(+1) Comprehension Conversation Tips

  1. Comprehension: Within, Beyond and About - know and understand the Comprehension levels.*
  1. Who is the reader? Are they shy, wary, outgoing, easily distracted? Use whatever you as a professional can to pull from the reader evidence of understanding.
  1. Remember that even standardized assessments given by psychologists veer away from the test script when necessary.
  1. Silence is golden. Provide enough wait time for students to muster their thoughts and put them into words.
  1. Reword, repeat, add or delete. The prompts are guides, not formal questions.*
  1. Kid language is unique. The answers need not be word-for word repetitions, but rather an indication that the reader understands the key idea.
  1. Extra prompting does not indicate less understanding by the reader.*
  1. Build on what is stated. Repeat information the reader has given you before asking a generic prompt such as…Tell me more….What else…Why?
  1. Look inside. The book is a support and can be opened for reminders, but the students should not reread the book. Comments should be stated in their own words. You can make the call about whether they are relying on the book too much.
  1. Insights arrive at the most surprising moments. The extra point for Additional Information is an insight or information not reflected in the key understandings provided. It may occur at any point in the conversation.
  1. The Comprehension Scoring Guide is not asking you to count the correct answers but rather to make an overall judgment using the evidence shown by the reader to determine the level of understanding.

Most importantly, we can tell more about understanding through chatting about a book with a student than we can by asking them to answer formal questions!

*See explanations of Comprehension Levels and Open-Ended Prompt suggestions

Fountas, I., and Pinnell, G.( 2010) The Benchmark Assessment System. Portsmouth, NH:Heineman

Comprehension Levels

Here is a brief summary of the Fountas and Pinnell comprehension levels. The comprehension strategies included are those used in the midst of reading the text that allow the reading to gather meaning. These strategies are used the means to the end; they are what good readers do to attain comprehension. The strategies are not recorded in the comprehension conversation, but are rather observed informally in the midst of reading. If so desired, there are optional assessments included in the Fountas and Pinnell kit that allow a closer examination of the strategies used.

*I have used Fountas and Pinnell wording, other than the italicized text, which are the

comprehension strategies from the Daily Café for those of you who use that language.

The reader is gaining the literal meaning of the text through:

• Remembering key events and information/Check for Understanding

• Noticing and deriving information from pictures

• Solving words/Accuracy strategies

• Monitoring and correcting errors/Check for Understanding

• Searchingfor and using information/Use Text Features

• Summarizing/Retell the story

• Maintaining fluency/Fluency strategies

• Adjusting reading to fit purpose or genre/Back Up and Reread

The reader is gaining the inferential meaning of the text through:

• Synthesizing new information

• Inferring the feelings and motivations of characters

• Interpreting the illustrations

• Predicting/Predict What will happen: Use text to confirm

• Connectiong/Use prior knowledge to connect

• Inferring what is implied but not stated/Infer and support with evidence

• Visualizing

• Questioning

• Determining Importance

The reader is thinking about the text in a critical and evaluative manner by:

• Recognizing and evaluating writer’s craft, language use/Recognize

Literary Elements

• Reading like a writer

• Evaluating the quality and accuracy/Determine and Analyze Author’s

Purpose and Support with Text

• Comparing and contrasting within and between texts

• Questioning

• Analyzing

• Critiquing

Fountas, I., and Pinnell, G.( 2010).The Benchmark Assessment System.Portsmouth, NH:Heineman

Boushey, G. and Moser, J. (2009). The Daily Café. Portland, ME:Stenhouse

Say more about that.

What else?

Can you talk more about that?

What do you think about that?

Say more about what you’re thinking.

Say more..

Tell more about that.

Why do youthink that?

And then….?

And then what happened?

And…