Interrogating Texts
Adapted from Cheryl Hogue Smith
Please read the provided text. Then begin answering the questions. Take as much time as you
need for each question. Reread the text as necessary. The goal is not to finish, so if your group
gets hung up on one question for a long time, don’t worry. Just keep the discussion going.
First Sequence:
Step 1: Write. What do you think the writer is trying to say through this story? If you found
some of the text difficult, mark what you think were the most confusing parts and discuss these
with your group.
**Wait for your group members to finish writing their answers before the next step.
Step 2: Discuss. Share and then discuss all of your answers before moving on. Be sure to read
all your answers before you discuss them.
Step 3: Write After Discussion. Write down anything you just learned from your group that
you hadn’t thought of before you discussed it.
Second Sequence:
Step 4: Underline and Write. Reread the text, and underline the sentence that is most
important to the meaning of the entire story. Write: explain why you think this sentence is the
most important sentence in the piece. [This is a key activity, one of the most effective for
increasing efficacy in readers.]
**Wait for your group members to finish writing their answers before the next step.
Step 5: Discuss. Share and then discuss all of your answers—this time about the sentences
people found and wrote about--before moving on. Be sure to read all your answers before you
discuss them.
Step 6: Write After Discussion. Write down anything you just learned from your group that
you hadn’t thought of before you discussed it.
Third Sequence:
Step 7: Reread again and Write. Reread the text once again, and make note of anything
interesting or important that you may not have noticed before, including any new questions you
may have. Write: What did you discover during this reading that you didn’t notice before? How
do these new discoveries make you now view the text?
**Wait for your group members to finish writing their answers before the next step.
Step 8: Discuss. Share and then discuss all of your answers—this time about the sentences
people found and wrote about--before moving on. Be sure to read all your answers before you
discuss them.
Step 10: Write After Discussion. Write down anything you just learned from your group that
you hadn’t thought of before you discussed it.
Step 11: Questions and Write. What questions does this text now leave you with? What do
you wish you understood better? What do you still not understand in the text?
**Wait for your group members to finish writing their answers before the next step.
Step 12: Discuss. Share and then discuss all of your answers—this time about the sentences
people found and wrote about--before moving on. Be sure to read all your answers before you
discuss them.
Step 13: Write After Discussion. Write down anything you just learned from your group that
you hadn’t thought of before you discussed it.
Fourth Sequence:
Step 14: Investigating Writing. If you were to be asked to write about this text, what would
you write about? Why do you think you would write about this?
**Wait for your group members to finish writing their answers before the next step.
Step 15: Discuss. Share and then discuss all of your answers—this time about the sentences
people found and wrote about--before moving on. Be sure to read all your answers before you
discuss them.
Step 16: Write After Discussion. Write down anything you just learned from your group that
you hadn’t thought of before you discussed it.
It’s more difficult to convince teachers that writing is a learning process than it is to
convince them that talk is, because so often teachers use writing as a way of testing.
They use it to find out what students already know, rather than as a way of encouraging
them to find out. The process of making the material their own--the process of writing--is
demonstrably a process of learning.
-James Britton
Additional Resources
Blau, Sheridan. The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and Their Readers. Portsmouth,
NH: Boynton/Cook, 2003. Print.
Smith, Cheryl Hogue. “’Botched Performances’: Rising to the Challenge of Teaching Our
Underprepared Students.” What Is College-Level Writing? Volume 2. Ed. Patrick
Sullivan, Howard Tinberg, and Sheridan Blau. Urbana, Illinois: NCTE, 2010. Print.