How do you write a good blog post for others to respond to? Writing a good prompt can be very challenging! On the one hand, you want a prompt that will encourage students to write thoughtfully about their independent reading. On the other hand, you want a prompt that is fun and interesting to write about.

This week, YOU are going to write your very own Reading Response prompt!

This Week's Prompt:
Write a prompt that will encourage other students to write about their independent reading in a thoughtful way. Here are some things to think about as your create your prompt:

1. The prompt should be open-ended, not a "yes or no" type question.
2. The prompt should encourage students to explain their thinking in detail and back it up with evidence.
3. It must be clear and easily understood.
4. It should be applicable to a variety of books so that everyone in the class could respond no matter what they are reading.
5. It should be proofread carefully.

Respond to this prompt with a prompt of your own. I look forward to hearing your ideas for a good reading response!

This week, students are reflecting on their early blog posts and rewriting them to show their learned skills. Students came up with the following characteristics of a good blog response:

What Makes a Good Reading Response:

• Back up statements with evidence from the text.
• Proofread for spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar.
• Follow the prompt and the directions.
• Elaborate, but don't retell the story.
• Provide background information.
• Be clear and precise

Students, this week, you will read over your early blog posts and reflect on your response using the list above. Then, rewrite one of those early blogs to show that you know how to write a good response. You may use a book you read recently.

​Please do this on Google Docs and print it out by Friday to turn in.

Great descriptions really make a story come to life! Great descriptions use precise details, figurative language, and/or interesting vocabulary to enhance a reader's experience with the text. 

You can analyze descriptions in a number of ways. One way is to decide if the author means the description "literally" or "figuratively." 

Literal: the author means exactly what he or she writes. For example, "A few cold drops of rain fell on the children's noses and their cheeks and their mouths. The sun faded behind a stir of mist. A wind blew cold around them." This is a great, precise description of the start of a rain storm. The author means exactly what he says.

Figurative: the words are used in a way that is different from the usual meaning. Figurative language creates a picture in your mind. For example, "The children pressed to each other like so many roses, so many weeds, intermixed, peering out for a look at the hidden sun."  The author does not mean that the children are actually roses or weeds. This description makes you think of roses and weeds crowded together, then relate that to a crowd of children trying to see the sun.

This Week's Prompt:
Look through your independent reading for a great description of a setting, a character, or an action. 

• Quote the description accurately and provide background information about it.
• Explain the meaning of the description and tell if the author means the words literally or figuratively. 

I look forward to reading the great descriptions you choose! Bonus points if you find both a literal description and a figurative description!

This week we are going to learn about foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is when a writer gives little hints to what will happen later in the story. Usually the hints are very tiny (or subtle), so tiny that you may not even recognize them at first. Those hints often add suspense and mystery to the story.

If you can recognize foreshadowing, you can make better predictions about what will happen in the story. Try it! Read the paragraph below.

At sunset, a well-dressed stranger walked up to the gate of the Millberry Family’s small farm. Mr. Millberry, a poor, humble father of seven kids, just happened to be strolling down his dirt driveway to retrieve his mail. He politely greeted the stranger and asked how he could help him. The stranger put his hands in the pockets of the crisp suit jacket he was wearing and looked at Mr. Millberry. The stranger’s blue eyes seemed familiar to Mr. Millberry, but he didn’t recognize the man. After an awkward moment, the stranger slowly said, “I’m looking for someone,” but he didn’t say who. Then, with a small, fleeting smile, the stranger turned around and walked down the gravel road without another word to the puzzled Mr. Millberry.

This Week's Prompt:
Make a prediction about what you think will happen later in the story with Mr. Millberry based on the hints (foreshadowing) in the given paragraph. Explain why you made your prediction by pointing out words and phrases from the paragraph that you think hint at the future.

Authors like to make us think when we read. They don't always make the meaning of their words obvious. Instead of stating things explicitly, authors say things implicitly. While this can be confusing to some readers, finding the hidden meaning in the text can be exciting. It is also similar to what we experience in real life when interacting with other people. It's not always obvious what another person is thinking or feeling.

​As readers, we need to make inferences to find the hidden meaning in text.

This Week's Prompt:
Describe an important inference you had to make recently in your independent reading.
To do this, first provide a little introduction that gives us some background information on the story. Next, tell what the author wrote that you believe had hidden meaning (as best you can remember, or you can quote it). Finally, explain the hidden meaning of the text.

I look forward to hearing about your inferring skills!

This Week's Prompt:

Describe what happens in the poem in kid-friendly language. Support your thinking with specific evidence from the text.

Then, tell what your favorite part of the poem is and explain why.

I look forward to reading your thoughts on the poem. Remember, there are two parts to the prompt!

It's been a long time since we've all checked in on what we are reading for our independent books. I'm curious to hear about what you've been reading independently!

​

This Week's Prompt:

Summarize the story or text that you have been reading independently recently. Remember to use modifying clauses, which are separated by commas, to give your readers helpful information.

Then, evaluate the story or text so far (judge it). Tell about what you like and don't like.

We will be continuing our reading of informational texts. For the next month, I encourage you read an informational text for at least two sessions of independent reading.

This week, we will be diving into our Global Citizenship project, which I will explain more in class. For the blog, I would like you to look at this list of world issues and choose one to read more about:

• Health
• Education
• Food and Hunger
• Water and Sanitation
• Environment
• Poverty
• Equality
• Girls and Women 
• Social Justice

This Week's Prompt:

Find an informational text about a world issue you care about. You can search on the Destiny portal, browse NewsELA.com, check GlobalCitizen.org, browse the newspaper, or check some other source.

Summarize what you read about --what is the main idea? What is important to understand?
Then, explain why you think this issue is important for kids to know about.

I look forward to reading your responses!

Dear Students,

Has there ever been a character in your reading that you love to hate? You know, a character that gets you mad or frustrated, but in a way that makes the story more interesting to read? Often, characters that we "love to hate" are mean, selfish, and try to do harm to the main character. 

You may have heard these terms before: protagonist and antagonist.

• The protagonist is the main character that you cheer for throughout the story, aka "The Good Guy/Girl."
• The antagonist is the character who is an active "pain in the butt" to the main character, aka "The Bad Guy/Girl."

There is usually more than one protagonist and antagonist in a story. The antagonist often brings harm to the world of the story. In some stories, the antagonist can change his or her ways and learn a lesson. In other stories, the antagonist is pure evil and must be defeated.


This Week's Prompt:

Describe an antagonist in a story that you have read. What does this character do to cause trouble in the story? What are some of his or her character traits? 

Also, try to answer this: Why do you think the author chose to have this character act the way he or she does?

I'm looking forward to reading about the antagonists in your independent reading!

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. day, we are going to examine a few lines of Dr. King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, which he delivered on August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington. One of the most famous lines from his speech is:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

To understand Dr. King's message, we must look at the implicit meaning (deeper meaning) of his words. Although he spoke of his four children to make his message sound personal, his words really extended to all people. He hoped that Americans would not judge others based on their race, but instead on whom they are as a person. When he said, "content of their character," he meant what is on the inside: personality, work ethic, intelligence, skills and abilities, and more. He said, "one day" because he knew that in order to achieve his vision, many Americans in his time would need to change the way they thought about people of color.

I've copied some other lines from Dr. King's speech below. Read them.

1. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
2. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
3. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

This Week's Prompt:

Choose one of the sentences from MLK's speech listed above. Analyze (break apart, tell about the parts) what the sentence is about. You may need to look up some of the words. Explain (teach me, show me) the implicit meaning of Dr. King's words.

Also, tell why you think Dr. King chose those words and phrases to get his message across. I modeled how to do this above.


For those of you who would like to learn more about the amazing Dr. King:

• Some background on Dr. King's speech: Time For Kids --Honoring King's Dream.
• Read Dr. King's full speech at American Rhetoric.