This week, we are practicing metacognitive critical thinking and reading comprehension skills as we dive deeper into the meanings and intentions of the novels we’ve read. It’s at this point that one of my favorite questions – why? – guides us toward deep conversations of why the author wrote the text this way, why this scene is like that, why this object is there, why we interpreted it this way, why literature is studied, etc.. We discussed and questioned the elements of character, conflict, symbol, motif, and theme as students begin researching/analyzing a few of these for an individual summative project.

To engage with your student, you could ask them: 

• the protagonist/antagonist of the novel,
• the conflict in the novel,
• the difference between a symbol and motif,
• an example of a symbol or motif from the novel, and
• how these elements communicate the theme of the novel.