Think-AloudsBy: Brittany Storch, Lauren Brechtel, Ally Kotz, Hillary Long, and Kristi Tamasitis

Based on the text:

Improving

Comprehension with

Think-Aloud

Strategies

Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D.

What are Think-Alouds?“Think-alouds in reading is creating a record, either through writing or talking aloud, of the strategic decision-making and interpreting process of going through a text, reporting everything the reader is aware of noticing, doing, seeing, feeling, asking, and understanding as he or she reads.”

“Think-alouds are approximate

duplicates of what the student actually

thought about during thereading.”

Think-Alouds Help Teachers…0 Deepen the awareness of the reading process

0 Help model these strategies

0 Helps assess students and plan instruction

0 Know what in text confuses students; assess strategies; diagnosis problems

0 Support readers’ monitoring their own comprehension

Think-Alouds Help Students…

0 Understand reading to makes sense

0 Move beyond the literal meaning of the text

0 Learn how to read using different strategies independently

Think-Alouds Being Modeled0 Teacher performs think-aloud

0 Teacher conducts think-aloud with student engagement

0 Students do think-aloud; teacher monitors

0 (Gradual release of responsibility)

General Process Think-Alouds

0 General processes are the things that all readers need to master before moving on to more difficult text tasks.

Setting Purposes for Reading

• Why am I reading this?

• What am I hoping to find out?

• What am I hoping to prove?

Making Predictions

• What does the title/cover make me think of?

• What do you think will happen next?

• Why do you think X did what he/she did?

• What do you think X will do now?

• Was I right?

Making personal connections

• Is this similar to something that I have seen or experienced?

• How does this relate to my own life?

• Can this help me get through a problem or understand something?

Visualizing

• Close your eyes and think about what is being read.

• What do you see?

• What is happening?

Comprehension Monitoring

• Does what I am reading make sense?

• Does what I am reading fit in with what I already know or is it something new?

Using Fix-Up Strategies to Address Confusion and Repair

Comprehension • Re-Read• Look at the Picture (If Any)• Read Ahead• Figure Out Unknown Words• Look at Sentence Structure• Make a Mental Image• Define Purpose for Reading• Ask Questions• Make Predictions• Stop to Think/Summarize • Make Connections• Ask for Help

Steps of General Process Think-Alouds

0 Step One: Choose a text that is both interesting to students and within their Zone of Proximal Development

0 Step Two: Explain what the point of what a think-aloud is in general (i.e. how it is conducted) as well as what this specific one is targeting.

0 Step Three: Give students a purpose for reading.

0 Step Four: Begin reading the text, pausing at key moments to verbalize thoughts regarding the strategy being highlighted.

0 Step Five: Have students determine and underline the words/phrases that were used with the strategy and discuss them.

0 Step Six: After several think-alouds using the above steps, create a list with the students about what cues were used for the strategy and post them.

0 Step Seven: Assist students in identifying others areas of life in which the strategy could be useful.

0 Step Eight: Use a variety of follow-up lessons to encourage the gradual release of responsibility.

Free Response and Cued Think-Alouds

0 QAR (Question-Answer Relationship) Questions

0 Literal “Right There” Questions0 Inferring “Think and Search” Questions0 Personal Experience Connection “Author-and-Me” Questions0 Life and World General “On Your Own” Questions

0 Visual Think-Alouds0 Encourage students to draw during the think-aloud 0 Individual responses (symbols, pictures, etc.)

Why Do We Use Free-Response and Cued Think-Alouds?

“Students see how they read, share their characteristic ways of reading with classmates, recognize that

others read differently from the way they do, and realize that expert readers call upon a wide variety of strategies at the same time – strategies that they may

wish to appropriate and use for themselves” (Wilhelm, 2001, p. 68).

0 General Rules of Notice:0 Titles0 Beginnings0 Climaxes/Key Details0 Extended Descriptions0 Changes e.g. in Direction, Setting, Point of View0 Repetition0 Surprises and Ruptures0 Endings

0 Rules of Notice for Character:0 Titles0 Names and Nicknames0 Introductions0 Problems0 Actions0 Physical Description0 Clothing0 Way They Talk/Language They Use0 Typical Setting or Surroundings0 Friends or People They Hang With0 What Others Say About Them0 Tastes/Likes/Dislikes0 Character Thoughts0 Character Changes

Visual Think-Alouds0 Engaged readers use visual components to bring their

own life into the reading. 0 Picture mapping, mind movies, symbolic story

representation etc. 0 Learning Disabled are very visual learners0 Have students share their visual think-alouds- why

did they draw the pictures the way they did?0 Reveals the student’s thought process. 0 Visualization check sheet for readers (pg. 120)

0 Individual use

Modeling Think-Alouds

0 Teacher does/Students watch0 Teacher does/Students help0 Students do/ Teacher helps0 Teacher does/Students must help

New Genres

0 Do your own0 Study students

Task Specific vs. Text Type

0 Task specific 0 Irony0 symbolism

0 Text-Type0 Compare-contrast0 Cause- effect

Talk Backs0 Enact procedural knowledge of a subject

1. Reflect knowledge of topic2. Connect with prior knowledge3. Recognize structures and conventions4. Reference to the process of reading5. Retelling

Important Genres

0 New stories0 Authentic 0 Connections0 Reading strategies0 Identify details, summarizing meaning

0 Arguments0 Most important0 Advertisements

Talk Back With News Article

0 What is the topic of the article?0 What important ideas are expressed about the topic

(5W &H)0 Does it clearly make known how this event/issue

related to other events (past/future)? How does it help think about what is important?

0 Is the story coherent?0 What strategies am I using to create meaning? What

tools am I using to critique the structure, writing, content?

Performance-Based Instruction

“Think-alouds can motivate effective assessment tools.”

“…in-process look at readers engaged in comprehensive activity.”

Why Should We Use Think-Alouds as

Teachers?

To…0 Quickly assess students

0 Assess students over time0 Inform our instruction

0 Homogeneously group students0 Self-assess0 Collect data

0 Communicate with parents

For…0 Student peer-assessment0 Student-teacher portfolios

“The premise behind it [think-alouds] is simple: the most

important thing we can teach our students is how to learn”

(Wilhelm, 2001, p. 7).