Which post-reading activity would best enhance students' literary analysis skills?

Discussing character responses to events in the story is an effective post-reading activity that significantly enhances students' literary analysis skills. This activity requires students to delve into the motivations and emotions of the characters, enabling them to make connections between actions and underlying themes or messages within the text.

By engaging with characters in this way, students can explore complex character development, analyze how events impact the motivations of characters, and consider different perspectives. This kind of discussion encourages critical thinking and deeper understanding of narrative structure, as well as thematic development. It allows students to articulate their thoughts and justify their interpretations, which are essential skills in literary analysis.

While identifying key vocabulary words, rereading for comprehension, and free-writing all have their own value, they do not engage students as deeply in the analysis of character motivations and thematic exploration as discussing character responses does. Hence, the focus on character analysis stands out as the most beneficial for enhancing literary analysis skills.