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Questions for Shared and Guided Reading
Text Level
- What is my purpose in reading this?
- What can I immediately begin to understand?
- Before I even begin reading, what do I know and what do I expect?
- Does it have any relation to previous texts I have read?
- Can I work out the purpose of this text and the intended effect on the audience?
- What genre or text type am I reading?
- What do I know about these sorts of texts?
- How should I tackle reading this text?
- What sort of clues allow me to recognise the characteristics of this text?
- Have I received any sort of help to make it easier for me to make sense of it?
- What sort of support might help me read it more independently?
- Can I predict what is likely to happen in the short/medium and long term from what I have already read?
- What am I expected to do as a result of this reading activity?
- Do I enjoy reading this sort of material?
- What do I like and dislike in this text?
- Are there any puzzles or questions I need to think about?
- Are there any interesting patterns or links?
- What do I know about these characters, about what happens to them and how they change?
- What have I learned about this subject? In what ways have I altered my views and thoughts?
- What do I need to reread?
- How far were my original ideas bourne out by the text?
- What surprises were there and did I learn anything new?
Sentence Level
- What is immediately noticeable about the layout/presentation of this text and how might this information tell me about the meaning?
- How dense/straightforward is this text? Does it use metaphorical/difficult/accessible language?
- What is the average sentence length? Do the sentence lengths vary or are they consistent? What do these facts help me understand? What effects do they create?
- Are most of the sentences statements or are other sentence types regularly used? How and why?
- Are there any special effects in the language the author uses for particular purposes?
- Is the language use typical of known text types or genres?
- Does the writer break any conventions and what is the effect?
- Are there any recognisable patterns or structures in the language?
- Who is the narrator/teller of this text?
- What is the tone or approach of this text?
- Is it consistent or does it change for special reasons?
- How does the style influence my reading, understanding and appreciation?
Word level
- Is the vocabulary of this text mostly familiar or are some words unfamiliar?
- Is the vocabulary consistent or do changes occur at different times?
- Is it possible to establish the intended audience from the sorts of words being used?
- Are the language and choice of words essential to the meaning?
- Are certain words/phrases/ideas highlighted or emphasised for special reasons?
- Are words used in unusual ways?
- Do the sounds of the words matter (e.g. are words ‘hard’ or ‘soft’)?
- Are the words of our time or from different periods?
- Are puns, irony or other forms of humour evident?
Page Last Updated: 22 October 2003
