Skip to content ↓

Mechanics of Reading

DERIC Skill Example questions 
Decode
Retrieve
Interpret
Choice
  • What can we do when we don’t know how to read a word?
  • Can you recognise the graphemes in the word?
  • What phonemes could they make?
  • Can you read these words?
  • What is the prefix/suffix in each word?
  • Are there any words you need to check before reading the piece as a whole?
  • Explain
  • What punctuation can you find in the text?
  • Do the sentences around the word contain any examples that would help explain the word?
  • Can you summarise each paragraph?
  • What are the main organisational features that have been used in this text?
  • What is an expanded noun phrase/adverbial phrase/simile?
  • Which words in the text do you think are particularly effective?
  • Is there a main message from the text?
  • Find and tell me one word/group of words that tells you the character……
  • How can we understand the main points of the text without reading in detail?
  • How quickly can you find all of the words that describe the character’s feelings?
  • If you had to re-write this section in only 5 sentences, what would you include?
  • Who is the author of this book?
  • Have you ever read anything else by this person?
  • What is similar about the books that (author) has written? Do they all use similar language?
  • Predict what could happen in the next paragraph and use direct quotes from the text to support your answer.
  • What do you think might happen next in the text?
  • Find the word/words that told you the character was behaving in a certain way
  • What do we know about how this character is acting?
  • Is the text meant to inform/persuade/instruct/entertain/complain/explain?
  • What effect has it had on you as the reader?
  • Do you think this text does the job it is supposed to do?
  • Whose viewpoints do we learn about in this text?
  • Which part of the text really makes it effective? Does the text use paragraphs, subheadings, diagrams, pictures, etc to make it a high-quality text?