Think+Aloud

= Think Aloud = Rationale ** I chose this because I wanted to see what my students understand as they read. I want them to be thinking about what it is that is happening and wondering about things. Since I am working with low struggling readers, they tend to mostly focusing on processing and decoding a word. I really like that this strategy can help them move beyond focusing on words to thinking about the story as a whole. Implementation Suggestions ** This strategy could definitely work in all other content areas. We all have questions and are thinking as we read. It might just be to think about things we don’t understand or maybe we connected to what we were reading in some way. I think it would be neat to use this with older students as maybe a post reading strategy. For instance, maybe they have been assigned a story to read or a chapter of the science book to read. I think it would be neat for them to then do a “think aloud” explaining some things from the text/story or even posing some questions to the class to discuss. Basically, turn them into the teacher. Diverse Learners ** They really liked and were engaged in the first story I read, Six-Dinner Sid. It was something a little out of the norm for what I usually do and they really liked it. The strategy mostly worked for my auditory learners. I could have had the prompts posted for my visual learners or maybe had them write down their thinking before we talked about it. I started by choosing a fictional book that I thought would be interesting to this group of students, Six-Dinner Sid, by Inga Moore. I read through the story modeling aloud what I was thinking as I read. The book I used as a reference had some great thinking aloud prompts to use while I was reading. (I will put those in a chart and add them later) These prompts helped me to be a little more confident in thinking aloud because I am always so unsure when I try this strategy. Next, we read a story that was on level for the boys in my group and together we tried thinking aloud as we read I had them focus on just a few thinking strategies and the prompts that went with them to get started. The whole list could be a little overwhelming. We started with the predicting prompt and all made some general predictions about the story. I liked that I said more than let’s make a prediction. I used the prompts and was able to get a little more out of my students. We also used the prompts for “check for understanding” once we started reading. Again we each took a turn (including me) sort of recapping the story. When we finished the story I went back and had a discussion about how they thought it went. They felt kind of like I did when I think about thinking aloud. They were a little scared and shy, but since I modeled what I was looking for using another story first they were able to get the idea. In the coming days, I would like to try some of the other prompts with my students so they can become familiar with them and we can use all of them on a more regular basis. We do a lot of reading together so it adds a little extra something to the lesson and shows me what they are thinking about as they read the story.
 * Procedures**

Start a little smaller. Maybe try thinking aloud with a paragraph or sentence first. With the low students I work with I think this could have been beneficial to them.
 * Potential Issues/Changes **

Johns, J., Lenski, S., & Elish-Piper, L. (1999). Early Literacy Assessments & Teaching Strategies. Kendall/Hunt.
 * References **

Prompts from Book:



Additional information from implemente strategies:

Think Aloud strategies are to help with comprehension. Its main goal is to help student better understand and use comprehension strategies while they are reading.
 * Strategy Description **

This “class” is a second grade Title group of only 2 boys that are considered the lowest in the second grade.
 * Description of the class **

**Reflection** It went well. Like I said earlier they were a little reluctant to try it but since I went first and we have such a small group they started getting into it pretty quick. The model first was a huge help and we all liked the prompts to give us a direction to head with our thinking. One of the most important things I have learned with these strategies is talking to my students about the strategy. Naming it and discussing how they felt about it really seems to mean more to them.