It's summer! Time to revamp my lessons for the upcoming year! I love feeling refreshed with some time off because it gives me some clarity to get the creative ideas flowing. 

In August, I cannot wait to try this with my new group of students:

As soon as we begin our read-aloud (Day One), I want my students to be critically thinking about what we read. I hope to turn my 4th graders into curious thinkers who question everything. For instance, I want them to question the main character in the book. What are your motives? Why did you do (x, y, or z)? Why did you respond to the antagonist by saying that? How are you feeling about the conflict in the story? 

First, I want my students to generate 1 good question for the protagonist. They will write these on sticky notes. I'll have them come up one by one and put them onto my chart. I'll have the class gather on the carpet to share aloud some of their great questions.  

Next, students will pretend to be the protagonist as they respond. They will respond to the same question they each asked, using the POV of the character. I love that this encourages students to infer as they're reading by making educated guesses. 

Here is a sample question a student wrote to Karana in Island of the Blue Dolphins. Below, you can see Karana's response.