51 Excellent Reading Comprehension Questions

If you’re searching for reading comprehension questions, you’ve landed in the right place. 

The ability to understand a text on a deeper level is an essential skill that people will use for the rest of their lives. 

That’s why it’s important to develop and nurture reading skills and strategies. One way to do so is by asking reading comprehension questions after reading a story or book. 

Asking questions before reading aids the reader in accessing prior knowledge in order to construct meaning. 

Asking questions while reading actively engages the reader, gauging how well he is understanding and/or connecting with the book. 

Asking questions after reading checks for comprehension. This is a great time to discuss how information from the book relates to personal experiences, world events, or other texts. 

The issue, however, is coming up with good questions to ask. So that’s what we’ve done here.

We’ve compiled a quality collection of reading comprehension questions that you can use to assess how well a reader is understanding a text. 

No matter which reading skill or strategy you want to assess, there’s a reading comprehension question available here to serve your needs.

Related: Boost reading comprehension using these QAR question stems.

Reading Comprehension Questions

BEFORE Reading Comprehension Questions

1. What do you think is the book genre and why?

2. Is this selection fiction or nonfiction? Explain.

3. After doing a picture walk of the book, what do you predict will be the author’s purpose in writing this text?

4. What do you predict will be the problem?

5. What do you know about this author’s writing style?

6. Why do you think the illustrator chose these particular images for the cover?

7. Reviewing the cover, what do you predict the book will be about? Explain.

8. How do you think the story will end?

9. Just from reading the title, what do you infer about the main problem?

10. After reading the summary of the book, what connections do you have?

11. What is the basic information of the text? (title, author’s name, illustrator’s name, date published, etc.)

12. How is the text organized?

13. What questions do you have before reading the selection?

14. How does the publication date give you information about the contents of the book?

15. Is there a table of contents and/or index? How can these tools help you comprehend better what you’re reading?

16. What clues does the title present in letting you know the main idea of the book?

17. Do you know anything about this topic?

18. Are there any special vocabulary words that you think you’ll come across as you read?

DURING Reading Comprehension Questions

19. What can you figure out that the author is not putting into words?

20. Will you share any type of connection you have so far with the book?

21. Are there any words that are confusing you? Where?

22. So far, what do you think is the author’s purpose for writing this?

23. How do the headings and subheadings help you find information in the text?

24. What information is provided through illustrations such as diagrams, drawings, charts, and maps?

25. What are some of the differences and similarities between two of the characters?

26. In this paragraph, what’s the main idea?

27. Based on what you’ve read so far, what do you think is going to happen next?

28. Do any of the characters remind you of anything?

29. What facts did the author share?

30. What do you think about the main character’s actions?

31. What pictures do you see in your mind as you read?

32. Do you relate to any of the characters? Why or why not?

33. How would you summarize what you’ve read so far?

34. Can you share a cause-and-effect situation from the book?

35. So far, which text features have aided your understanding the most?

AFTER Reading Comprehension Questions

36. How would you break down the main events in the story?

37. How would you summarize the ending?

38. Where did the story take place?

39. Did the author use any figurative language? If so, where?

40. What strategies did you use to help you tackle confusing parts?

41. Will you share an example of when you used context clues?

42. After reading, what connections do you have with this book?

43. If you could step into this book, what’s the first thing that you would do and why?

43. What do you still wonder about?

44. Who would enjoy reading this type of book and why?

45. What’s the theme? How do you know?

46. What part of the book did you find most interesting and why?

47. Will you point out details that support the main idea of the book?

48. What character traits would you use to describe the main character and why?

49. Can you explain how one of the character’s changed from the beginning to the end?

50. What’s an alternative ending that could have worked well?

51. What questions would you ask the author and why?

52. Did you learn any new vocabulary?

Final Thoughts: Reading Comprehension Questions

Now you have a helpful collection of reading comprehension questions that you can use to assess understanding.