Planning Text Dependent Questions
Embedded within the Common Core’s instructional shifts for literacy, which focus educators on building
coherent knowledge, demanding text evidence, and working with sufficiently complex texts, is an emphasis on
close reading and text-dependent questions. So what are text-dependent questions, and how can teachers
develop them?
What are Text-Dependent Questions?
Text-dependent questions direct students’ inquiry into the text, rather than
outside of it, and can only be answered with evidence from the text. Textdependent questions can be used to check students’ understanding, but a
strong text-dependent question does not invite students merely to participate
in a scavenger hunt. That is to say, text-dependent questions are not lowlevel, nor do they prompt students to produce literal or recall answers. A
strong text-dependent question should invite students to interpret theme,
analyze syntax and text structure, support students’ understanding of
vocabulary, and analyze the effects of specific word choice.
Start with a High-Quality Text
To explore text-dependent questions, we use Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour,” which is a text suitable for the
9-10 grade band of text complexity.
The process of developing text-dependent questions
begins with reading the text and [Step 1] identifying
the central ideas and core understandings that you
want your students to develop. In this case, “The
Story of an Hour” presents marriage as potentially
repressive, limiting to a woman’s self-assertion and
freedom, and core understandings relate to the text’s
theme, tone, and irony.
With central ideas and core understandings
identified, [Step 2] begin planning your summative
assessment, as your questions will scaffold students’
inquiry into the text. A high-quality summative
assessment will involve writing and should allow
students individually to demonstrate mastery of one
or more of the standards.
Next, [Step 3] target vocabulary and text structure. We have published a vocabulary list for “The Story of an
Hour” on Visual Thesaurus. This short text contains thirty nine “Tier 2″ words that might be unfamiliar to
students; rather than see dense vocabulary as a deterrent to reading the text with a class, text-dependent
questions will specifically target words that might otherwise be a barrier to their comprehension. As a last step
in planning text-dependent questions, [Step 4] identify what makes the text difficult. “The Story of an Hour” is
a difficult text because its central message hinges on the reader picking up on the author’s tone, which is ironic.
Additionally, that tone is revealed through imagery and symbolism rather than a more straightforward means.
For “The Story of an Hour,” we have developed approximately thirty text-dependent questions which support
close reading of this short text over four or more days, examples of which follow:
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Assess Vocabulary (Denotation & Connotation): “But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long
procession of years to come…” What is a procession? What other words do you associate with
procession?
Analyze Semantic Choices: How would the meaning of this sentence change if the author had chosen
“line of years” instead of the word “procession”?
Analyze Syntax: The story says Mrs. Mallard “had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not.” What is
the effect of including the word “sometimes” at the end of this sentence?
Analyze Text Structure: Why does the author introduce Mrs. Mallard’s first name more than 2/3 into
the story?
Analyze Theme: What is the “crime” that Mrs. Mallard perceives in her “brief moment of
illumination”? What is the effect of describing this as an epiphany?
With text-dependent questions articulated, the next step in planning is to group questions [Step 5] to structure
coherent instruction. Rather than present them randomly, teachers can sequence text-dependent questions to
help students gradually unfold their understanding and perform rigorous analysis, learning to stay focused
inside of the text to construct meaning.
Any good instructional planning begins and ends with standards. Before finalizing
the summative assessment, [Step 6] step back to review the standards being
addressed in the series of text-dependent questions to determine if any other
standards should become a focus for the text. Important tip: When you are working
with text-dependent questions to establish rigorous classroom discourse and
providing students with routine writing tasks to support comprehension and
analysis, you are activating most of the standards for Reading, Writing, and
Speaking & Listening most of the time.
Last, but not least, [Step 7] finalize your summative assessment, ensuring that the culminating activity fully
aligns with the text-dependent questions and focus standards that you have identified.
Non Text-Dependent Questions
It is also useful to look at a series of non-text-dependent questions, all gleaned from available study guides:
Non Text-Dependent Questions
What’s Wrong with This Question?
“The Story of an Hour” is considered an important
work of feminist fiction. What important changes in
women’s roles have happened from the 19th Century
to today.
This is an evaluative question which drives students
outside of the text, constructing their answers based
upon historical research as well as their own values
and beliefs.
Discuss what society expected of the typical
nineteenth-century American woman.
This is a research question and does not require
students to have read the story at all.
Have you ever felt guilty for getting some benefit or
happiness from the misfortune of another person?
This question takes students entirely outside of the text;
answers rely exclusively on personal experience. This
is, however, a potentially good hook question to invest
students in reading the text.
Would you recommend this story to a friend? Why or
why not?
This is an evaluative question and does not contribute
to students’ analysis of the text.
Do you find the characters likeable? Would you want
to meet the characters?
This question takes students entirely outside of the text
and does not contribute to their analysis of the text.
Did the author, Kate Chopin, face problems similar to
those of Mrs. Mallard?
This question is biographical; the answer is not
supported by text evidence.
How do you think Mr. Mallard would feel if he knew
what his wife felt?
This is a speculative question and cannot be answered
using text evidence.
The simple but important distinction we can see here is that text-dependent questions focus students to think to
analytically about the text itself, highlighting and probing various pieces of text evidence that might be useful in
developing an understanding – and ultimately a claim – about a particular text. Non text-dependent questions,
on the other hand, allow students to speculate about questions for which there may be no substantial text
evidence or draw them entirely outside of the text. Questions that draw students outside, rather than into, a text
are unlikely either to require students to have read the text or to reinforce their comprehension of it.