Student Quotation Selection Prompts: List

The following lists are designed to help my students find key quotations in their reading assignments. I have one list for quotations that deal with content and one list for quotations that address style.

THEME: Find a quotation that reveals…

  1. …the deepest truth (God, biology, etc.) of the work’s world.
  2. …the most important character relationship in the work.
  3. …a key rule for how characters should, try to, or decide not to behave in the work.
  4. …the consequences for following or breaking the world’s rules.
  5. …how the characters have changed by the end of the work.

STYLE: Find a quotation that reveals…

  1. …the author’s view of language (e.g. can it convey truth or not?).
  2. …the way characters talk to each other.
  3. …the key rules of language the author follows or breaks in the work.
  4. …the consequences for following or breaking those language rules.
  5. …how the author uses figurative languages.