• What is the title and what does it suggest? Can I make any predictions based on the title?
• Who is the author and what do I already know about their writing? What can I expect from this author?
• What does the book jacket suggest about the story? What predictions can I make about the story based on the illustrations or the teaser on the cover?
• Who are the characters and what are they like? What can I expect from them in the future?
• What time period does this take place? What do I already know about this era that can inform my understanding?
• What is the setting and how is this going to impact the piece?
• What is the organization of this piece and what does this tell me about the text?
• What genre is this text and how does that impact what I can expect to encounter in the piece?
• How is this story similar to something I have already experienced?
• What do I think may happen next? What do I think the piece may be about?

• What isn't being told? What would I like to still know?
• Who are these characters and are they like anyone I know?
• How do those people feel about their circumstances?
• How do I feel about…?
• What have I experienced in my own life that is similar to this? Different from this?
• What if the character…?
• What if it happened this way?
• What other texts have I read that inform this and in what ways?
• How have the characters changed over time or across the story?
• What motivated the characters' behaviors or what led them to their actions?
• How would you describe the relationships of the characters in the text?
• How would someone from a different culture or background interpret the story?
• Do I like these characters? Does what they are doing make sense? Would I have done the same thing in this situation?
• How is the plot developing?
• What are the characters like? Are they acting as I expected?
• How do the characters feel about and relate to each other? How will this affect the story?
• How do I think the piece might end?

• How might I react if I were in a similar situation as the character in the text? Was I ever in a similar situation? Do I know anyone who was?
• What can I learn from the situation in this text?
• Why did I feel a certain way or act a certain way when I found myself in a situation similar to the one in the text?
• What were my choices? Did I make the best ones?
• How else could I have handled it? What should I do now?
• What did I gain from that decision? Was it the right one?
• How could I act if I wanted to become a more ______ person?

• Are there any other texts that I have read that can inform my understanding of this piece?
• Why did the author choose that particular phrase, style, or organizational feature?
• How does the title relate to the construct of the story?
• How does the language and voice affect my understanding of the text?
• How does the author's voice contrast with my own perspective?
• Why did some of the word choices affect me so deeply?
• How can my understanding of literary elements (plot, setting, theme, characterization, and so forth) inform my envisionment?
• How would the piece differ if written, taken place, or read in another era or culture? How would I see things differently if I were from another culture, another era, or another's perspective?
• How do other interpretations of the text contrast with my own? What are some other ways I can react to the text? Consider other perspectives, such as critical, feminist, or political.

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