Learning to ask and answer questions can help struggling students and those with disabilities integrate information from what they are reading with the knowledge gained from previous lessons or texts. These connections will help them to draw text-based interpretations or inferences about what the author implied.

Asking and answering questions about text, your students can interpret the meaning of text better. This recommendation includes practices for teaching students how to answer different types of questions and how to develop and answer their own questions about text.

You can explicitly teach students how to find and justify answers to 3 different types of questions that will increase their understanding of what they read while also helping you perfect your questioning ability before, during, and after instruction.

Three Types of Questions

Right There Question

The information needed to answer the question is considered “right there” because often the words in the question and the words used to answer the question are in the same sentence. This type of question can also be referred to as a text-dependent question.

Question stems when asking questions about a text:

Who is (are)_____?

What happens (happened) when _______?

What is (was)_______?

Why did (does) _____?

How do (does)______?

How do _____ and ____ compare?

What can you say about ______?

What would happen if _______?

Think and Search Question

The information needed to answer the question is in different parts of the text so the student needs to “think and search” to figure out the answer. This type of question can also be referred to as a text-dependent question.

Teaching students to self-question during reading:

Step 1: Ask: What was that section about? What is happening in this section?

Step 2: If they are not sure what the section is about, instruct them to ask: “Are there any words I cannot read or do not understand?” “Are there any phrases or sentences that do not make sense?” “Should I reread that section more carefully?”

Step 3: If a word or phrase doesn’t make sense to the student, instruct them to ask themselves: “How am I going to figure out what that word or phrase means?”

Step 4: If the student is not sure what the section is about but it reminds them of something, they should ask themselves: “What else do I know about this topic?”

Step 5: If the student thinks they know what the section is about, instruct them to ask themselves: “What are the main points so far?” “Do I need to reread and mark the main points so that I can remember them?”

Author and Me Question

To answer the question, the student must connect information in the text with information they learned or read previously. This type of question can be referred to as an inferential question.

Prompt card for answering Author and Me questions

Step 1: The student reads the text.

Step 2: Have students make connections between the text and something they have learned or read about or experienced.

Step 3: Have students Decide what they think the author meant.

Step 4: Teach students to justify their answer by identifying information in the text that supports what they are thinking.

The goal of teaching your students to ask and answer these types of questions is for them to draw inferences and engage in meaningful discussions about what they read. Consistently providing students with opportunities to ask and answer questions is an evidence based practice that improves their understanding of complex text in content area subjects such as science and social studies, not just literature courses. For more learning strategies, best practices, and intensive interventions join our online professional learning community, The Guru Collective by clicking here.