Talk to your child(ren) about what they’re reading. It will help:
- Foster engagement and bonding with your child (especially as they grow older).
- Discuss and explain difficult topics that might be affecting your child or be evident in the world around them.
- Understand what your child is reading and what they’re taking away from those books.
The following are prompts for you to begin these discussions, broken down by age/grade.
Early Childhood
- As you’re reading with your child, point out specific letters on the pages. This will help your child make the connection between letters and words and then words and books.
- Ask your child questions about the story. Ask them to try and complete a sentence or if they remember what happens in a story they’ve read before. Ask what, where, when, why, and how questions related to the story. After your child answers, reaffirm their answer and expand on it. Reading in this way is called dialogic reading and can help with reading engagement and comprehension.
- Use illustrations to get your child more engaged with the story. Ask questions like, “How many flowers are in this picture? Let’s count them!” or “What animals do you see on this page? You see a horse! What sound does a horse make?”
Elementary
- Is this book like any others you’ve read before? How is it similar?
- What did you like about the book? Dislike?
- How are the characters similar to people you know? How are they different?
- Where does the story take place? Is it similar or different to where we live?
- Did this teach you anything new?
- Did the characters in this story face any challenges?
- What choices did the characters make? What choice would you make if you were in their position
- Did the story remind you of anything you learned during school?
- How does the book end? If you were writing the story, would you choose the same ending or would you make it different?
- If you could be a character in this book, who would you want to be and why?
- What makes this book exciting?
Tweens & Teens
- Is this book like any others you’ve read before? How is it similar?
- What did you like about the book? Dislike?
- How are the characters similar to people you know? How are they different?
- Where does the story take place? Is it similar or different to where we live?
- Did this teach you anything new?
- Did the characters in this story face any challenges?
- What choices did the characters make? What choice would you make if you were in their position?
- Did the story remind you of anything you learned during school?
- How does the book end? If you were writing the story, would you choose the same ending or would you make it different?
- If you could be a character in this book, who would you want to be and why?
- What are the themes of this book? Themes are overarching ideas like power, jealousy, or freedom.
- What makes this book exciting?
- Does the book remind you of any current events?
- Did anything that happened in the book surprise you?
- Why do you think the author wrote the book? / What do you think inspired the author to write the book?