What is text-dependent questioning, and why is it important in early literacy?

• A. Questions that require students to refer back to the text to answer, promoting deeper comprehension and evidence-based responses.
• B. Questions that rely on personal opinion with no reference to text.
• C. Quick recall without evidence.
• D. Focus on phonics drills rather than interpretation.

Answer: (A)

Text-dependent questioning asks students to refer back to the text to answer, so they must use evidence from what they read. This approach strengthens close reading, because students look for specific details, quotes, and phrases that support their answers rather than relying on memory or guesswork.

In early literacy, this builds meaningful comprehension by tying understanding directly to the words on the page. Students learn to locate evidence, explain how the text supports their thinking, and make inferences grounded in text features like vocabulary in context and story details. This habit also supports their oral discussion and later writing, as they can point to exact parts of the text to justify their ideas, which is a key step in becoming independent readers.

Other approaches that don’t require text evidence—relying on personal opinion, quick recall without justification, or focusing only on phonics drills—don’t promote this connection between reading and meaning. They miss the practice of demonstrating understanding through text-based reasoning, which is essential as children grow as readers.