Questions to Ask Your Child After Reading a Text

Comprehension Questions/Tasks for Fiction Books/Stories 

*Give me a brief summary of the story. (What was the story about?) [Your child should be able to tell about the characters, setting,

any problem or solution, including using transition words and language such as, "In the beginning, in the middle, and in the end."]

*Tell me the main idea or main lesson from this story.

*What was ___’s (character) purpose when he/she ___ (action) in the story. Use details from the story in your answer.

*Name two reasons why (name 2-3 characters from the story) agree or disagree about ____. What is your opinion about this issue?

*Using details from the story, name two character traits that describe ___ (name of character).

*Use details from the story to describe the relationship between ___ and ___ (characters from the story).

*Describe ___’s actions in the story. How does this person’s actions affect the story’s ending?

*Come up with another title for this story, and explain why it is a good title for the story.

*What does ___ (sentence) mean in this book? How do you know?

*How are ___ and ___ different? How are they the same?

*What is this book/story about? What do you think the author wanted you to learn from reading it?

*What’s the main idea from this book? Use details from the text to explain why this is the main idea.

*Explain how ___ works. How do you know?

*Name at least 2 characteristics of ___. Use details from the book in your answer.

*Name at least 2 text features used in this book. Explain how these text features supported your understanding of the text.

*Name three ways the text says ___ can happen.

*Explain the process of ___. Use details from the book to support your answer.

*What would happen if the steps in ___ (process) happened out of order?

*What does ___ (vocabulary word) mean? How do you know?

*What does ___ (phrase or sentence from the text) mean? How do you know?

*What caused ___ to happen?

*What effect did ___ have on ___?