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One such school leader told us they had taken a conscious decision with one group of young people to focus on five key subjects and some life skills, knowing that the accountability system would score them down for it, as it expected eight qualifications from all students at that time.

Try questions like: How’s it going? (Thanks, Carl Anderson) Why did you choose this book? Do you know anyone else who has read this book? What’d she think? How’d you find the time to read this week? What’s standing in the way of your reading time?

Try questions like: What character reminds you of yourself or someone you know? What part of the story is the most similar/different to your life? Why do you think the author makes that happen in the book? What does he want us to learn about life? How does this story/character/conflict/event make you think about life differently?

Try questions like: Tell me about _____ that we learned in class today. How does that relate to your book/character? Remember when we learned _____, tell me how/where you see that in your book. Think about when we practiced ___, where does the author do that in your book? You’ve improved with ___, how could you use that skill for _______?

Try questions like: On a scale of 1 to 10 how complex is this book for you? Why? What do you do when the reading gets difficult? Of all the books you’ve read this year, which was the most challenging? Why? How’s it going finding vocabulary for your personal dictionary? Tell me how you are keeping track of the parallel storyline?

Try questions like: How has your confidence grown as you’ve read this year? What do you think is the one thing we’ve done in class that’s helped you improve so much as a reader? How will the habits you’ve created in class help you in the reading you’ll have to do in college? Why do you think you’ve grown so much as a reader the past few weeks? What’s different for you now in the way you learn than how you learned before? Describe for me the characteristics you have that make you a reader.

This student, as a sophomore in high school, earned a “C” in a “college” English course, which exempts her from our basic English 111 College Writing class. Even though her ACT score indicates her writing skills are deficient, we are limited in what we can do. Like many students who have already passed a “college” class, she thinks she already has the necessary writing skills to be successful in college. We know she very likely does not. Our willingness to increase student access by accepting transfer credit means that, without taking this student’s credits away, we cannot help her with her writing. Instead, by virtue of an average performance as a high school sophomore, this student will be placed into college classes for which she is unprepared.