Comprehension Bookmark

Queries - Narrative Text

Plot-oriented questions

What is the main problem so far?

Has the problem changed? How?

Who is the main character? (gets most "page time" and faces main problem)

How will this (insert event) affect the problem or the main character?

Did the main problem get solved? How?

Were there any smaller problems in the story? What where they?

What "message" is the author trying to tell us about life?

Generic questions, prompts, and probes for narrative text:

What just happened?

What's happened so far?

Tell me more about that.

Why do you think that?

What does the author want us to think here?

What might happen now?

(Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G. (2001) "Inviting students into the pursuit of meaning", Educational Psychology Review.)

Produced by the Unversity of Utah Reading Clinic

Queries - Expository Text

Text Structure-oriented questions

Description: What does the author want us to know about _____? What is the main idea the author wants us to learn about _____?

Compare/Contrast: How does the author show us that _____ and _____ are alike? How does the author show us that _____ and _____ are different?

Cause/Effect: What happened to/with _____? What caused _____ to happen? What result of effect did _____ have?

Generic questions, prompts, and probes for expository text:

What is the author telling us here?

What is the author talking about?

What new information is the author giving us here? How does that fit in with what we already know about _____?

What is the main idea for this (paragraph, page, selection) that the author wants us to learn?

What are 3 supporting details (pieces of evidence) the author gives us to support that main idea?

Summarize what the author told us about _____?

Did the author explain that clearly? What else do we need to find out?

(Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G. (2001) "Inviting students into the pursuit of meaning", Educational Psychology Review.)