New Core Sample Literature Questions
1st Grade
Key Details Questions: (RL1.1)
What do we know about the character in this story? How do we do this?
What can we tell about how the character is feeling?
Why did the character do this?
What do you think might happen next? Why?
Draw or write one of the important details in the story?
Retell for Understanding (RL 1.2)
Tell me what happened at the beginning of the story.
Tell me what is happening after that?
What happened at the end of this story?
What are the most important parts of this story?
What is this story teaching us?
Characters, Setting, Events: (RL1.3)
Who are the characters in the story? What do you know about them?
What does the character want to do?
Where does the story take place?
Does the setting change over time in the story?
Tell me the important things that happened in the story.
What details are important to include when we talk about the story?
Words and Phrases Suggest Feeling/5 Senses: (RL1.4)
Help students discover the meanings of words and phrases for themselves
using the story. Reinforce tough words after with pictures, definitions,
examples and non-examples, have them say it, use it in a sentence etc.
Let’s look back through the text to talk about some of the interesting
words. I noticed……’
What do you think _______ means? I think it means ____ because ______.
Let’s listen for words that tell us about feelings in this story.
Let’s listen for words that make us use our senses.
How do you feel when I read this word/these words?
What do you see in your mind?
Text Types (Stories, Information): (RL1.5)
What’s alike and different between these two books?
Is this book about real things? Give me an example.
I this book about pretend or make believe things? How can you tell?
Does this book give us information or tell a story? How can you tell?
Do the pictures help you know if the book is telling a story or giving
information? How can you tell?
Point of View: (RL1.6)
Who is the author of this book or poem?
After reading this part, we can see that one of the characters is telling the
story. Who is telling the story? How do you know?
After reading this part of the story, we can see that the author is telling the
story because he/she is using words like he/she/they. Let’s look for some
of those words in the story.
When the author tells a story we know how characters feel and what they
see. What are some feelings the author is telling us about?
Illustrations to Describe Characters, Settings, and Events: (RL1.7)
What do the words and pictures tell you about the characters?
What do the words and pictures tell you about the setting?
What do the words and pictures tell you about the main events in the
story?
Compare and Contrast Characters in a Story: (RL1.9)
Who are the characters in this story? How were their
adventures/experiences the same in the story? How were they different?
New Core Sample Informational Questions
1st Grade
Key Details Questions: (RI1.1)
What is this part of the text about?
What are you wondering about?
What did the author want to teach us in this part of the story?
What is important to remember in this text?
What questions do you have? How were they answered in the text?
What part is confusing?
Main Idea and Details: (RI1.2)
What is this book/part mostly about?
Can you tell me the important parts of the book?
What details help you understand the book?
Connections and Relationships: (RI1.3)
Tell me about two people/events/ideas that are the same in this text?
How is ______ like ________ in the text?
What do they have in common?
Difficult Words and Phrases: (RI1.4)
Help students discover the meanings of difficult words for themselves using
the story. Reinforce those words after with pictures, definitions, examples
and non-examples, have them say it, use it in a sentence etc.
We are going to look back through the text to talk about some of the
interesting words. I noticed…….
What do you think ______means? I think that ____ means _____because___.
Did you have any questions about words?
Can you write the word we just talked about and draw a picture of it?
Text Features and Searching: (RI1.5)
Let’s look at the front cover. What does it tell us? What information can we
get?
What information does the title page give us?
Look at where the author put the writing on the inside. How does this help
us?
What can we learn about a text from the heading?
What can we learn about a text from the table of contents? Glossary?
On a computer what can we learn from electronic menus? Icons?
Information from Pictures and Words: (RI1.6)
Who is the author of this text? Lets discuss what the author taught.
Who is the illustrator? Let’s discuss what the illustrator taught.
Information from Illustrations and Details: (RI1.7)
What does the illustration tell us?
How does it give us a better understanding of the text?
Let’s use the illustrations to help us remember the key details of the text.
Together, lets describe in writing what the illustration teaches us.
Supporting Reasons: (RI1.8)
The author points out that _________
What reasons does the author give to support his/her idea?
Together make a key point list and add details that support it.
Compare and Contrast Texts on the Same Topic: (RI1.9)
What information did we find that was the same?
What information did we find that was different?
Create a class Venn Diagram to compare two texts.