📚 The Art of the Reading Guide

And the line between good questions and busy work.

Sep 27, 2025

Preface. When I first started teaching, I used projected daily questions and Friday comprehension quizzes. Which worked well—on Friday’s. I soon realized my lack of printed questions led to chaos from Monday to Thursday. So eventually I printed my questions. This post will address reading guides as both art and necessary evil.

As I write, I’d love to expand beyond SmartBrevity and address reading comprehension questions with more depth. As the student who won reading contests for fun, I found comprehension questions patronizing, even in elementary school. Yet it only took ten minutes of teaching to understand why teachers need them.

"The Diary of Anne Frank" Reading Guide

"Flowers for Algernon" Reading Guide

📷 The Big Picture. My average reading guide contains twenty reading comprehension questions per major section of a novel. They begin with the big picture but do not concern themselves with every detail. When writing, I keep several things in mind:

1. Plot. What major events move the story forward?
2. Foreshadowing. What hints might students miss? This includes subplots.
3. Theme. What reoccurring elements deserve attention?
4. Confusion. Where do students have trouble? What demands clarification?
5. Navigation. How will I split the book into parts? Where will posting page numbers save effort while teaching? (“What page does chapter two start on?”)

🤔 Yes, but. “So you just write reading comprehension questions. How is this not busy work? Isn’t your page all about writing and such?”

⭐️ Instead. Make no mistake: Some teachers ask questions as busy work. Not every detail—and therefore question—is important. Questions must therefore be selective.

Reading guides aren’t mutually exclusive with teaching writing. My students still write every class. But writing about literature requires mastering the basic plot.
Addressing every detail leads to random questions and wasted time. It’s okay if students do not memorize every tiny thing.
Questions help create mental models of the text. Build the big picture then zoom in.

💡 Consider: What are the fewest questions you can ask to generate the greatest understanding of a text?

⚙️ How It Works. All reading guides aim as public discussion. Since discussions drive the class, the reading guides provide structure throughout a novel.

1. Preview. Before reading, we preview what students should read for.
2. Discussion. After reading, we discuss those major elements.
3. Review. The next day reading guides form built-in review.

👎 Where Things Fail. Since my reading guides begin as discussion starters, they require discussion to be refined. Revising questions takes 2-3 times of teaching.

1. Some questions sound clear when writing, but require dialogue to revise.
2. Some plot points become more obvious than others, so I remove or combine questions.
3. Some areas immediately stand out as confusing, so I add questions.

🚨 Cheating. Once we discuss major questions, they become public domain. Some students copy a question or two if they were absent. Not a huge deal. Obviously, if a student sleeps through class and attempts to copy blindly, I’ll take the papers.

👔 Style Guide. My reading guides match my overall style guide. Feel free to steal!

1. Paper Title. Paper titles stand at Times New Roman, size 14, bolded.
2. Chapter Titles. Include bolded, center aligned title headings with page numbers.
3. Answer Lines. Each question has two blank lines using underscores, spaced at 1.4-1.5.
4. Sentence Stems. If answers demand particular wordings, I’ll provide sentence stems.
5. Bad Starters. My footer includes bad sentence starters to make my expectations clear.

Also. As I trim questions down to twenty, my runner up questions become “Notice!” segments that point things out. Important questions also get stars next to them.

Reading Guide Template

Directions. Answer the following in complete sentences by restating the question. Points will be deducted for fragments, lack of capital letters, awkward passive voice, not using character names.

💯 Grading. At bare minimum students should write in complete sentences using character names. No one word answers. I review correct formats each August.

Let’s review some typical wrong answers from my “Flowers for Algernon” reading guide. For reference, the answer goes as follows: Charlie brought a lucky rabbit’s foot because he is superstitious.

Superstitious. One word response.
He is superstitious. Who is superstitious? Charlie? Frank? State the name.
What he brought to the surgery is a lucky rabbits foot. Ah! The awkward passive voice. This happens when students blindly restate the question without thinking.

🔮 In The Future. Soon I plan on releasing reading guides in my Google Drive. Feel free to steal, copy, plunder, and save yourself time. From there, I might address teaching certain works (“Teaching “Flowers for Algernon”” and so forth).

💬 Feedback. Are there any texts you would like to see as reading guides?

🎁 New to the blog? Check out my recent starter pack as well as a Google Drive Folder with FREE classroom resources! Also, The Honest School Times has your schooling satire.

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