Aha Moments Last week we talked about Aha moments. When you’re reading, authors often give you clues that the character has come to an important understanding by having the character say something like (CLICK AND READ). . . These are our Aha moments There are a lot of ways an author can say this, but the main idea is that the character ha reached an understanding of something they didn’t before. So when we see the clues, such as these phrases, just like with contrasts and contradiction, we need to pay attention to the signs and stop and ask ourselves a question. And that questions is. . .How might this change things? Thinking about this question when we see an aha moment occur in a story occur will help us see why that aha moment is so important.

Contrast & Contradiction Signposts Contrast & Contradiction A-Ha Moments We’ve been talking about signpost. Remember, signposts are those things that let us know that something is going on, whether is be that a store is opening, we can recycle here, something is under construction and so forth. When reading we’ve already talked about two signposts. The first one was (CLICK). . .Contrast and contradictions. When we are reading and a character does something that we wouldn’t expect, what should we ask ourselves? (CLICK) Why is the character acting that way. Last time we talked about Aha moments (CLICK). An aha moment is when a sudden realization occurs. When this happens, what should we ask ourselves? (CLICK) I wonder how this will change things. Nice. Now, have you been doing these two strategies with your independent reading books? What have you been finding? Today we are going to talk about a new signpost (CLICK).

Do I really have to do my homework? What’s for dinner? Where are my shoes? Do I really have to do my homework? Tough Questions Tough questions. We all ask questions such as “What’s for dinner?” or “Where are my shoes” or “Do I really have to do my homework?” Now, these are all questions that we want answers to, but they are not what we would call tough questions.

Tough Questions Tough Questions are those questions that we sometimes ask ourselves, or somebody else, that see, at least for a while, not to have an answer. We might ask (CLICK) “ How will I ever get over this?” after the loss of a loved one. There is no immediate answer and it is often something that takes time to answer. Another example would be after a break up (CLICK). Sometimes we ask, “Why?” Sometimes life throws us a difficult decision that we don’t know what (CLICK) to do about and we ask ourselves, “What should I do?” Tough questions are apart of our everyday life. What are some tough questions that you’ve had to try and answer that you can share?

Tough Questions When you share a tough questions with a friend – or even just think it to yourself – You’re really sharing something that bothers you. In a novel, when a character is struggling with something internally, what do we call it? Internal conflict. If you can spot in a novel the tough questions a character is asking himself or to a friend, then you’ll have found the internal conflict. Who can remind me what conflict is? Right, conflict is the struggle between two opposing forces in a story. This struggle can be external or internal. Give me some examples of both.