Text-dependent Questions: Samples and Resources
The increased rigor in the 2017 English Standards of Learning (SOL) requires students to answer text-dependent questions. Students must determine the meaning of complex texts and make logical inferences. Text-dependent questions do not ask students about their prior experience or feelings on a subject, but rather rely on explicit or implied information from the text. Students are expected to speak and write using evidence presented in texts, and to present analyses based on credible information that is based in the text or research-based.
Teachers should create their own text-dependent questions and assignments. Fiction texts should be paired with nonfiction texts on the same topic or theme. The following examples provide fiction samples paired with companion nonfiction texts and offer a series of text-dependent questions, vocabulary activities, writing assignments, and opportunities for research. The use of these samples should not be considered an endorsement of these authors or specific texts.
Sample Text-Dependent Questions Using Paired Passages
Elementary Level
- Save Our Species (Word)
- Spiny Snack (Word)
Middle School Level
- Beauty: When the Other Dancer is Self (Word)
- The Monkey’s Paw (Word)
High School Level
- An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (Word)
- The Story of an Hour (Word)