Common Core Question Stems Informational Texts | Informational Texts Extended Response Question Stems
Common Core Aligned Extended Response Informational Texts Test Question Stems
Explain how the article uses reasons and evidence to support a particular points regarding the …
Identify the overall structure of ideas, concepts, and information in the text and compare and contrast the schemes employed by the author.
Interpret the visual graph/chart that accompanies the text and explain how the information found within contributes to an understanding of how the concept is explained.
Explain the relationship between the hypotheses and the data using specific information drawn from the text.
Determine the meaning of domain-specific words or phrases, such as crust, mantle, magma, and lava, and important general academic words and phrases that appear in…
Compare and contrast a firsthand account of an incident to a secondhand account of the same incident, attending to the focus of each account and the information provided by each.
Quote accurately and explicitly from …; explain statements made and the ideas that are inferred regarding the statements.
Determine the main idea of the article and create a summary by explaining how key details support distinctions regarding different types of …
Common Core Question Stems | Higher Order Thinking Questions | Plot, Theme, Inference, Compare and Contrast, and Poetry
What connections can me made between the visual presentation (illustrations) of … and the text of the story?
Can you identify how the pictures of … relate specifically to imagery vocabulary?
Explain the selfish, mean, odd behavior of … and make inferences regarding the reason they demonstrate these emotions and or actions.
Describe how the narrator’s point of view in … are described and how the reader perceives the character of …
Summarize the plot of …and then reflect on the challenges facing the characters in the story.
Discuss and explore the theme of the story as it relates to plot.
Describe in depth the idyllic, treacherous, sparse or unrealistic setting of the story, drawing on specific details in the text.
Compare and contrast … and … by identifying similar themes and plots, examining the stories’ approach to the topic of ….
Refer to the elements of poetry (e.g., simile, metaphor, symbolism, imagery, verse, rhythm, meter) of … when analyzing a poem and contrasting the impact and differences of those elements to a prose summary of the poem.
Determine the meaning of the metaphor of … and contrast that figurative language to the meaning of the simile in …
