Asking the Right Types of Questions to Check for Understanding

As educators we want our students to understand the lessons we teach. We want them to be able to reflect, question, interact, summarize, and evaluate content. Reading assignments play a key role when educating students and enhancing their knowledge.  Students should be able to read an article, essay, book, or chapter, then demonstrate their understanding through a variety of assessments.

But, what should teachers assign to assess understanding of the reading and also augment student learning?

It is through questioning that educators can assess students’ understanding of what they read. Questions should not merely ask about information; they must also provoke critical thinking.  Teachers must vary the types of questions they ask students in order to encourage thinking and problem solving.  Yet, often the questions students answer about an assigned reading asks for information that they can actually point to in the text. Students should be encouraged to explore the information to stretch their thinking and require them to make inferences and evaluations about what they read.

Teachers can enhance student learning and check for understanding by creating questions that fit three categories: Factual, Inferential, Universal.

Level One Questions are Factual – Right there questions

The factual questions center on answers that can be found directly in the text. Students can actually point to the answer. For example, what is the main character’s name? When did WWII end? The answers to these types of questions demonstrate a basic comprehension of what was read.

Level Two Questions are Inferential – Look for Clues

After students demonstrate their basic understanding of the reading with level one questions, their thinking needs to be stretched with questions that require them to gather information from their assigned reading.

Inferential questions cannot be found directly in the reading, but a student should be able to gather enough clues to demonstrate an inferred response. These questions require students to analyze and interpret specific parts of the text, and they often have more than one correct answer, which makes them more difficult to answer. For example, how did you arrive at your conclusion? What motivated the main character to make that decision? What does the line from the Great Gatsby, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” mean in relation to the main character?

Level Three Questions are Universal – open-ended questions

Universal questions use information in the text to provoke discussion of an abstract idea or issue. There is not a right or wrong answer, but rather, an informed response. The assigned reading will assist students in creating answers that go beyond the text, yet the reading assists the students in forming their responses. For example, how do stereotypes inform people’s decisions? How is the main character’s philosophy of life similar or different from yours?

When teachers focus on questions from the three levels, students become stronger readers. It may be necessary to ask more level one questions to get students on the same page; however, it is important not to remain on this level. Teach students how to respond to level two and three questions through modeling. Help students understand how to build on a response rather than concerning themselves with finding one correct answer. 

With each reading assignment, prepare yourself by writing out the different types of questions you want to ask students. You may want to assign your class the fact based questions as homework. The level one questions help students remain focused on the reading since they require students to find the answer within the text. If students carefully read the passage, they should be able to answer the level one questions without your guidance.

When students return to class, you can ask the level two and three questions. When you do this strategy with each reading assignment, students become more proficient readers.

Once you decide students have a grasp on how to answer the different types of questions, you can teach them about the three levels and have them practice asking a partner the different types. Learning how to create different types of questions about an assigned reading also demonstrates their understanding of what they’ve read. Soon, students can write the three types of questions each time they are assigned something to read. You can then share the best questions with the entire class to review the assignments and bolster discussions.

Students are capable of lively and interactive discussions centered on their assigned readings.  Since they are forming their beliefs and opinions as they grow, class discussions are vital to engage students and augment learning. When students are given the opportunity to ask the types of questions that create discussion, they are more willing to participate and interact with their classmates. They become excited when the questions they created stir thoughtful conversation and debate.

Utilizing the three levels of questions will engage students in learning and help them become stronger critical thinkers and readers. So, the next time you create a reading assignment for your students, create a variety of questions based on the three levels: Factual, Inferential, and Universal.