Reading

Thinking deeply and conversing about what we read plays an important part in building reading comprehension skills. The following questions can be used to guide discussions about books your child is reading. 

Question Stems - Fiction

Key Ideas & Details

• Why did the author write this? What evidence supports your idea?

• Why did (event) happen? How do you know?

• What does (character) think about (event)? How do you know?

• Explain why (character or object) is important to the story.

• What is the lesson you should learn from this story?

• How does (character) change throughout the story?

• What are (character)'s traits? How does his/her personality affect what happens in the story?

• Why is the setting important to the story? Why does the author use this setting?

Craft & Structure

• What does this word mean? How do you know? What is another word to use instead?

• Why did the author choose to use this figurative language?

• How are the parts of the story connected? How does this section/chapter help the reader understand the setting? 

• What point of view is this written from? How do you know?

Compare and Contrast Texts

• How were the theme/setting/plot of the different stories the same? How were they different?

• How did the characters solve problems in the same way? How were the solutions different?

Question Stems - Nonfiction

Main Idea

• What is the main idea of the entire passage? What details tell more about that idea?

• What is the main idea of just this paragraph? What details support the main idea?

• Summarize the information in a few sentences.

Craft and Structure

• What does the word “_____” mean? How do you know?

• What is a synonym for the word _______? How do you know?

• What is the text structure? (sequence, compare and contrast, cause and effect, problem and solution, description) Why did the author use this structure? What other way could they have organized the information?

• Why did the author write this? What does the author want you to learn/think/do?

• How does the (text feature) help you understand the article?

• Why did the author include this (text feature)?

Progress Learning

• Video Lessons and STAAR-based practice questions

• Access through the Frisco ISD Student Portal -> Clever -> Progress Learning -> My Study Plan