Details Should Lead To A Big Idea

Here are two questions I’d ask students about a story

1. What are three important 🌼 details about the main character?
2. What is the story’s 🏛️ moral?

Now, details naturally lead to big ideas.

But in this case, I switched topics from “main character” to “big idea, ” which broke the natural movement.

If I ask about the important 🌼 details about the main character, then my next question should build on those details! So we could do something like:

1. What are three important 🌼 details about the main character?
2. Using those details, what 🏛️ one word big idea would describe the main character?

Then, of course, I can ask more questions about this same idea, pushing my students deeper with each step.

3. ⚖️ When does this character go against their big idea?
   or
4. What 👓 characters from other stories have a similar big idea?
   or
5. What 👓 character in this story has the most opposite big idea from our main character?

(Of course, I’d only choose one of those options.)

And I’d want to plan a 4th question that builds on my first three questions. In this way, we’re going deep in one direction rather than quickly jumping topic to topic. As was so often the case, I needed to form sequences of questions, not a bunch of one-offs.