Your aim is to improve the tutee's quality of thinking by asking helpful and intelligent questions which give clues. This is not as easy as you might think! Tutors have to think hard, too - they do not just work through a list of given questions.
You need to put tutees at their ease, boost their confidence, and encourage them to trust you - or they will be afraid to let you know what they are thinking.
During reading, pause quite often at any natural break in the reading to think and talk about what you have read.
Remember tutees are not as old as you and don't know as much as you do, so don't expect too much or push them too hard.
Encourage tutees to "think aloud", so you can hear HOW they are thinking and really understand them - if they think alone then just give you their final answer, you will not understand how they got there. You might "think aloud" yourself sometimes, to show them how to do it.
Sometimes you can also try to "brainstorm" answers - this is where both of you say every possible answer that comes into your head, even if it seems silly or weird. Then choose the best.
Never say "No" or "That's wrong" - always ask another question to give a clue.
Although there are many questions, it is not a "test" for the tutee. Indeed, often there is no one "right" answer, only many "better" or "worse" answers. Work toward getting more "better" answers. But even the tutor need not know the answer to the question at the beginning - you can work it out together.
Tutees can ask tutors questions, too! Keep each other thinking!
It's OK for both tutors and tutees to say they "don't know" - but be clear about what you need to know and think about how you might find out.
Give the tutees some time to think - they will not usually be able to answer straight away. But if they think for more than half a minute without success, maybe they need a clue in another question.
Praise the tutee for all thoughtful responses - for example: "Good, I can tell you thought hard about that".
The questions listed are only examples to get you started - please do think up your own questions as well. Your own questions should encourage the tutee to say whatever they really think, not push them towards one "right answer".
Tutors can say what they think, too - but be careful not let tutees assume that must be the "right answer" - ask the tutee what they think as well.
You might need to go back to read bits of the book again at any time to check on things or answer questions. When you do, you might want to read the difficult bit TO the tutee, so they can think about it.
Some of the listed questions apply only to story books, some apply only to information books. Just leave out the questions which don't apply to the book you are reading.
When you are stuck trying to think of a question quickly, "How do you know that?" is often a good one.
When you are reading a longer book, you might find the tutee has trouble remembering everything, even if they did understand it in the first place. If they don't remember, it does not always mean they never did understand.
You might find tutees remember the beginning or end of a book better than the middle - but they do need to think about the middle as well!
In the "BEFORE" Stage, the "Five Finger Test" for difficulty of book means you:
If the tutor struggles to read more than one or two of the 20 "fingered" words, the book is probably too hard for the tutor.
In the "DURING READING" Stage, the five Activities (Author Aims, Meaning, Truth, Prediction, Links) can be worked through in any order. Choose any relevant questions from any Activity at any time.
In the "AFTER READING" Stage when you are finding the main ideas or "Summarizing", and choose to write down some keywords and/or write a summary for your classmates, it is usually easier if the tutor does any writing - but the tutor must not do all the thinking!
In the "AFTER READING" Stage when you are doing "Self-Assessment", this is a good time to really praise each other - AGAIN!