Reader Response Questions with my Students

Today, in class, my students and I reviewed a story we finished by using Myers's 20 Reader-Response Questions. However, I only used about 7 of them.

We had some vocabulary work and some other work to finish up before we reached the review questions. I didn't print them up or anything; I just simply read the questions aloud, out of the text book and had my students answer them on a sheet of paper. I first told them not to worry if they were going to pass or fail this little questionnaire because it was all based on their opinions. They liked that and didn't groan at all! They, actually, were really excited about it! But, I should know better by now, 8th grade students love to talk about themselves and what they think!

The 7 questions I used were:

1. What character was your favorite and why?
2. What character did you dislike? Why?
3. Does anyone in the work remind you of anyone you know? Explain.
4. If you could be any character in this work, who would you be? Explain.
5. Do you like this piece of work? Why or why not?
6. Would you change the ending of the story in any way? If so, tell your ending. Why would you change it?
7. How did this work make you feel?

I first had all of my students write down their responses and then in the last 8 minutes or so of class we discussed each one aloud. Every student couldn't wait to participate, and I had to narrow it down to 3-4 people to answer every question, making sure everyone had the opportunity to answer at least once. It really was a great foundation for great discussion. In fact, one of the funniest moments that stands out in my mind this afternoon is when one student answered that her favorite character was Lilly and then the next student (completely unintentional) answered that he totally disliked the character. It was so perfect! The students had a great lesson (on top of everything else that was discussed) about how everyone has his or her own opinion and it is perfectly fine!

Reflecting over the quick usage of the questions listed in our text book, I think I really need to use these types of questions more in my discussions. There are so many other great questions that were listed, but I just didn't have time to fit them all in today.

I also plan to use some of them on their up coming test over the story this week. A few of them will be really perfect!