Text-Dependent Questions, Grades 6-12

"Fisher and Frey set the record straight about text-dependent questions. They demonstrate that text-dependent questions can address not only literal understanding but also understandings about what the text doesn’t say, how the text works, what the text means to and for the reader, how the text might be read in a specific discipline, and more. With specific prompts and concrete examples, Fisher and Frey show us how to use questioning as a central tool to address the Common Core State Standards." 

-- NELL K. DUKE

"Fisher and Frey have a knack for making complex topics accessible. They write in a jargon-free style that teachers appreciate, and their use of examples and analogies helps bring ideas to life. These are qualities their readers have come to expect, and this book does not disappoint. . . . Teachers will find here an abundance of fresh, practical ideas that are easy to implement. This book deserves a ‘close read,’ and I heartily recommend it."

-- MICHAEL MCKENNA

"Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey are experts at linking research to educational practice. Their latest book, Text-Dependent Questions, provides teachers with the information they need to scaffold their students’ deep comprehension through four levels of questioning. I am excited to share this book with teachers and colleagues!"

-- LINDA DORN

"Text-Dependent Questions solidifies Fisher and Frey’s well-earned reputation as literacy experts who offer sane and nuanced interpretations of the Common Core State Standards. They remind us that close reading at its best is a social process, one involving teacher-learner interaction as well as student-to-student talk. While the recommended texts and sample questions are useful, the extended classroom examples are the true heart of the book, demonstrating how skilled practitioners flexibly devise and deploy high-quality questions to serve varied instructional purposes. "

-- KELLY CHANDLER-OLCOTT

"Fisher and Frey deliver another indispensable resource for teachers of adolescents across the curriculum as they strive to meet today’s more rigorous standards. Mentoring students to grow from dependence on questions provided by others to developing the capacity to "interrogate a text" themselves is fundamental to proficient reading of complex disciplinary texts. Text-Dependent Questions provides teachers with a carefully reasoned pathway for questioning a text as a requisite for close reading."

-- DOUGH BUEHL, Author of Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning

"Everything about this book is genuine.  From the authors’ candid appraisal of the myths surrounding close reading to their forthright recommendations for teaching it is refreshing.  Fisher and Frey have been there, lived the pedagogy, and generated much of the scholarship that makes Text-Dependent Questions both compelling and unpretentious.  Readers who have heard this dynamic pair speak at conferences and other professional gatherings are in for a treat; they are indisputably on the frontline when it comes to engaging others in close reading."

-- DONNA ALVER