Reading Comprehension - Nonfiction

Here are some questions you can ask your child about their reading; choose a few each night to engage in conversation with your child about their nightly independent reading.

Before reading:

• Looking at the title, cover and illustrations/pictures, what do you think you will be about?

• What makes you think that?

• What do you already know about this topic?

• What do you think you will learn?

• Do you think it will be like any other book you’ve read? If so, which one, and how do you think it will be similar?

During reading:

• Stop frequently to ask:

    *   What words are new words to you?  What do you think the word means?

               *  What  have you learned so far?

               *  What are you wondering?                      

• Point out and explore text features such as: charts, diagrams, photographs, maps, etc.

    *  How do you learn from this (text feature)? 

    *  How does it helpful?

After reading:

• What did you learn from reading the text?

• What was the main idea?

• What did you read that surprised you?

• What did you think was the most interesting thing you learned?

• Did reading the text change what you knew, what you thought, or how you felt about the topic?

• What are some new words you learned?

·   Did this book remind you of anything?

·   Does this remind you of any other books you have read?  How is the same?  How is it different?

• What did the author do that helped you to understand it better or made it more interesting?

·   Why do you think the author wrote this book?

• What questions do you still have after reading the text?

• Where could you find more information about the topic?

• Did you like this book?  Why or why not?