Our work in Readers' Workshop is shifting to focus on character study. We are inviting our readers to dive head first into the worlds of the books they are reading - and to do so wearing the shoes of the characters who inhabit those worlds. By doing this work, readers will develop their skills at predicting, envisioning, and reading with fluency. We will work to notice characters' personality quirks and habits, inferring to develop ideas about characters' traits, motivations, troubles, changes, and lessons.
Great questions to ask you 4th grader about their reading at home are:
- What kind of person is your character? How do you know?
- Do you like him/her? Why?
- Why did the character do that? Where could you see parts that led up to this?
- Why is the character feeling that way? Are there clues?
- Do you think he/she did the right thing? How does it compare to what another character might do?
- What do you think will happen next, based on what you know about the character so far?
