Inside the ELA Classroom
March 2017
Think-Alouds to Teach Comprehension
Modeling through think-alouds is the best way to teach all comprehension strategies. By thinking aloud, teachers show students what good readers do. Think-alouds can be used during read-alouds and shared reading. They can also be used during small-group reading to review or reteach a previously modeled strategy.
Wilhelm (2001) describes a think-aloud as a way to:
- Create a record of the strategic decision-making process of going through text
- Report everything the reader notices, does, sees, feels, asks, and understands as she reads
- Talk about the reading strategies being used within the content being read
There are many ways to conduct think-alouds:
- The teacher models the think-aloud while she reads aloud, and the students listen.
- The teacher thinks aloud during shared reading, and the students help out.
- Students think aloud during shared reading, and the teacher and other students monitor and help.
- The teacher or students think aloud during shared reading while writing on an overhead, on self-stick notes, or in a journal.
- Students think aloud in small-group reading, and the teacher monitors and helps.
- Students individually think aloud during independent reading using self-stick notes or a journal. Then students compare their thoughts with others.
(Wilhelm, 2001)
When you introduce a new comprehension strategy, model during read-aloud and shared reading:
- Decide on a strategy to model.
- Choose a short text or section of text.
- Read the text ahead of time. Mark locations where you will stop and model the strategy.
- State your purpose—name the strategy and explain the focus of your think-alouds.
- Read the text aloud to students and think aloud at the designated points.
- If you conduct a shared reading experience, have students highlight words and phrases that show evidence of your thinking by placing self-stick notes in the book.
- Reinforce the think-alouds with follow-up lessons in the same text or with others.
Taken from http://www.benchmarkeducation.com/best-practices-library/comprehension-strategies.html#section_3
Types of Comprehension Strategies
Types of Comprehension Strategies
There are six main types of comprehension strategies (Harvey and Goudvis; 2000):
- Make Connections—Readers connect the topic or information to what they already know about themselves, about other texts, and about the world.
- Ask Questions—Readers ask themselves questions about the text, their reactions to it, and the author's purpose for writing it.
- Visualize—Readers make the printed word real and concrete by creating a “movie” of the text in their minds.
- Determine Text Importance—Readers (a) distinguish between what's essential versus what's interesting, (b) distinguish between fact and opinion, (c) determine cause-and-effect relationships, (d) compare and contrast ideas or information, (e) discern themes, opinions, or perspectives, (f) pinpoint problems and solutions, (g) name steps in a process, (h) locate information that answers specific questions, or (i) summarize.
- Make Inferences—Readers merge text clues with their prior knowledge and determine answers to questions that lead to conclusions about underlying themes or ideas.
- Synthesize—Readers combine new information with existing knowledge to form original ideas, new lines of thinking, or new creations.
Students quickly grasp how to make connections, ask questions, and visualize. However, they often struggle with the way to identify what is most important in the text, identify clues and evidence to make inferences, and combine information into new thoughts. All these strategies should be modeled in isolation many times so that students get a firm grasp of what the strategy is and how it helps them comprehend text.
However, students must understand that good readers use a variety of these strategies every time they read. Simply knowing the individual strategies is not enough, nor is it enough to know them in isolation. Students must know when and how to collectively use these strategies.
Taken from http://www.benchmarkeducation.com/best-practices-library/comprehension-strategies.html