Asking Questions While Reading Worksheet

Lesson Overview

About this worksheet

Questioning is the foundational active-reading strategy teachers introduce in second grade and reinforce every year after. A reader who asks questions while reading notices more detail, predicts more accurately, and remembers more of the passage. A reader who does not ask questions tends to drift past important moments and forget what happened. This worksheet gives students explicit practice generating questions at the three classic checkpoints: before reading, during reading, and after reading.

The reference box at the top of page 1 names the three checkpoints and gives sample question starters (who, what, when, where, why, how, plus ‘I wonder’). The reference uses generic question framing – no specific content from the passage – so students arrive at the passage with the strategy in hand but no prefabricated questions. Section A presents five prompts that ask students to generate their own questions about a short original passage in which a character named Lina finds an unmarked envelope on her welcome mat.

Section B on page 2 turns generation into application. Students choose one of their own Section A questions and answer it using the passage and their own reasoning, identify something the passage leaves unexplained and propose an answer, and finally write three different questions about the same passage event using three different starters (Why, How, What if). The What-if prompt in particular pushes students to extend the passage into hypothetical thinking.

Page 3 is a complete answer key. Because questioning is generative, no question is the ‘right’ question; the key provides multiple sample questions of each type and explicitly accepts any reasonable question of the named category. Teachers should use the samples to calibrate what counts as a meaningful question (specific to the passage, answerable from text or inference) versus a thin one (‘What color is the envelope?’).

How to Use This Lesson

Read the reference box aloud and clarify the difference between BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER questions; have students share a sample question for each checkpoint about a familiar story.

Have students read the passage about Lina and the unmarked envelope independently, jotting questions in the margin as they read.

Work Section A together for items 1 and 2 (BEFORE and DURING); have students share their questions and explain when they would ask them.

Assign the rest of Section A and Section B as independent practice; remind students that ‘I wonder…’ questions are open-ended and welcome.

Use Section B item 2 (what the passage leaves unexplained) as a structured class discussion – this is where comprehension meets imagination.

Use the answer key on page 3 for partner review or aide spot-check. Treat the key as a floor of acceptable questions, not a ceiling.

Printable Resource

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