OM: List the things you do in your head while you’re reading.
We watched and discussed a slideshow today called Think Aloud Strategy, which was about the things students should do while they are reading to make sure they are ‘constructing meaning’. A few notes were taken. The main parts of the slideshow are as follows:
As students read they should?
* pause occasionally to think aloud about connections they are making.
* create images or pictures of concepts from the reading.
* recognize when they are experiencing problems in understanding.
* identify ways they see of fixing these problems.As students use this strategy, they should:
* predict (?I bet that..? or ?I wonder if?? or ?I think that??)
* picture the text (?From this part here I can see?? or ?I imagine that??)
* make comparisons (?This reminds me of..? or ?This part is like..? or ?This is similar to..?)
* monitor their comprehension (?I don?t get this…? or ?This confuses me because..? or ?This is a difficult part because??)
* decide how to fix up (repair) comprehension problems (?Maybe I better reread..? or ?Maybe I need to keep on reading to see if?? or ?I better find out what this word means because..?)
* comment on what they?ve read (?I like this because?? or ?This part is sad because..?)
Good readers have a constant dialogue with the text as they read, although they usually do it silently. Think alouds provide struggling readers with a structure on which to build this dialogue; they learn to think about their reading and to monitor what they do and do not understand.
Tomorrow I will model these strategies using a picture book.
Students will bring in their own picture books for Monday, 9/25 when they will practice these strategies with a partner.
