5+2 Types of Reading Comprehension Test Questions

Student Friendly Samples of the 5+2 Types of Reading Comprehension Test Questions | Strategies for Passing High Stakes Reading Assessments 

There are 7 core types of reading comprehension that students must learn to answer and understand in order to comprehend common core reading assessments. This article will discuss the five main types of reading comprehension questions in full detail. 

Reading comprehension is the ability to read text, process it and understand its meaning. An individual's ability to comprehend text is influenced by their traits and skills, one of which is the ability to make inferences. If word recognition is difficult, students use too much of their processing capacity to read individual words, which interferes with their ability to comprehend what is read. There are a number of approaches to improve reading comprehension, including improving one's vocabulary and reading strategies.

New Reading Comprehension Response Mechanism and Question Structures That Students Must Understand and Practice Daily

Guide to the Sample Tests
1. One‐Part Hot Text
2. Multiple Choice
3. Open Response
4. Multi‐Select
5. Evidence‐Based Selected Response
6. Two‐Part Hot Text
7. Editing Task Questions
8. Technology Enhanced Constructed Response (TECR) Grid Select
9. Prose Constructed Response (PCR)

(EBSR) SAMPLE QUESTION AND TASK MODELS 3rd
EBSR Sample Questions and Task Models 4th
Sample Questions and Task Models 5th
Sample Questions and Task Models 6th
Sample Questions and Task Models 7th
Sample Questions and Task Models 8th

Lexical reading comprehension is the ability to understand the key vocabulary words that are in a story or other forms of text. Knowing tier 2 and tier 3 academic words are critical to finding success on reading comprehension assessments. Books that are leveled for students may use academic words or figurative language that is difficult for readers to understand (simile, metaphor, personification, etcetera). They may be words that are new or words that are not used very often. Students can either look up the word in a classroom dictionary or use context clues to decipher the meaning of the words. If a word has more than one meaning a dictionary may prove to be difficult. The students may not always write the correct definition to the word. However, the words are often explained along the margin of the book or even in the next sentence.

• Provide students an opportunity to define the word on their own before giving them a dictionary to look up the definition.

• Definitions can be samples that are tied together where the child identifies a commonality. It is best to introduce vocabulary before reading the story to increase comprehension.

Literal (Explicit) Reading Comprehension Questions:

These are simple questions that students are able to answer quickly by referring back to the text. They are often in the form of "who, what, when, and where?" Some sample questions when using this form of comprehension could be:

• Who was the boy who lived under the stairs?

• Where did the boy live?

Inferential (Interpretive Reading Comprehension questions that are not directly stated in the story. The students have to dig beyond the surface in order to answer these questions. This is the beginning of higher-order thinking. When using this strategy some questions that are asked could be:

• What happened to Dudley on Harry's birthday?

• How did Harry find out he was a wizard?

Opinion (Applied) Reading Comprehension often answers questions that allow students to form an opinion about the text. They students should be able to give reasons to why the hold this opinion. A sample question in this type of comprehension could be:

• Do you think Harry was wrong for wanting to be sorted into the Gryffindor house over Slytherin based on the little bit of knowledge he had on the houses at the time of the sorting?

Affective Reading Comprehension (Affect is the experience of feelings or emotions of character.) is comprehending the different aspects of feelings or emotions of the characters in a text or passage. This includes aspects that are both emotional and social. Students need to understand why characters act in a certain manner in order to fully understand the story. Failure to be able to do this can cause them to get lost in the plot without understanding the characters at all. Some questions that can be used in this level of comprehension are:

• How did Harry feel when he first found out he was a wizard?

• A lot of students will answer that he was excited but some children may also say that he was mad. If they say the latter, it shows that they have a deeper understanding of family dynamics that you may have anticipated.

Holistic (Universal) reading questions allow readers to see the bigger picture. These questions ask about the story as a whole. Some sample questions are:

• Which statement is the best possible summary for the passage?

• What is the author trying to describe in this passage?

• What are the major themes that are prevalent in this text?

• What is the general main idea in this text, passage, or story?

Now that we discussed different reading comprehension strategies, let's discuss comprehension questions and the different types that can be used. There are seven types of comprehension questions that we are going to discuss.

Specific reading questions ask about certain events or plot points in the passage. These questions are often paraphrased of something that was said directly in the text.

• According to the author, what is ____?

• By a _____ the author meant ______?

• According to the passage, _____?

Vocabulary in Context is used to describe questions that are specific words or phrases within the text. Some questions that can be:

• What does the phrase _____ refer to according to the text?

• In sentence 5, what does _____ mean?

Function reading questions ask the reader about the structure of the text.

• The author says ____ in order to _____

• The ____ in the passage was used by the author for what reason?

• What is the best reason the author used the word _____ in the text?

Inference reading questions make the reader understand that is implied and is not stated in black and white in the text. For these types of questions the students need to turn on their thinking cap. The answers may be less obvious and therefor harder to find.

• The passage uses _____ to imply that _____

• What can be inferred from this text?

• What did the author mean when he/she said _____?

• What does the sentence _____ imply?

Application reading questions also fall under the inference category. However, these questions are a little more specific.

• What can be used to replace _____?

• A ____, as described in the passage, can be described as ______

Tone reading questions are also a type of inference question. These questions require the reader to infer the author's point of view and position on certain ideas in the text.

• Which statement is the author most likely to agree with?

• Which viewpoint does the author most likely adhere to?

Reading Comprehension Test Prep Strategies  

1. Look for Keywords in the introductory paragraph and concluding paragraph for the topic, main points, main ideas, and themes.
2. READ THE FIRST & LAST SENTENCE IN EACH PARAGRAPH, SEARCHING FOR CLUES THAT REVEAL THE MAIN IDEA! The topic and main point is almost always in the topic or concluding sentences.
3. Study tier 2 and tier 3 academic reading vocabulary in advanced of any summative reading assessment. 
4. Practice daily close reading strategies before you take any scored reading assessments.
5. Read the questions and look for clues to help determine what type of question you are answering. If no questions are given create your own essential question.
6. Read every passage, question, and topic and concluding sentence at least three times.
7. Use released EOG/EOC reading test to study test question types and frequency.
8. Have students use or create reading comprehension questions using reading comprehension questions stems.