Reading Comprehension Questions Parents Can Actually Ask

"What happened in the story?" is a genuinely reasonable starting question, but relying on it alone only tests basic recall. Here's a fuller set of questions that build the deeper comprehension skills schools actually assess.

Recall questions (the easiest tier — good warm-up)

• "What happened at the beginning / middle / end?"
• "Who were the main characters?"
• "Where and when did the story take place?"

Inference questions (genuinely harder, and heavily tested)

• "How do you think that character was feeling? What makes you think that?"
• "Why do you think they made that choice?"
• "What do you think will happen next, and why?"

Vocabulary-in-context questions

• "What do you think that word means, based on the rest of the sentence?"
• "Can you think of another word that could replace it here?"

Author's craft questions (upper KS2 especially)

• "Why do you think the author chose that particular word?"
• "How did that description make you picture the scene?"
• "What was the author trying to make you feel in that part?"

Personal response and connection questions

• "Has anything like that ever happened to you?"
• "Would you have made the same choice as that character?"
• "What did you like or dislike about this part, and why?"

Summary and synthesis questions (genuinely the hardest tier)

• "Can you tell me the whole story in just two or three sentences?"
• "What do you think the main message or lesson of this story was?"

A practical way to use this list

Rotating through a couple of different question types each reading session — rather than only ever asking recall questions — builds the full range of comprehension skill schools assess, while keeping reading time varied and genuinely conversational rather than feeling like a repetitive quiz.