Following up a great story reading with an effective literacy response is the next big step to developing your students' literacy skills.  Literacy responses come in all shapes and sizes, but the best and most effective contain these key ingredients:

1.  Link back to the story.  Occasionally Classroom Leaders break from the story to do a writing activity that's unrelated to what's just been read; this diminishes the possible results of the text.  Remember, the story is the core of your literacy hour: all lessons should spring from it.

2.  Require the students to return to the text.  The most direct way to link the literacy response back to the story is to ask questions that only the story can answer.  The more it references the book the greater the students will benefit.    

3.  Deepen comprehension.  By returning to the story students expand their understanding of the narrative, thereby strengthening their literal, inferential, and evaluative comprehension skills.

4.  Extend a particular text feature or teach about a literary device. Understanding the structure of storytelling, from repeating refrains to sound effects, aids students in their comprehension skills.