Literature Question Stems in Middle School ELA

I’ve been creating literature question stems for almost a decade now.

If you’re anything like me then you have been working your way though a unit with your middle school students, only to realize they’re barely engaging with the text and they’re barely doing any thinking because they are Googling everything and anything they can.

You know that if you keep on that path with your students, they’re not going to show any growth when it’s all said and done.

I had this realization in my first year of teaching middle school ELA and promised myself to stop asking students questions they could Google.

USING QUESTIONS STEMS TO ELIMINATE GOOGLING

I literally watched some students pull out their phones to buy answer keys and that’s really when I swore to never ask questions that could be “bought.”

In reality, I knew it was a basic assignment designed to fill a gap of time.

My students could smell the blood in the water, and honestly, it taught me that kids are just smart.

They know when my assignment is just filling time and when it is wasting theirs.

Since then, I have never given an assignment or asked a discussion question that is Google-able.

Every novel study I create has one to two question stems every single day.

All my brand new genre focused literature reading units have daily question stems too.

Quick note in case you are like, “What the heck are questions stems?!” Question stems are also called higher order thinking questions, interpretive questions, or level four in the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) questions.

Every time I create a question it is designed to push students to think beyond the text that’s in front of them.

I often get requests for specific novel studies because teachers want the interpretive questions for some novel studies I haven’t created yet.

I don’t want other teachers to have to watch their students buy answer keys.

TEACHERS CAN CREATE ENTIRE LITERATURE UNITS

The FREE Literature Question Stems Guidebook was designed help teachers have the tools they need to create a literature unit and/or novel study by asking questions that require students to think beyond the text.

There are standards checklists and a novel and/or unit planner so you can map out a whole unit using these questions.

They can be used for whole class novels, book clubs, or even for reading responses!

I know how important it is for you to have your students engaged with the texts they’re reading. I also know how much middle school ELA teachers want to see their middle school students thinking critically and writing analytically (not to mention seeing them show growth!).

This free guidebook will get your students engaged with any literature text. And you’ll see students thinking, reading, and writing about literature in a way that is the stuff English teacher dreams are made of.

>> CLICK HERE << to download the Literature Question Stems Guidebook.