'What' Questions vs. 'Who' Questions in Reading Comprehension

📚 Quick Study Guide

• 🧐 'What' Questions: These questions ask about things, ideas, or actions. They seek information about the nature, characteristics, or details of something.
• 🙋 'Who' Questions: These questions ask about people or characters. They seek to identify individuals or understand their roles and actions.
• 💡 Key Difference: 'What' focuses on objects or concepts, while 'Who' focuses on individuals.
• ✍️ Answering 'What': Look for descriptions, explanations, and definitions in the text.
• 🗣️ Answering 'Who': Look for names, roles, relationships, and actions performed by individuals.
• 🔑 Signal Words for 'What': Definition, characteristics, features, examples.
• 👤 Signal Words for 'Who': Name, character, person, individual.

Practice Quiz

1. Which type of question seeks information about the characteristics of an event?
   1. Who
   2. Where
   3. What
   4. Why
2. In a story, which question type helps you identify the main character?
   1. What
   2. Who
   3. When
   4. How
3. If a question asks, "What is the theme of the story?", what type of information are you looking for?
   1. A person's name
   2. A place
   3. A main idea or concept
   4. A time
4. Which question is most likely answered with a person's name?
   1. What happened?
   2. Who is the author?
   3. What is the setting?
   4. What is the problem?
5. If you are asked, "What are the steps to solve the problem?", what are you identifying?
   1. A person
   2. A process
   3. A location
   4. A time period
6. Which type of question helps you understand a character's role?
   1. What
   2. Who
   3. When
   4. Where
7. A question asks, "What is the significance of the symbol?" This is seeking information about:
   1. A person
   2. An object or idea
   3. A place
   4. A time