Instructional Questions to Support Reading Comprehension
Finding the Main Idea
What is the main idea of the story?
What is this story mainly about?
What would be another good title for this story?
What would be a good summary for this story?
What does the author probably want you to learn from the story?
Establishing Setting
Where does this story take place? What details support your answer?
Where and when do the events take place?
Where does most of the action in the story take place?
Recalling Facts and Details
Which of these are details/facts from the story?
Which of these is not a fact?
According to the story.....Who? What? When? Where? How?
Which sentence is a fact mentioned in the story?
Distinguishing Between Fact and Non-fact
Which of these is not a fact from the story?
Which of these did not happen in the story?
Which of these are facts from the story?
Which of these sentences tells an opinion?
Recognizing Cause and Effect
What happened when ______?
According to the story, ____ did not ______ because......
What caused _______?
Why did __________?
Understanding Sequence
What event happened at the beginning of the story?
What event happened at the middle of the story?
What event happened at the end of the story?
Which of these happened first?
What happened after _____?
Which of these did not happen in the story?
Which of these sentences would you most likely find a t the beginning of the story?
Which of these sentences would most likely be at the end of the story?
Which sentence would most likely come next?
Summarizing
What would be a good summary for this story?
Which of these best descries the meaning of the story?
Which of these would be the best summary of the story?
Finding Word Meaning in Context
In the story, the word ____means.....
The word ____as used in the phrase _____means.....
The best meaning for the word _____as used in the story is.....
From the story, you can tell _____describes...
Drawing Conclusions/Making Inferences
What would probably _____?
What might have ______?
You can probably determine from _____that...
Which of these probably not _________?
What will _____ probably do?
What is the problem (conflict) in the story?
Why might it be surprising that _______?
Why did the main character say, "______?"
From the passage, you can tell that...
Making Predictions
What will ____ probably do next?
What do you think will probably happen next?
What would have happened if?
Understanding Character Traits (Feelings and Emotions)
Which pair of words best describes _____?
How does _____feel about ______?
How did ______ feel when ______?
How did ______ feel at the beginning of the story?
Which of these best describes ______?
What words would you use to describe ______?
According to the story, how did _____ feel when _____?
You can tell that _____ is...
Analyzing Literary Forms
What makes this story a fable? Folktale?
Which of these sentences probably comes from a fiction book?
Which of these sentences probably comes from a non-fiction book?
Which of these would best fit in the fable?
Which of these would most likely be the title of a fiction book?
Interpreting Figurative Language
In the story, the phrase _____means...
The phrase _____describes...
What words in the passage mean ______?
Vocabulary
In the story, the word ____means......
The best meaning for the word ______is.........
Which word in the story is most closely related to ________?
Analogies
The suffix -ful means...
The prefix re- means...
