The ASK Program was developed by Dr. Raymond P. Kettel – University of Michigan-Dearborn

ASK, Authors Specialist and Knowledge, provides students with the opportunity to interview an author or a subject specialist in the topic they are reading about in a novel. The program uses excellent children's literature, journal writing and interviewing to promote reading for understanding. Here is how the process works:

Read the book. For elementary school age students it may be helpful to read the book to the class.

Keep a journal. When you have finished reading for the day, you and your students should individually write down your thoughts. It might be a scene that you can identify with, an idea that you care about, an event that upsets you, a passage that piques your curiosity, or a part that makes you cry, laugh and wants to keep reading. Don't summarize a segment, but tell how it makes you feel. Enter the world of voice journaling.

Write questions. When you have finished reading the book and make your final journal entries, it's time to start writing questions. Students should write the chapter and page number that corresponds to each question. By reviewing their journal entries, students should be able to write questions about those parts of the story that interested them. The purpose of this exercise is to better understand the story in terms of:

Show examples. As the teacher, you should also write some questions and show them to the students so they can see how it should be done.

Place the students in pairs and encourage them to select their best four questions. Each pair should select only four questions that will be presented to the class.

Conduct a round robin elimination process. When your students have selected their best 4 choices, ask each group to read their questions to the class. Eliminate duplicate questions.

Revise the questions. When the elimination process is completed, each student should have at least one unique question to ask in the interview. It is okay if the question has been reqritten to include aspects of duplicates that were eliminated.

Place the questions