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Think Aloud
Purpose:
Fluent readers engage prior knowledge, ask questions, and check for understanding as they read. This strategy encourages readers to do the same out loud.
How:
- Choose a piece of text
- Read the text out loud
- Include all of your thinking as you read the text
- Begin with 'who what when where why and how' prompts
- Correct and/or add to your thinking as you continue to read
Note: it is important to read the text and share all associated thinking out loud. Feel free to add corrections and predictions to the think aloud strategy.
Watch:
Go beyond a model, reveal a Think Aloud
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmhLgsBD1-I
Practice:
Select a short passage to read. As you read,
Make predictions and develop hypotheses.
- “I think this is about….”
- “I wonder if….”
- “It looks like…is going to happen.”
Describe visual images.
- “I can see a boat on the sand….”
- “It’s a rowboat with no paint and it’s worn by the weather.”
Share an analogy or make links to prior knowledge.
- “I remember the large dark green boat we used at our family reunion. It was such a heavy boat that I couldn’t row it.”
Monitor confusing points.
- “I didn’t get that piece….”
- “I don’t understand this sentence. I have to go back and check that.”
- “What was that I read before? Where did I read that part again?”
Use fix-up strategies or self-correction.
- “Oh, I thought the boat was on the beach but really it’s out in the water. I’ll have to reread that. I think it’s a lake. Maybe it’s the ocean. If I read on maybe I will know where the boat is.”
Excerpted from Creating Learning Partners Unit 6 Reading
Use a Think Aloud Checklist to monitor progress.
https://www.readingrockets.org/content/pdfs/thinkaloud_checklist.pdf
Read More:
Decoda Literacy Solutions Back to Basics: Think Alouds
https://decoda.ca/back-to-basics-think-alouds/