Part 6: Assessing and Expanding Strategy Work

As students interact with text through annotations and acquire the language to name their thinking, consider how to extend this work. The final stage in the framework focuses on assessing and expanding strategy work in order to deepen comprehension. In this post, we will explore ways to continually assess progress by looking for and evaluating response patterns to determine their reading and language goals.

ASSESSMENT

Assessment doesn't have to be formal. Teachers can glean useful data from ongoing informal assessments of student reading behaviors and activities. Here are few things to consider when conducting informal assessments.

Look For Patterns

Analyze responses for patterns and themes that reveal a particular strategy students are ready to explore in greater depth.

• Are students beginning to make connections between text and their personal experiences?
• Are Post-its covered with questions about the text?
• Are students moving past emojis?
• Are students overusing one specific annotation?

In our class, we recognized that several students began Post-its with "I wonder why...", so we planned more formal, explicit lessons on "Questioning" during Interactive Read Alouds and small group instruction.  Be sure to analyze the responses for shifts in thinking and strategy usage over time.

Evaluate Effectiveness

In Part 2: Building an Awareness of Thinking, we discussed how metacognitive readers choose which strategies to use and when to use them depending on what they are reading and for what purpose. Effective readers use the right strategies at the right time; moreover, they utilize them flexibly between reading events in order to boost cognition.

It may be necessary to help students evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies they are using. For example, while reading Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems, a student may make a connection between the monster's teeth and the tooth she lost last week. Once we affirm her thinking we can guide her to increase the depth of her response using prompts like the ones below:

• "What did you read that made you think of that? On which page?"
• "What happened to you that reminded you of what happened to this character?"
• "Did you feel or behave the same way? How?"
• "Can you describe how the setting in the story is like the place you have been?"

EXPAND STRATEGY WORK

As language teachers we not only have to consider the literacy needs of our students but their language needs as well. In other words, what language features do students need to know and be able to control in order to communicate and expand their thinking about text? Teachers can target specific literacy and language needs that expand or widen students' range of effective comprehension strategies. Strategy work may occur in reading groups, through writing, or during other curricular activities.

Foster a Community of Thinkers

Make Post-its public. Begin to build larger menus or charts that display student thinking. One student's responses may prompt others to think differently or more deeply about text the next time they read. Peter H. Johnston, author of Choice Words and Opening Minds, suggests using language that affirms the student's response and at the same time frames it as a strategy all students can use in the future.

For example, after reading Big Smelly Bear, by Britta Teckentrup, a student wrote "Yuck" on a Post-it.

Teacher: Katie wrote 'Yuck' when she noticed flies buzzing around Smelly Bear's head. Why did you write that, Katie?

Katie: (makes a disgusted face by sticking out her tongue) Smelly bear is gross.

Teacher: Katie felt disgusted (imitates Katie's expression) when she saw those flies around Smelly Bear. She recorded, or wrote about, how Smelly Bear made her feel. One thing that readers do is think about how characters make them feel. [Students], what might you write or draw on a Post-it when you see those flies?"

You might consider creating a chart that displays the strategies students demonstrated in kid-friendly language.

As your menu begins to fill up, consider categorizing students' Post-its into types of responses. Look for patterns. Which strategies are students using most frequently? What language features would they need to be able to control to utilize these strategies successfully?

Plan language lessons to help shift your students' knowledge or control over academic or metacognitive language at this stage. For example, you may decide to expand their knowledge of emotive vocabulary (e.g. mad, angry, furious) with a word gradient chart. Begin with words recorded on student Post-its. Recast what students say to convey nuances of feeling with new vocabulary words (e.g. frustrated, annoyed, irritated) and add them to the list. While developing the chart below, we observed that many students needed additional instruction on forming grammatically correct questions. As a result, we shifted our teaching focus to address those needs.

Take advantage of procedures like "Turn and Talk" to support language learners as they build the vocabulary they need to internalize comprehension strategies and talk about text in more sophisticated ways. It's helpful to have A/B partners selected in advance for this purpose. You might assign higher proficiency students letter A, for example, and lower proficiency students letter B, so that these students will benefit from exposure to a higher proficiency language model. When it's time for talk, prompt the more proficient students to share first. Students often help each other understand and process new information using oral language patterns more familiar to peers.


Small Groups

Students benefit from up-close-and-personal reading and language support in small group instructional settings. Organize your students into Guided Reading or strategy groups to help language learners improve their ability to access text and express their thinking by incorporating specific language goals lessons. For example, if emerging students in a Guided Reading group are able to draw emojis to record their reactions to text, then expand their vocabulary during the second reading of the book by matching emotive words to the pictures they drew.

Teacher: I noticed you drew many faces to show how you were feeling while you read.
What are some of the faces you would like to share with the group?

Anthony: Mad (holds up a Post-it)

Teacher: That looks like a "mad" or "angry" face. Why were you angry?

Anthony: The cats made a mess.

Teacher: You were angry when the cats made a mess at the party. It's frustrating when
cats makes a mess and you have to clean it up. Let's write the words "mad", "angry"
and "frustrating" to our chart next to Anthony's drawing to show how we might feel
when something like that happens.

If a strategy group is working on asking questions while they read, for example, then examining the differences between the grammatical structures of questions and statements over a few days may be required.

Lesson 1: Define "questions" (asking) and "statements" (telling). Sort examples of both.

Lesson 2: Ask and answer "right there" questions about the text. Start "right there"
questions with a question word (who, what, when, where). Display these
words on a chart for students to use when reading and for future lessons.

Who is the main character?
Where/when does the story take place?

What does the main character want?

Lesson 3: Read aloud a page or two from a mentor text. Demonstrate how to ask
questions based upon what was read. Invite students to generate their own
questions. Refer to the question word chart as needed.



Don't forget to frame strategies taught in a way that helps students internalize it for use over time (e.g. I ask questions as I read. It helps me remember what happened in the text.)

No matter which model you choose, consult leveled reading resources like Jennifer Serravallo's The Reading Strategies Book for lesson examples and Fountas and Pinnell's Continuum of Literacy Learning in "Within the Text", "Beyond the Text", and "About the Text" sections for analogous reading goals.

Writing About Reading

Writing helps readers expand their thinking and improve their ability to reflect on their reading. It requires readers to redirect their attention to what engages them in a text and draws them deeper into its meaning.

Use the following writing instruction techniques as needed to teach students how to support their thinking with text responses.

Shared Writing

Shared Writing, a process developed by Moira McKenzie, is a way for teachers and students to construct messages based on shared knowledge and experiences. Teachers elicit information and ideas from students then scribe the developed text on paper. When the piece is completed, all participating students will be able to read it.
Teachers can utilize Shared Writing in both whole and small groups to demonstrate to students how to record their thinking. They model how to expand their reactions to text from simple images and comments on their Post-its to lengthier, in-depth explanations.
In your earlier Shared Writing lessons, prompt students with sentence starters that cue personal, emotional reactions to text.
Examples:
"I thought it was funny when..."
"I was upset when..."
"_____ made me angry when..."
"I was embarrassed for ____ when..."

As they get better recognizing and reflecting on their own reactions, prompt them with sentence starters that reflect characters' feelings.
Examples:
"Max was angry at his mom when she sent him to his room."
"Chrysanthemum seemed afraid to go to school after Victoria and her friends made fun
of her name."
"Henry was worried when Mudge didn't come home."

Provide lessons on language functions (e.g. transitions, conjunctions, prepositions) to improve writing outcomes for all students.


Journal Response

After a few demonstrations of Shared Writing, some students are ready to write journal entries on their own. Model how to go back into the text, pull two or three of their favorite or most interesting Post-its, and place them at the top of a clean page in their journals. Direct them to reread the text to determine what prompted their drawings and comments. Invite them to write a reaction to their comments and provide text evidence for their responses.

Interactive Writing
Use Interactive Writing techniques to scaffold the writing process for beginning or reluctant writers.
In Interactive Writing: How Language and Literacy Come Together, K-2, McCarrier, Fountas, and Pinnell define Interactive Writing as a “dynamic, collaborative literacy event in which children actively compose together, considering appropriate words, phrases, organization of text, and layout.”

Students can take on the role of writing apprentice, "sharing the pen" with their teachers to record messages on the page. With assistance and coaching, students are able to write more sophisticated messages than they could on their own.

THINKING is foundational to reading, writing, listening, and speaking. It is critical for culturally and linguistically diverse students to engage in experiences that build cognitive processes and habits of mind. We don't have to postpone this work until students become proficient in English. Working with language learners to build their English language skills alongside literacy development can be done with careful observation and the understanding that the process is messy. The road is winding and we may have to pause, shift and reverse along the way, but the journey is worth the effort. In fact it's crucial!

Part 5: Naming and Defining Strategies

In our last post, we explored how teachers might demonstrate "brain talk" to help students develop an awareness of thinking during their interactions with text. As we've discussed, some readers may be unaware that they are, in fact, thinking strategically. Those who ARE aware may not yet have the language to name the strategies at play and develop them further. Through lively conversations, teachers can unveil student's "brain talk" and find out what comprehension strategies they already use. At this stage of instruction, teachers name and define strategies to help students use them effectively again and again.

Remember the student who whispered, "POOF!" when Dionysus disappeared in a bolt of lightning? She may have inferred the sound a dematerializing god makes in a flash of light, or made a connection to other books she read or movies she had seen. As illustrated below, one single emotional reaction could indicate various types of thinking.

We can only assume what students are thinking until they elaborate for us. This is especially difficult for students who haven't yet developed a solid language base for talking about text. And without our intervention the likelihood that they will use effective reading strategies diminishes.
In small groups or individual conferences, teachers can help students strengthen their control over the strategies they demonstrate as well as further their language development by defining and expanding upon what students already know and do. Here's how to get started.

Set Students Up for the Reading Task

After a book introduction, provide Post-its to each student in the group. Remind students to stop their reading and record their thinking whenever their brain "talks" to them. Then, let them read and think on their own. Set them free with books and a handful of post-its to find out what comprehension strategies they already use.
You may assign this activity during Guided Reading groups or strategy groups. In a Guided Reading group, there will be opportunities to talk about one text in a variety of ways. The students will be surprised at how differently we think about and approach the same reading event! There are also advantages to assigning this activity to strategy groups, where students are reading "just right" books of their choosing. Students will be able to discuss multiple story elements across texts, enticing others to read them.

Encourage Lively Conversation

When they return to the group, instruct your students to locate 1-2 of their favorite or most interesting Post-its. Encourage them to talk about their drawings and comments. Remember that this is not a time to question students about the details in the text. Your job is to help them think more deeply about their reactions to it. Keep your questions and prompts open-ended to limit your personal input. Try:

• "Show me a page that was interesting."
• "Talk about what you wrote/drew."
• "Why did you draw that?"
• "What made you think that?"
• "Wow! You were really thinking here! Tell me what you were thinking."

Define Comprehension Strategies

As students demonstrate strategies, name, define, and celebrate them clearly. For example, you might start by saying, "You did something strong readers do all the time!" Then continue by naming the strategic action,

"You made an inference when you drew a sad face next to the puppy. You made a guess about how the character is feeling. You thought it was sad when no one chose to take him home."

or

"You visualized where she lived when you drew a forest. When we visualize, we see a
picture in our minds. You pictured trees all around her when she walked along the path."

or

"You questioned the text when you wrote "huh?" You were wondering why Sistine was so rude to her new classmates. She hadn't even met them yet! Readers that stop and ask questions as they are reading understand the text better."

or

"You inferred that the two bears were fighting, or having a shouting match! When we infer we make a guess about what characters are doing. You guessed they were fighting, or arguing, because the author used words like 'growled' and 'shouted'."

Different readers, no matter if they are reading the same or different titles, often have unique responses to text. Allowing readers the freedom to respond to text in their own way helps them build a repertoire of strategies they can access each and every time they read.

Summarize and Set Goals

End the group session with a definition or summary about a strategy your students demonstrated and a plan for doing it again. For example, say,

"You visualized a forest while you read today. (cognition) That helped you picture the author's words in your mind. The next time you read, try to visualize another place you're reading about so you can 'see' where your characters are in the text." (metacognition)

You may want to offer students an artifact that will help them remember the strategy. These artifacts can be stored in a reading notebook for quick reference.

As students interact with text through annotations, you'll want to collect some informal data to plan further instruction. In our next post, we'll discuss formative assessments and strategies to deepen comprehension.  

Part 4: Observing and Affirming Thinking

In our last post, we discussed how to effectively use a Think Aloud to model what we are thinking while we read. After a few think aloud lessons, your students will not be contained! They are bursting with "brain-talk" and cannot wait to share with you and their peers. Once you have modeled brain-talk with one or two texts, it's time to observe and affirm what your students' brains are saying.

Choose another text for an interactive read aloud experience. Here's a few helpful tips to keep in mind as you engage students in the reading.

Tip #1: Affirm Visceral Reactions On The Spot

Keep language learners involved by being an eagle-eyed observer, or enlist your co-teacher to watch facial expressions like a hawk. Look for changes in expression on your students' faces and pause your reading to address them. Call attention to their surprised or angry or sad faces and ask them why they made them. If the students do not have the language (or the courage) to share their thinking with words, draw an emoji on a Post-it to reflect and affirm their thinking. Label the emotion or reaction for them to build their vocabulary knowledge. 

While newcomers may respond with emojis, more advanced students will likely provide more sophisticated responses. Responses may include adjectives, phrases, onomatopoeia, or questions. Simply record these reactions on the post it.

While we do provide the emotion Post-it menu to jump-start their awareness of metacognitive processes, students are given free reign to use them as they wish. Over time, they begin to generate their own images and comments, helping to build a classroom language for thinking and talking about text.

Tip #2: Allow Students to Interrupt The Read Aloud

Pause your reading when hands go up (or after you finish the sentence, paragraph or page you were just reading). Call on two to three volunteers to share their thinking, or reveal their brain-talk, on the spot. 

What happens if every student wants to share? An enthusiastic audience is definitely a good problem to have. However, too much talking can take a lesson off course, eat up valuable time, and diminish opportunities for further practice. In order to capitalize on student engagement and create a culture of accountability in a non-threatening way, invite students to turn and talk with a partner. After the turn and talk, summarize a few responses you heard and add Post-its to the page. You might say, "I heard some students say they felt really worried when Jabari was standing on the edge of the diving board." Then, draw a "worried" emoji and affix it to the page. 

Strike a balance between selecting volunteers and assigning turn and talk discussions to keep the lesson flowing.

If, after a few pages, you get no response from your student audience, feel free to      model your own "brain-talk" again. Sometimes students need a jump-start to think about the text. Start them off with something simple, like placing smiley-faced emojis on places in the text that make you giggle, or question marks on passages that were confusing or contained an unfamiliar word. After a minute or two, your students will respond. Do not worry if their thinking is shallow or deep. At this phase, it is more important to elicit their reactions to text and to help them notice that their brains have something to say.

Other times, students are wary to participate because they are afraid of getting a response "wrong" or finding the right words to express their thinking. If you think fear is getting in the way, model brain-talk that demonstrates open-ended thinking or a change of mind. For example, say, "I wonder if Camilla Capybara will bully Wodney," or "At first, I thought Camilla Capybara was going to only bully Wodney Wat and send him deeper into his coat. But then, I noticed she bullied everybody." Write "BULLY!" on a Post-it and stick it on the page. Be sure to communicate that there are no right or wrong answers. 

Tip #3: Use Text as A Language Model

Using the language of texts is an extremely effective way to expand vocabulary and build English proficiency. As we have seen, students can respond to text even with limited proficiency. Responses may be as simple as a facial expression or sound effect. Teachers can affirm and recast these types of responses in a more complex way by using explicit language from the text. These textual references can serve as powerful models for students.

Here are a few examples:

Romeo, a first-grade newcomer, was unable to verbalize his thoughts about The Three Little Pigs in English. However, he clearly understood the wolf's intentions as he lurked behind the bushes. 

Romeo: (With hands curled into claws, Romeo leaned in and growled) "Grrrrrrr." 

Teacher: Yes! "A wicked wolf was watching from behind a tree." 

While reading Where the Wild Things Are:

Romeo: No, no, no!

Teacher: They don't want him to go. They say, "Oh, please don't go." Can you say that?

Romeo: Oh, please don't go! 

In both of these examples, the teacher expanded the student's responses by incorporating precise words and phrases from the story. The goal is to provide a language model that  can be accessed in various contexts.

Tip #4: Create a Class Menu of Thinking

Pinterest is filled with hundreds of notable Close Reading anchor charts crafted by talented educators. Education websites and other published resources provide sample charts, menus and bookmarks filled with text annotations, or codes, for students. While they display important information, these charts may be overwhelming for language learners to navigate. Many of these menus reference comprehension strategies that are unfamiliar to our students. 

One way to scaffold the coding process is to create all the necessary tools WITH the students, avoiding the use of any tool that is created outside of our experiences with them. Involving students in this process improves engagement, comprehension, and buy-in.

Add new images and comments collected from students during read alouds to a dynamic Post-it "menu". These can be translated into bookmarks or other handy reminders. These menus become records of conversations your students have with the author, with you, and with themselves, opening a window into their reading brains. 

             

Interested in creating the Brain Talk Anchor Chart and Interactive Brain Sticks? Grab them HERE for free!

Once students have an awareness of thinking and are interacting with text, they are ready to explore the comprehension strategies that are at play in their brains. We'll discuss this in Part 5: Naming and Defining Strategies. 

Part 3: Modeling: Thinking Aloud

If we want our students to think deeply, we need to begin by explicitly modeling strategic thinking using a Think-Aloud. In a Think-Aloud, the teacher emphasizes the actual thinking process that he or she goes through in approaching and carrying out a cognitive task. 

It is imperative that we show students exactly how a task is accomplished. What does it look like? What does it sound like?  Why are we doing it? During a Think-Aloud, teachers can verbalize and model their thinking while reading a text orally to their students. They reveal what their minds are doing to monitor their comprehension of text. The Think-Aloud models the processes that occur in our heads while we read.

When preparing a Think-Aloud with ELLs it is important to consider the following questions:

• Am I incorporating visuals and examples that are accessible and relevant? (more on this in the next section)
• Have I explicitly communicated learning goals to my students? 
• Is my teacher talk lean and focused? In other words, am I modeling ONLY what is needed to complete the task successfully? 
• Is my teacher talk logical? Will the students be able to follow my train of thought?

The steps below will help your language learners become metacognitive thinkers and readers. In this instructional sequence, teachers can show students how to listen to their "brain-talk" to increase their understanding of text as well as the English language. 

Step 1: Choose texts that elicit vivid images and familiar experiences.

Be thoughtful of the cultural, linguistic, and life experiences of your students when selecting books:

• Is the language in the text too challenging for most of your students to understand? 
• Is the language in the text challenging enough?
• Can they relate to the experiences of or the relationships between the characters in the text? 
• Are they familiar with the setting or some of the events in the text?      

If you find yourself planning for extensive background knowledge lessons then consider selecting a different text.

Look for illustrations that match the characters' emotions as described in the text. Maryann Wolf explains the connection between emotional engagement and building a reading life:

Two great books that elicit vivid emotions and familiar experiences are Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall and The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood. 

Jabari Jumps is about a little boy who has finished his swimming lessons and is ready to jump off the diving board at the community pool. When he arrives, his nerves kick in and he needs the support of his dad and sister to make the big leap. It's a heartwarming story about facing your fears. Most students can relate to the emotions in the story, and can easily recall a time when they were afraid but had to be courageous.  

In The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the The Big Hungry Bear, the author convinces the mouse that there is a "big hungry bear" in the garden that wants to eat her strawberry. Can she hide it in time? Who will get to eat it? The illustrations clearly match the actions and the emotions of the story.

Step 2: Plan stopping places in advance.

Tapping into students' emotional responses to text is an accessible entry point for beginning instruction in close reading. Emotions are universal, no matter where our students come from or which languages they speak (although what we find funny or scary may be cultural or personal). Most students are able to identify emotions or emotive reactions to text from us or through clear illustrations and very dramatic teachers. Even when they do not understand the words, language learners glean information about the text through the looks on our faces or the sounds of our voices.

At this stage, the goal is to model and capture student's visceral reactions to text using simple emojis. In other words, what are they feeling at different points in the story? In preparation for a Think Aloud, be sure to choose passages that elicit clear, explicit reactions. Consider what happens in the text that makes you laugh or cringe or say, "eww!"? Are there places in the text that clearly show how a character feels, or where a character experiences an event that your students may have also experienced?

Choosing a few stopping points in advance will ensure that the Read Aloud remains focused on the learning target. It will also allow you to consider the language structures and vocabulary you will use during instruction. "On the fly" teacher talk can easily shift off topic, become decontextualized or idiomatic. It is important to remember that every activity in the classroom provides an opportunity for language acquisition. Planning select stopping points in advance will allow you to carefully consider language objectives that will promote language learning.

Step 3: Provide a book introduction tailored to the language needs of the students.

Book introductions provide a valuable scaffold for ELLs. These introductions offer students the essential information needed to understand the text as you read aloud. During a book introduction the teacher sets a purpose for reading and may elicit background knowledge, pre-teach vocabulary, or give a brief summary. Knowing the language needs of your students will help you craft an introduction that is developmentally appropriate.

A typical introduction may sound like this:  

What is your favorite treat? What would you do if someone tried to take away your favorite treat? In this book, the author warns the little mouse that a hungry bear is coming to take away her red, ripe strawberry! She waited so long to eat that special treat! Let's find out who eats it." 

For newcomers, act out the gist of the book using gestures and pictures.

Teacher: (Hold up a picture of strawberry) This is a strawberry. Strawberry. You say it.

Students: Strawberry

Teacher: (Gesture with facial expressions) Do you like strawberries? (Invite students to respond with a thumbs up/down.)

Students: (Respond with a thumbs up/down)

Teacher: (Introduce the characters. Hold up a picture of the mouse.) This is Mouse. You say it.

Students: Mouse.

Teacher: (Hold a picture of the bear) This is Bear. You say it.

Students: Bear.

Teacher: (Rub belly) Bear is hungry. (Point to the strawberry.) Bear wants the strawberry. Oh no! Who will eat the strawberry? Bear or Mouse? (Point to each picture.) Let's find out!

Transitioning and expanding students are ready for more sophisticated vocabulary, but may need help to understand word meanings within the context of a story. For example, in The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear words and phrases like "ripe", "tromp", "sniff", and "a mile away" may be unfamiliar to some students. Moreover, their meanings are not clearly defined in the illustrations. 

To aid their understanding of the story and build English vocabulary, introduce new words and phrases before reading. Ask students to repeat new words and provide pictures to match. Act out the words (stomp around the room; sniff the air with their noses). Provide context for the words in real-world situations (holding or eating ripe vs. unripened pieces of fruit).

Step 4: Introduce the listening and learning strategy.

Focus your students' attention on the new reading strategy with a clear introduction. Say, "While I read, my brain talks to me. I'm going to show you how I listen to my brain as I read. When my brain talks to me, I stop reading and record my thoughts so I won't forget them." 

Be sure to make this introduction comprehensible by using visual cues and gestures. You may want to provide a non linguistic support, such as the "talking brain sticks" (see below) to signal the reading-thinking transition.  

Set students up for the task by quickly and dramatically modeling what it will look like. "When I'm reading, my eyes will be in my book (mimic looking at the book). When my brain talks to me, I'll stop and hold up this stick (mimic holding up the brain stick), then I record my thinking (mimic drawing on a post it)."

Simple, yet intentional cues can be powerful meaning-making scaffolds for language learners.

Step 5: Demonstrate your thinking clearly and concisely. 

Begin reading the text you selected to the class. Stop reading at your pre-selected teaching points to talk about your reactions to the text. Tell your students what's on your mind, using emotive language and examples from the text. Make sure to keep your comments quick and focused. 

• Oh my goodness!  This part was very surprising. I didn't think that would happen!
• It makes me sad that Stellaluna can't fly like the others.
• That part is hilarious. Molly Lou is standing right on top of Ronald!
• Eww! That was gross!

Record your thinking by drawing a simple emoji on a Post-it note and affix it to the page. Continue reading to your next stopping point. 

At this point in the instruction, your students are not involved in discussions about the text. It is a time for you to model YOUR thinking. It's imperative that the teaching point not get lost in excessive discussion or questioning. You'll want to clearly demonstrate how you read and respond to text. Be transparent about your thoughts; resist the urge to engage students by having them guess what is going on in your head. 

Providing comprehensible input during the think aloud is critical. 

When input is comprehensible, students understand most aspects of what is required for learning, and the learning experience pushes them to greater understanding. (Gersten, Baker, & Marks, 1999, p. 7) 

For newcomers, you'll want to capitalize on the illustrations in the book to support comprehension, pointing to the parts that you are referencing in your Think Aloud.  Be emotive, use gestures, and act out parts, if necessary. It is also helpful to use sentence frames to help students build a language for talking about thinking:

• "I [laughed] when I read this part because..."
• "When I read this page, I felt [sad] because..."
• "It was [funny] when..."

Step 6: Revisit a stopping point for reinforcement.

When you have finished reading the text, return to one or two of your Post-its. Reread the section of text that cued the thinking or "talk" that went on between you and your brain. Tell the class why that passage made you think or respond the way you did. For example, say, "I thought it was sad when...." or "This part made me laugh. Listen as I reread it."

These few moments (no more than 5 minutes) demonstrate to students that reading doesn't end when the text runs out of words. Revisiting a text is a time to reflect upon what you've read and to dig a little deeper into how you were affected by it, increasing the potential for reading comprehension and an awareness of author's craft.

For clear examples of precise, explicit language for teaching and reinforcing strategy usage, peruse Fountas and Pinnell Prompting Guide Part 2 for Comprehension: Thinking, Talking, and Writing. The Guide is published by Heinemann and is available in spiral-bound and app formats.

                   

Our next post discusses strategies for actively engaging students in the reading process.
Part 4: Observing and Affirming Students' Thinking