Even the best book needs a good introduction. Students need a clear set up to comprehend all the facets of a great story. Here are four essentials that guarantee effective instruction for your literature.

1. Pre-read the story. Get a step ahead of the questions that will come your way. What words will need to be explained? What plot points might need some set up?

2. Connect the story to students' lives. Studies have shown that students get more out of a story if they can see themselves in it. LitART uses a motivating question to begin. For example, "Think about a time you helped someone who was in trouble." A Bridge to Text follows. "In this story Anansi's sons help him when he gets in trouble." 

3. Motivate students with a question or quick starter before reading. In LitART we have Set Purpose. It works as a listening task for the class. For example, "while I read see if you can remember all the characters in the story."

4. Activate students' prior knowledge and experiences through questions. LitART encourages students to explore the story's themes by asking three levels of questions: literal, inferential, and evaluative. 

a. Literal question involve anything that's "on the surface" of the text. Character and place names and actions within the story are examples of literal question. 

b. Inferential questions involve things that are "underneath" the text. Predictions (what will happen next?) are a good example of inferential questions, as are the feelings and motivations of the tale's characters. 

c. Finally we have evaluative questions. These are "outside" the text, and require students to draw from their own lives to answer. "What is the moral of this story?" is a classic example of an evaluative question. Often it involves the students' opinions, and can have more then one answer.