Types of comprehension questions and what each one measures

By the IEP Atlas editorial teamLast updated November 1, 2026

Short answer

The main types of comprehension questions are literal (the answer is stated), inferential (the reader connects clues), vocabulary in context, main idea and summary, text structure, and evaluative (the reader judges or connects to other ideas). Sorting a student's errors by type shows which skill to teach, which a single percent correct hides.

A student who scores 60% on a comprehension check might miss every inference and get every fact right. Another student with the same 60% might do the reverse. They need different teaching. Sorting questions by type is the fastest way to tell them apart.

The table below defines each type with an example from one short passage, then a fictional 4th grader shows how an error profile changes the goal. A second table covers how question types show up on state tests, which vary. For teaching the strategies behind each type, see the cluster pillar on reading comprehension strategies.

The six types, with examples

All the examples use this fictional passage:

Type	Where the answer is	Example question	What a miss suggests
Literal	Stated in one sentence	What did Grandma wear?	Attention, decoding or memory for detail
Literal, across sentences	Stated, but in two or more places	What did Grandma do every August, and where did Ana usually watch?	Holding and combining details
Inferential	Built from clues plus knowledge	How did Ana feel about going near the bees? How do you know?	Inference, often vocabulary or background knowledge
Vocabulary in context	A word meaning the text supports	What are "frames" in this story?	Word knowledge or context clue skills
Main idea or summary	The point of the whole text	What is this story mostly about?	Telling important from less important
Text structure or craft	How the text is built	Why does the author say Ana watched "from the kitchen window"?	Author's purpose and structure
Evaluative	The reader judges or connects	Was Grandma right to bring Ana this year? Why?	Reasoning and using the text to support an opinion

Literal questions are not easy questions for every student. A student with weak working memory may miss a detail that sat in sentence 2 by the time they reach the question.

Why sorting by type matters

The What Works Clearinghouse guide for grades 4 to 9 recommends giving students consistent chances to ask and answer questions about text, including questions that need more than recall.^[1] The National Reading Panel found that teaching students to answer questions, and to generate their own, improved comprehension.^[2] Neither works well if every question is literal. A balanced probe tells you which types to teach.

A workable mix for a 10-question probe: 3 literal, 3 inferential, 1 vocabulary, 1 main idea, 1 structure and 1 evaluative. Keep the mix the same on every probe so scores can be compared.

Scenario: one student's error profile

Student (fictional): Kai, grade 4, reads grade 3 text with about 97% accuracy. His IEP goal says he will "answer comprehension questions with 80% accuracy." His teacher has three months of data hovering between 55% and 65%, with no trend.

What the teacher did, October 14 to 24. She rescored Kai's last 3 probes by question type, using 10-question probes with the mix above.

Question type	Probe 1	Probe 2	Probe 3	Total
Literal (3 each)	3	3	3	9 of 9
Inferential (3 each)	0	1	1	2 of 9
Vocabulary (1 each)	1	0	1	2 of 3
Main idea (1 each)	1	1	1	3 of 3
Structure (1 each)	0	1	0	1 of 3
Evaluative (1 each)	1	0	0	1 of 3
Total	6 of 10	6 of 10	6 of 10	18 of 30

Kai was not a 60% reader across the board. He was close to perfect on literal and main idea questions and was missing nearly every inference.

The change, November 3. The team rewrote the goal: given an unpracticed grade 3 passage, Kai will answer 4 inferential questions, giving the answer and one text clue, with at least 3 of 4 correct on 3 consecutive biweekly probes. Baseline: 1 of 4. The closest template is make inferences supported by text evidence. Instruction moved to inference: clue plus what I know equals my answer.

By January 26, Kai answered 3 of 4 inference questions on two probes in a row, and his total score on the mixed probe rose to 8 of 10.

Question types on state tests

Teachers often want IEP probes to look like the state test. That is reasonable for older students, but formats differ by state. Check your state's released items.

Format	What it asks	Common on state tests?
Single-answer multiple choice	Pick the best answer from 4	Yes, in nearly every state
Two-part evidence items	Answer, then pick the sentence that supports it	Varies by state
Multiple select	Pick all answers that apply	Varies by state
Short constructed response	Write 1 to 3 sentences with evidence	Varies by state and grade
Extended response or essay	Write about one or more texts	Varies by state; often grades 3 and up
Read-aloud of passages	Text read by a human or text-to-speech	Allowed as an accommodation under state rules, which differ

For practice locating where an answer comes from, the templates to tell where a question's answer is found and to highlight the sentence that answers a question fit two-part evidence items. Older students working on test passages can use the template to answer inference questions on test-style passages.

Matching question type to measurement

Literal and vocabulary items are right or wrong. Use percent accuracy with a fixed number of items.
Inferential and evaluative items need an answer and evidence. Use a 2-point scale (answer, clue) or a short rubric. See rubric scoring.
Main idea and summary are best scored with a rubric. The main idea IEP goal page has scoring rules.

The guide on how to measure reading comprehension for IEP goals covers probe design in full. If a student misses questions of every type, check decoding and listening first; see listening vs reading comprehension.

Writing goals by question type

A goal that names the question type is easier to teach and to measure than "comprehension questions with 80% accuracy." For full wording, browse the comprehension goals page and the reading comprehension strategies goal hub. Sixteen worked goals with baselines are in IEP goals for reading comprehension. Younger students can start with who, what and where questions after a read-aloud and move to why and how questions about a story.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between literal and inferential questions?

A literal question has its answer stated in the text. An inferential question needs the reader to put clues together with what they already know, because the author did not say it directly. Ask for the clue to check an inference.

How many questions of each type should a probe include?

For a 10-question probe, a workable mix is 3 literal, 3 inferential, 1 vocabulary, 1 main idea, 1 structure and 1 evaluative. Keep the same mix on every probe so the scores can be compared over time.

Are wh- questions a type of comprehension question?

Wh- questions describe the question word (who, what, where, when, why, how). Who, what and where questions are usually literal. Why and how questions are often inferential. Sorting by type tells you more than sorting by question word.

Use it in IEP Atlas

Sources

Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9, What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences
Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Written and checked by the IEP Atlas editorial team under our editorial policy. This guide describes general practice and federal rules. It is not legal advice; your state may add requirements, and the IEP team makes the decisions for each student.