Also, see Open-Ended Questions.
The Common Core State Standards for reading strongly focus on students gathering evidence and insight from what they read.
Eighty to ninety percent of the Reading Standards in each grade require text-dependent analysis.
A text-dependent question asks a question that can only be answered by referring back to the text. It does not involve background knowledge. The questions should not seek to elicit a personal or general response that relies on individual experience and opinion.
Text-dependent questions ask students to perform one or more of the following:
Analyze paragraphs on a sentence-by-sentence basis and sentences on a word-by-word basis to determine the role played by individual paragraphs, sentences, phrases, or words.
Investigate how meaning can be altered by changing keywords and why an author may have chosen one word over another.
Probe each argument in the persuasive text, each idea in the informational text, and each key detail in the literary text, and observe how these build to a whole.
Examine how shifts in the direction of an argument or explanation are achieved and the impact of those shifts.
Question why authors choose to begin and end when they do.
Note and assess patterns of writing and what they achieve.
Consider what the text leaves uncertain or unstated.
Creating Text-Specific Questions for Close Analytic Reading of Texts
An effective set of text-dependent questions delves systematically into a text to guide students in extracting the key meanings or ideas.
They typically begin by exploring specific words, details, and arguments and then move on to examine the impact of those specifics on the text as a whole. They target academic vocabulary and specific sentence structures as critical focus points for gaining comprehension.
The following process is a good guide that can serve to generate a core series of questions for close reading of any given text:
1: Identify the Core Understandings and Key Ideas of the Text – This is “backward design.” Teachers should start by identifying the key insights they want students to understand from the text to create a set of successful questions. This is critical for creating an appropriate culminating assignment.
2: Start Small – The opening questions should help orientate students to the text and be sufficiently specific enough for them to answer so that they gain confidence to tackle more complex questions.
3: Target Vocabulary and Text Structure – Locate the most powerful words in the text that are connected to the key ideas and craft questions that draw students’ attention to these specifics so they can become aware of these connections. Vocabulary selected for focus should be academic or Tier 2 words that are likely to be encountered in the future.
4: Tackle Tough Sections Head-on – Find the sections of the text that will present the most significant difficulty and craft questions that support students in mastering these sections.
5: Create Coherent Sequences of Text Dependent Questions – Questions should not be in random order.
6: Identify the Standards That Are Being Addressed
7: Create the Culminating Assessment – Develop a culminating activity around the key ideas or understandings identified earlier that reflects (a) mastery of one or more of the standards, (b) involves writing, and (c) is structured to be completed by students independently.
The above information was adapted from Text-Dependent Question Guide.
CHECK OUT THIS: Checklist for Evaluating Question Quality
There are 5 kinds of text-dependent questions, and these 5 appear on tests:
- Vocabulary Building ~ Understanding and Applying
- Find It ~ Understanding
- Look Closer ~ Applying
- Prove It ~ Applying
- Take It Apart ~ Analyzing and Evaluating
Vocabulary Building
- Read the question.
- Locate the word in the passage that you must define.
- Reread the sentence with the word in it and the sentence before and after it. What are the clues that help you figure you the word? Clues to look for are below.
- Match parts of speech – nouns to nouns, verbs to verbs.
- Know the terms: synonym, antonym, opposite, and similar ~ students may encounter these on a test.
- It is helpful to know the meaning of common prefixes and suffixes to help determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.
- Think of a possible definition. Ask yourself: Does my description make sense?
- If this is a multiple-choice test, match your definition to the answer choice.
Teachers, if you are creating questions, try these frames:
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- The word________ in this story means________.
- The phrase ________ in the text means ___________.
- In paragraph ____, which word or words helps you know what ________ means?
- Which is the best meaning of the word ________?
- What is a synonym for_________?
- Which word means the same as ________?
- What is an antonym for ________?
- Which word means the opposite of ________?
- The word ________ in this story means about the same as ________.
Find It
These questions ask you to find facts, details, characters, and settings. The answer is always in the passage.
- Read the question.
- Ask yourself: What does this question want me to do? What words will help me answer the question?
- Look for these clue words (below) that will give you information to answer the questions.
- Skim and scan the text, matching the words in the question to specific words in the text. Reread that part.
- Overview of several paragraphs to notice events or steps in sequence.
- Visualize the passage to remember details.
- Ask yourself: Does this information match the question? How do I know?
- Think of a possible answer, then ask yourself: Does my answer make sense?
- If you are taking a multiple-choice test, match your answer to an answer choice. Use the process of elimination.
Teachers, if you are creating questions, try these frames:
- This story takes place in_______.
- What is the ________?
- When did _______ happen?
- Which___________?
- Which of the following events happened first: _________?
Look Closer
These questions have answers that can be found in the passage, but you may have to look in more than one place, reread the passage, or understand synonyms (words that mean the same thing).
- Read the question.
- Ask yourself: What does this question ask me to do? (identify sequence or steps in a process, identify cause and effect relationships, compare and contrast information, identify the main idea and supporting details)
- Use the “determine importance” strategy to think about the big idea.
- Questions asking “mostly about” or “mainly about” require students to read for the gist.
- If the question asks for the main idea, look at the passage to see which words are constantly repeated. That is the main idea!
- The most important information is often in the first or last paragraph! The most important information in a paragraph is often in the first or last sentence!
- Ask yourself: What words from the question will help me find the answer in the passage?
- Look through the passage until you find the words that give the information you need to answer the question.
- Ask yourself: Does this information match the question? How do I know?
- Think of a possible answer. Ask yourself: Does my answer make sense?
- If you are taking a multiple-choice test, match your answer to an answer choice. Use the process of elimination.
Teachers, if you are creating questions, try these frames:
Identify sequence or steps in a process
- After ________, what happened?
- When can you ________?
Identify cause/effect relationships.
- Why did _________need to ________?
- What causes __________ to happen?
Compare/Contrast
- How are ______ and ________ alike? How are they different?
- What do _______ and __________ have in common?
Identify the stated main idea and supporting details
- What details in chapter ___ support the main idea that ___?
- What sentence in paragraph ___ best states the main idea?
- What is the main idea?
Prove It
These questions do NOT have answers in the passage. You must “read between the lines” or infer to find clues and evidence to come up with a solution.
- Read the question.
- Ask yourself: What does the question ask me to do: make inferences, make predictions, analyze characters, draw conclusions, identify the unstated main idea, use graphic features, or summarize?
- Ask yourself: What words from the question might help me find the information in the passage?
- Look through the passage and find important clues and evidence for answering the question.
- Look at all of your clues. Ask yourself: What do these clues tell me that is not stated in the passage?
- Think of a possible answer. Ask yourself: Does my answer make sense?
- If you are taking a multiple-choice test, match your answer to an answer choice.
Teachers, if you are creating questions, try these frames:
Make inferences
- What can you infer from paragraph ________?
- Which sentence from the story shows you ___________?
Make predictions
- What will (character) probably do in the future?
- What clues/evidence would support your prediction that ______?
Analyze characters
- What clues tell you that (character) is _________?
- You can tell that (character) is ________.
Draw conclusions
- From the information in this passage, you can conclude that_____.
- In what way is ________important in the text?
Identify the unstated main idea
- This passage is mainly about __________.
- Paragraph _______ is mostly about __________.
Use graphic features to interpret information
- What can you tell from the diagram in the passage?
- What does the bar graph tell you?
Summarize information
- Which sentence best completes the summary?
- Which is the best summary?
Take It Apart
These questions do not have answers in the passage. You must think like the author to figure out the answer.
- Read the question.
- Ask yourself: What does this question ask me to do? (Consider the author’s purpose, figure out the text structure, find examples of the text structures, etc.)
- Ask yourself: What words from the question might help me find the information in the passage?
- Look through the passage and find the information to help you answer the question.
- Look at the information like the author would.
- Think of a possible answer. Ask yourself: Does my answer make sense?
- If you are taking a multiple-choice test, match your answer to an answer choice.
Teachers, if you are creating questions, try these frames:
Evaluate the author’s purpose
- The author probably included paragraph ___ so that ____.
- The author most likely wrote this passage to ________.
- The author probably included the chart to ___________.
Analyze text structure and organization
- The author uses a _____ structure to organize ________. Give an example.
- What text structure did the author use to organize paragraphs ______ and _______?
- How does the author organize this passage?
Developed by Benchmark Education Company
