My first go at a Think Aloud…FAILURE! Okay that might be a
little drastic, but it was not as easy or successful as I thought it would
be. Honestly, I think I went into
developing a think aloud and implementing it with kind of a know-it-all
attitude and it definitely put me in my place really quick. I learned a significant amount about
both of my readers and about myself as a reading instructor. I think that this is a great strategy to implement in the reading classroom because I believe that teaching students the skills to really get into a story and engage with it is so important to develop students into people who love and value reading.
My Think Aloud covered monitoring skills, focusing on making
predictions, connections, and clarifications about the text. I conducted it with two students who are
struggling readers. We have been
consistently working on improving comprehension skills and I thought it would
be best to focus on these three to begin with. I didn’t want to overwhelm the students with strategies, but
I wanted to give them a choice of what they could share. My goal for this think aloud was mainly
to help both students develop skills for thinking about the text as they are
reading, rather than focusing on sounding out the words that they don’t
know. Both students are really
working hard at their skills for reading, but in the process focusing on what
they are learning from the text falls short until they have fully gotten
through it.
I think that my modeling could have been more explicit in
pointing out what I was doing. I
think I chose good places to stop because I did provide the students with significant
connections, predictions, and clarifications that I was making while I was
reading. However, the students
weren’t able to clearly connect what I was saying with what they were supposed
to try out. The think-along phase
probably was the most successful part of the lesson. I had students give me a peace sign at any time they wanted
to think aloud about the text and that was my cue to stop at the end of the
sentence to allow them to share.
Both students contributed freely and often, however they mostly shared
connections and ideas they had about the text. They rarely provided predictions and they clarified a couple
of times. As I tried to lead into
the student practice with teacher support and self responsibility phase I soon
realized that the book I had chosen was way too difficult for them.
I let the students choose between two picture book
biographies and they book decided to read Harry Houdini: The Legend of the World's Greatest Escape Artist and I soon realized that the wording was too difficult
for the students, especially when one of them pointed it out to me. Both students were working hard at
trying to get through the sentences, which in turn didn’t allow them the energy
or effort to put into thinking about the text and their own reading
strategies. I think that another
downfall of our think aloud was that I didn’t give the students as much
direction as I think they needed.
At first I thought I didn’t want to direct their attention
too much and I wanted to see what they were noticing in the reading. However, I think that both of the
students would have benefited from think aloud prompts. I found some good ones on the Internet and
some that I have thought of that I think I will try out when we do this again.
·
What do you think will happen next?
·
Let’s think about what’s going on here. What do you think (character) is
thinking right now?
·
Try to visualize this part. What do you see?
·
So far I’ve learned…
·
I wonder why…
Overall both students seem more confident about making
personal connections to the text than asking questions, making predictions, or
making clarifications. This is
great because I can tell that they are really trying to understand the text in
a way that works for them. But I
really want to try to work on developing these other strategies too! I think that choosing a book where they
won’t struggle through the sentences as much will definitely help and working
through the modeling more slowly and stopping to explain what I’m doing will
also help. I was really surprised
at how hard it was to describe what we were doing in a way that the students
would understand and be able to try it out, but I was really happy by their
enthusiasm and determination to read through the book even though it was too
difficult for them. I think that
the strength I have in using this strategy is determining what to point out and
notice aloud with the students in a natural genuine way.
I am going to try this again with my students on Monday
because I really think that they can get a lot more out of the think aloud than
they did on Friday. They both
wanted to read the other book I gave as an option also and I think that it is a
better option to help them focus on the reading strategies and thinking aloud. I learned that the two readers that I
am consistently working with are both good at determining what is important in
the text, but they zero in on those things instead of also thinking about the
details that can teach us more about the story. I want to work with them on emphasizing the importance of
immersing yourself in a story and taking your time to work through it instead
of always trying to get through it as efficiently as possible. I definitely learned that doing a think
aloud successfully takes practice!!!
Also I learned that that the students can’t learn these strategies in
one day. I think that a think
aloud will be most absorbed and ingrained if it is done frequently and
consistently.
I think it is a great strategy, I just need to work at it in
order to learn how to do it successfully!
Thanks!
Kate
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