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