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Comprehension Conversation Tips
1. Comprehension: Within, Beyond and About - know and understand the Comprehension levels.*
2. 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.
3. Remember that even standardized assessments given by psychologists veer away from the test
script when necessary.
4. Silence is golden. Provide enough wait time for students to muster their thoughts and put them into
words.
5. Reword, repeat, add or delete. The prompts are guides, not formal questions.*
6. Kid language is unique. The answers need not be word-for word repetitions, but rather an indication
that the reader understands the key idea.
7. Extra prompting does not indicate less understanding by the reader.*
8. 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?
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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
Within the Text
• Noticing and deriving information from pictures
• Solving words/Accuracy strategies
• Monitoring and correcting errors/Check for Understanding
• Searching for 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
Beyond the Text
• 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
About the Text
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
Open-Ended Prompts….
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 you think that?
And then….?
And then what happened?
And…