Improving Fluency and Comprehension

When reading at home to your child, you may want to consider the following questioning techniques which should help to improve comprehension skills.

While reading a book:

1. Clarify: What is porridge?
2. Sum up: What has happened so far?
3. Predict: What do you think will happen next?
4. Visualize: Close your eyes. What do you think the inside of the bears' home looks like?
5. Make Connections: I can imagine how Goldilocks is feeling. One time I got lost. Have you ever been lost? How did you feel? What did you do?

After reading a book:

1. Sequence: What happened first? Next?
2. Analyse: What was the plot (middle, problem) of the story? Who was the main character? What did the character's actions tell you about their personality/character? What was the setting? How would the story change if the setting was in the city instead of the forest?
3. Compare: Does this story remind you of any other story we've read? Why?
4. Retell: Can you retell the story in your own words?
5. What genre do you think this story is?