidence from the text to support their decision