How should teachers address writing about reading prompts?

• A. Avoid referencing the text in writing.
• B. Use 'response-to-text' activities and writing prompts that require students to analyze evidence from a text and craft coherent explanations.
• C. Focus on personal opinions with no textual evidence.
• D. Use prompts that require only summarizing the plot.

Answer: (B)

Writing about reading prompts should push students to make claims about a text and back them up with evidence from what they read, explaining how that evidence supports their interpretation and the reasoning they used. This approach—often called response-to-text work—engages students in close reading, evaluating specific passages, and articulating in writing how an author’s choices shape meaning. It helps students practice organizing ideas clearly, citing textual evidence, and connecting insights across the text to their own understanding.

This is the best approach because it keeps writing grounded in the reading process. Students learn to reference exact words or moments from the text, justify their conclusions, and show how their thinking evolved from the evidence. Those are the practices that build both comprehension and writing proficiency and align with expectations for evidence-based analysis.

Prompts that ignore the text, focus only on personal opinions without textual backing, or ask for mere plot summaries don’t develop the same depth. Personal opinions without evidence lack justification, and plot summaries don’t require students to analyze or defend interpretations, so they miss essential opportunities to demonstrate how reading informs writing.