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IMPROVE YOUR CHILD'S COMPREHENSION WITH QUESTIONS:
Below is a list of questions to use when checking your child's understanding of stories they are reading for AR or any other text. The questions range in difficulty.
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FUNCTIONAL
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Initial Understanding
Ask a question that requires students to simply locate details or identify chronological order. The answers are right there in the poster, chart, flyer, or recipe.
- Who, what, when, where, how many, or how much?
- According to the ________, what will the children learn?
- What do you do first/last?
- What did he/she do first/last?
- Where did ____ go before/after _____?
- Which ______ was seen first/last?
- Step # ___ tells ______.
- The story tells you that _______.
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Interpretation
Ask a question that requires students to draw conclusions from the information given, apply ideas from text to a new situation, or determine the main idea.
- Who, what, when, where, how many, or how much?
- Why did _____ have_____?
- How did ______ do _____?
- What might be funny? (ha ha)
- Why do you think _______?
- Why should ___________?
- About how long will it take to_________?
- What makes ______ _______?
- To make _____ you will need _______.
- Which of these is true?
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Critical Analysis and Strategies
Ask a question that requires students to determine the author’s purpose/viewpoint, identify text characteristics, or if needed information is within the text.
- The _____ was written mainly to ________.
- Which of these is true?
- What does the author want you to know?
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INFORMATIONAL
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Initial Understanding
Ask a question that requires students to simply locate explicit details and chronological order that are right there in the expository text.
- Who, what, when, where, how many, or how much?
- What does the story say about _______?
- The story says that _______.
- Which of these happened first/last?
- Which of these happened only once?
- What happened _______?
- At the end of the story, ________?
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Interpretation
Ask a question that requires students to make inferences to draw conclusions, determine main idea, or cause/effect relationships.
- Which of these is the best name for this story?
- What is the main idea of the story?
- What is this story about?
- Which of these is true?
- Which of these is true in the story?
- Why does ____have ___?
- What causes _____ to happen?
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Critical Analysis and Strategies
Ask a question that requires students to determine the author’s purpose/viewpoint and unknown words in context.
- Which of these does the author probably believe?
- The author wrote this story mainly to_____?
- How can you tell that________________?
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LITERARY
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Initial Understanding
Ask a question that requires students to locate explicit details and chronological order that are right there in stories, personal narratives, or poems.
- Who, what, when, where, how many, or how much?
- What does the story say about _______.?
- The story says that _______.
- Which of these happened first/last?
- Which of these happened only once?
- What happened _______?
- At the end of the story, ________?
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Interpretation
Ask a question that requires students to make inferences in order to draw conclusions, determine main ideas, or cause/effect relationships.
- Which of these is the best name for this story?
- What is the main idea of the story?
- Why does ____have ___?
- _______ probably does ______because _____.
- This story is mostly about______.
- You can tell that ___ likes ____ because___.
- Who had probably___________?
- How do you know___________?
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Critical Analysis and Strategies
Ask a question that requires students to determine the author’s purpose/viewpoint, unknown words from context, or identify characteristics of genre.
- In this story, what does the word _______ mean?
- The author wrote this story mainly to_____?
- How can you tell________________?
- Which of these is true?
- The story was written to ________.
- The story is most like a ________.(joke, song, poem, fairy tale)
- You can tell this story make believe because ________.
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