Creating Your Own Questions for Students from a Non-Fiction Text

Sometimes a teacher or parent finds a great article or book and there are no pre-made questions available to copy for your students. It doesn't take long to create your own.

Step1 You need to read the text. If it is a non-fiction text, look out for headings and bold print words. There are great candidates for questions. If it is a fiction selection, it might be a little harder as there may not be clear, separate sections. You will want to look out for the personalities and attitudes of the characters. Keep all the story elements in mind (plot, tone, characters, setting, problem, solution). In this ehow, I will focus on a non-fiction text.

Step2 Type or write the title of the book that the questions go with on the top of the paper. If you intend to use the book again, you will be glad you have saved your work.

Step3 Keep any questions you create in the same order that their answers appear in the book. This is easier for you and for students. For students that need extra help, you can easily modify the work by including the page number where the answer can be found right on the question sheet.

Step4 Look at the first heading/section of text. Look for the main idea. To create a multiple choice question, uses the main idea of the section to formulate a question. Then, look at the rest of the section and book to find "red herrings" (false answers). Provide at least three choices. For example: What is coral? a. a plant      b. algae       c. a rock      d. an animal

Step5 Go through each of the different sections and make at least one question for each. Look at the pictures and captions and consider making questions out of that information also. Often students overlook these captions and that's a habit they need to break. Using the SQP3R method will help with this problem - see my other ehow on this subject.

Step6 For free response questions, look for bits of information in the book where a list of items are given, for example: "What are the three types of coral reefs?". Students can answer with bullet points, or you can ask them to answer in complete sentences if you want.

Step7 Include pictures. If the text has any diagrams or pictures, include them and have students match (for example, types of reefs with the picture), identify, label, or tell more about the picture.

Step8 Doing this gets easier with practice. It helps if you know the curriculum well and know what is important. Keep in mind that you can incorporate reading skills in with content area information. You can ask what the main idea is for a particular paragraph right along side your science-based coral reef questions. You can count the grade on the assessment for both subjects. You could even take a sentence from the book and mess up the punctuation and grammar or add in incorrect information that students need to edit. This is great practice for state writing tests.

• A-Z books are a great resource. See the "image credits" for the site. They normally come with some multiple choice questions and some other skill sheets. This article was inspired by the fact that the question sheet was missing from the hard copy belonging to my school, so I had to make up my own.

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