However, not every detail is important. When tutors continually ask about minor details, it suggests to the student that good readers memorize every detail as they read. You can avoid this faulty focus by asking more general questions.

General Questions
Broad, general questions help the student see the big picture. General question don't necessarily have a right or wrong answer. General questions may invite reflection or discussion; they often activate thinking strategies such as inferring, drawing conclusions, summarizing, analyzing, or comparing.

Here are some suggestions for leading into general questions:

For Any Reading
• What does that mean?
• What caused this to happen?
• What were the effects of...?
• Why...?
• How...?
• What is the difference between...and...?
• What if...?
• What do you think about the...?

For Fiction
• What happened so far in the story?
• What do you think will happen next?
• Which characters do you like? dislike?
• What was the best (worst, most interesting, funniest)...?
• What would you have done in that situation?
• Have you ever known anyone like this person?
• Have you ever done (felt, seen, heard) anything like that?

For Nonfiction
• What new information did you learn?
• How did the author organize this information?
• Do you agree or disagree?
• With what points?
• Why?
• Do you think the author was fair? honest? thorough?