The Role of Comprehension Monitoring

Skilled readers don’t just decode words; they actively monitor their understanding as they read. This process, known as comprehension monitoring, involves the metacognitive ability to detect and address confusion in real time. Often described as “thinking about thinking,” this skill helps readers recognize when meaning breaks down and take steps to repair it. While experienced readers may do this automatically, research confirms that comprehension monitoring can and should be explicitly taught and practiced in the classroom.

Using Questioning Strategies to Support Comprehension

One of the most effective ways to build students’ comprehension monitoring skills is through self-generated questioning. When students learn to ask themselves purposeful questions while reading, they become more active, engaged, and reflective readers (Boardman et al., 2008; NRP, 2000). These questions generally fall into two categories:

• Metacognitive Self-Questioning: Students evaluate the degree to which they understand—or are confused by—the text they are reading.
• Text-Specific Questions: Students check the accuracy and depth of their understanding by generating questions about the text’s content and meaning.

Metacognitive Self-Questioning

Metacognitive self-questioning encourages students to pause and ask themselves, "Do I understand this?" or "Does this make sense?" These types of questions help readers check their comprehension intermittently, redirect their attention when meaning is unclear, and reread and/or adjust their reading strategies (Joseph et al., 2015).

Sample Metacognitive Questions:

1. Do I understand what I just read?
2. Does this sentence make sense? If not, which words are unclear?
3. How does this connect to what I know?
4. Is this important information?

Practicing Metacognitive Questions with Partner Reading

Partner reading is a helpful way to practice metacognitive strategies. In this approach, students take turns reading aloud. After one student finishes reading a designated section of text, their partner prompts the reader to pause and reflect with the question, “How well did you understand this section?” If necessary, the section is reread before progressing any further. This collaborative routine helps normalize rereading and reinforces the habit of checking for understanding (Swanson et al., 2018).

Text-Specific Questions

Considerations for Before, During, and After Reading

To integrate questioning strategies systematically, teachers can use a before, during, and after reading framework. Each phase supports comprehension monitoring in a different way.

• Before Reading: Students use the title and subheadings to generate questions about what they will learn while reading and activate background knowledge.
• During Reading: Students use the 5Ws (who, what, when, where, why) to track essential information and formulate gist statements (Vaughn et al., 2022).
• After Reading: Students use the 5Ws and H (how) to summarize the main idea and key details of a book chapter, article, or other classroom reading.

Generating Literal and Inferential Questions

Text-specific questions help readers engage more deeply by requiring both literal and inferential thinking. While the 5Ws and H offer a solid foundation, students need explicit instruction in the differences between literal and inferential questions, the demands each question type places on the reader, and how to connect question types to text evidence.

A well-researched framework for this is Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) (Raphael & Au, 2005), which categorizes questions based on whether the answer can be found entirely in the text or if a reader’s background knowledge must be applied to formulate a response.  
 

For comprehension monitoring, right there, think and search, and author and me questions are the most useful. Students should first learn to identify each type of question. Once familiar, instruction can transition to question generation, with ample teacher modeling and guided practice. Over time, students will become increasingly independent with this skill.

Leveraging Text Structure to Guide Questions

Narrative and expository texts are organized differently, and understanding these structures can guide students in generating more precise and purposeful questions.

• For narrative texts, questions can reference story grammar elements like character, setting, problem, and solution.
   
• For informational texts, structure-specific words such as cause, effect, solution, compare, and contrast can help students frame their questions.
   

Comprehension monitoring is a critical but often underutilized component of reading instruction. With clear modeling and structured practices for developing and answering questions, educators can help students develop the metacognitive awareness they need to become stronger, more independent readers.

References

Boardman, A.G., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Murray, C.S., & Kosanovich, M. (2008). Effective instruction for adolescent struggling readers: A practice brief. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: Reports of the Subgroups (No. 004754.). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.  

Joseph, L., Alber-Morgan, S., Cullen, J., & Rouse, C. (2015). The effects of self questioning on reading comprehension: A literature review, Reading & Writing Quarterly, 1-22, doi: 10.1080/10573569.2014.891449.

Raphael, T.E. (1986). Teaching question-answer relationships, The Reading Teacher, 39, 516-520.

Raphael, T.E. & Au, K.H. (2005). QAR: Enhancing comprehension and test taking across grades and content areas, The Reading Teacher, 59(3), 206-221. 

Swanson, E., Wexler, J., Shelton, A., Kurz, L.A., & Vaughn, S. (2018). Partner reading: An evidence-based practice. Teacher’s guide. Austin, TX: The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk.

Vaughn, S. et al., (2022). Providing reading interventions for students in grades 49 (WWC 2022007). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of EducationSciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from https://whatworks.ed.gov/.