How can I use the discussion questions in my lesson?

CommonLit's discussion questions encourage students to apply ideas within a text to their own lives and other texts or concepts they’ve studied.

After students have read and analyzed a particular text, help them prepare for discussion by projecting or printing your selected discussion questions. Then, give students 5-10 minutes to answer the questions in writing. Encourage them to generate evidence for each point that they make.

In order to make sure that your discussion runs smoothly, it’s important to teach and review your discussion structures and procedures with students:

• How do you want students to sit?
• How do you expect students to enter into the discussion?
• What does high quality discussion look and sound like?

In addition to whole class discussion, CommonLit's discussion questions can be used in teacher-facilitated or independent small group discussions. Depending on the text, certain questions could be used as a hook for lesson, as a pre-reading activity, or as an extension activity. They could also be used as written response questions for early finishers.

Feel free to download the discussion graphic organizer and our list of sentence starters, linked below, to use in your classroom discussions.