Generic questions and question stems to prompt discussion in guided reading and build
comprehension skills, organised by reading assessment focus.
AF 1
Use a range of
strategies, including
accurate decoding of
text, to read for
meaning.
Phonics - taught daily, discreetly and consistently using Letters and
Sounds or other similar high-quality resource - is the primary approach to
building children’s decoding skills. Children’s first and strongest strategy
to decode an unfamiliar word should be sounding out.
Other strategies include:
Reading from left to right, top to bottom (or as appropriate for radial
texts); expecting the text to make sense; monitoring for sense; using
picture clues; taking a run at a word; leaving a gap, reading on to the end
of the sentence and going back to try again; breaking the word into
syllables; looking for known elements within a word; using knowledge of
prefixes and suffixes, verb changes and plurals; using knowledge of how
sentences work; using the glossary or dictionary.
AF2
Understand, describe,
select or retrieve
information, events or
ideas from texts and
use quotation and
reference to text.
Non-fiction texts:
Would it be true or false to say…?
What makes…special/different?
Can you find a reason (or reasons) why…?
Find two/three things that cause/protect/affect …?
Fiction texts:
What is this story about?
What does the writer compare X to?
What does the writer share with us that X doesn’t know?
AF3
Deduce, infer or
interpret information,
events or ideas from
texts.
Non-fiction texts:
What two/three facts together tell you that …?
Fiction texts:
Why does the writer compare X to…?
Is X’s experience (in the narrative) like Y’s (in another familiar narrative)
and how?
How is X feeling at this point and how do you know?
Why is X surprised/angry/frightened?
What do you think will happen next?
Were you surprised by (character’s feelings/actions) and can you explain
why (not)?
Why does X decide to…?
How do we know that X and Y get on well/badly together?
What did X mean by saying…?
How do X’s feeling change throughout the story and can you track the
changes?
What clues has the writer given that…?
Can you explain why X … at the end of the story?
At the end of the story, how was X like Y?
AF4
Identify and comment
on the structure and
organisation of texts,
including grammatical
and presentational
features art text level.
AF5
Explain and comment
on writers’ use of
language, including
grammatical and
literary features at
word and sentence
level.
AF6
Identify and comment
on writers’ purposes
and viewpoints, and
the overall effect of the
text on the reader.
AF7
Relate texts to their
social, cultural and
historical contexts and
literary traditions.
Non-fiction texts:
Which part of this text is for (specific purpose)?
How does the way the (specific feature) is written/set out/presented make
you want to read/read on?
What effect did the designer want to achieve here (indicate
presentational feature)?
What are these (arrows, labels, headings etc) for?
How many parts/aspects of X have been made clear?
Fiction texts:
Can you find a similarity (or two) between the beginning and the end of
the story/extract?
Non-fiction texts:
Compose another sentence in the style of the extract (or not) and ask
whether it would fit and why?
Which words invite/encourage you to read …?
Which word(s) tell(s) us that X is …?
Fiction texts:
In this extract the writer mentions (key word/theme/image) a lot – why?
What does this (direct speech extract) tell you about how X is feeling?
Which particular words does the writer use to make (situation) seem like
a (game/race/puzzle/contest/search, etc)?
What does the word…tell us about the way X….?
The writer uses words like … to describe … what does this tell us about
…?
What does the word (adverb) tell us about the way …. was done?
Can you sort these (events from the story) into the right order?
Non-fiction texts:
Why do you think X wrote that (extract)…?
Why has this (text type) been written?
How does the writer try to make the reader feel/think/believe/act?
Fiction texts:
What was the saddest/funniest/most exciting part of the story for you and
can you explain why?
What is the writer trying to tell us about X by writing (particular stylistic
feature)?
Non-fiction texts:
Is this text fiction or non-fiction, biography, recount, etc, and how do you
know?
Which of these labels (text types) is the best fit for this text and why?
Fiction texts: