Questions to Ask While Reading with Your Child
As you know, we have a strong emphasis on the comprehension aspect of reading. We do not expect kids to understand the texts they read just on a surface level but also much deeper. I know that it is difficult to know whether or not your child is really deeply understanding the books he or she is reading at home, which is why I have put together a list of questions to help you draw out this deep understanding while reading at home. These are questions I use in class with students, so they will likely be familiar to your child.
Students can answer these questions out loud, but will also benefit from writing down their answers. You may even encourage students to use the attached graphic organizers to record their understanding.
Thank you very much to the parents who suggested this list of questions; I hope that many of you will find it very helpful. J
Questions for Nonfiction Text (informational books, biographies, articles)
Surface Level (uses strategies like retelling and summarizing)
Talk about what you learned in this book.
What did you find out about _____ (e.g., stars)?
Find a picture/caption/diagram on this page. What did it tell you?
What is a glossary/table of contents/index for and how does it help you?
Deeper Level (uses strategies like predicting, determining importance, inferring, questioning, making connections, and synthesizing)
What do you think this book might teach you?
What is a ______(e.g., telescope) and why is it important?
What was the most important idea in this book?
How did the headings or sections in this book help you as a reader?
How did the author help you to learn about ______(e.g., stars)?
How did the use descriptive words to help you understand about ______(e.g, stars)?
Questions for Fiction Text (stories)
Surface Level (uses strategies like retelling and summarizing)
Talk about what happened in this story.
Who were the characters in this story?
Where/when did this story take place?
What was the problem in this story? How was it solved?
Did any of the characters go through a change from beginning to end? How did the character change?
What are some character traits of the characters in this story?
What were some text-to-self, text-to-text, or text-to-world connections you had with the story?
Deeper Level (uses strategies like predicting, determining importance, inferring, questioning, making connections, and synthesizing)
What do you think might happen in this story?
Why do you think the character acted that way?
How do you think the character was feeling?
What is the theme in this story? Why do you think the author wrote it?
If students are not able to answer these questions from memory, encourage them to look back and the book to find the answers and then state them in their own words.