To Think or Not To Think? That is the Question Think-Alouds in Secondary Classrooms

1. To Think or Not To Think? That is the Question Think-Alouds in Secondary Classrooms 7th Annual Just Read, Florida! K-12 Leadership Conference June 2008 Carmen S. Concepcion Jennifer Escandell

2. Agenda • Introductions • Great Expectations • Objectives • Explicit Instruction • Think Alouds - Research • Think Alouds in Action - Demonstrations • Think Alouds in Action - Application • Closing Activity

3. Great Expectations • Work with your elbow partners to review the agenda and discuss your expectations for this session. • Share your expectations.

4. We will use the agenda and your posted expectations to . . . • Review what we have accomplished throughout the session. • Check-off the topics we have addressed, and note the areas for which more training may be needed.

5. Objectives Provide participants with a flexible technique for giving the right kind of help to their students, assistance that will help their students become confident, motivated, and engaged readers.

6. Explicit Instruction …the most powerful thing we can teach is strategic knowledge, a knowledge of the procedures people use to learn, to think, to read, and to write. Dr. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies, 2001, p. 7

7. Components of Reading Test Performance

8. Components of Reading Test Preparation

9. Active Teaching in the ZPD • Zone of Actual Development - Independence This zone is defined by what the child can do on her own without any kind of assistance. • Zone of Proximal Development – Instruction In this zone, students can do with help what they cannot do alone. Dr. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies, 2001, p. 10

10. DO AS I SAY – AND AS I DO! The Steps of Passing Strategic Expertise to Students

11. Think-Alouds A think-aloud of reading is creating a record, either through writing or talking aloud, of the Strategic decision-making and interpretive processes of going through a text, reporting everything the reader is aware of noticing, doing, seeing, feeling, asking, and understanding as she reads. A think-aloud involves talking about the reading strategies you are using and the content of the piece you are reading. Dr. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies, 2001, p. 19

12. Active engagement in the text increasescomprehension.  The think aloud strategy is used to show how good readers comprehend the text that they read.  During a think aloud, students practice how to: • Make and revise predictions. • Determine the meanings of unknown words. • Use prior knowledge to make sense of the story. • Visualize (e.g., settings, events, characters). • Assume the role of a character. • Reread and use fix-up strategies. • Think, “What is this writer trying to tell me?” • Summarize sections of the text.

13. FCAT Connection: Students thinking aloud with teacher prompting (interactive) Teacher models thinking aloud Students thinking aloud independently

14. Selective Highlighting • Readers must be selective and have a purpose. • Skim selection first. • Reread each paragraph and underline. • Underline selectively, not entire sentences. • Choose key words and phrases. • Justify with a partner.

15. I Have, You Have In your group, match the definitions to the strategies used by proficient readers. Share with the whole group.

16. A Think-Aloud in Action Before Reading After Reading During Reading

17. Video

18. Participants model

19. If we give our developing readers the right kinds of help then they can and will learn to be better readers. Dr. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies, 2001, p. 15

20. What Students Had to Say…

21. The Last Word T H I N K A L O U D

22. Evaluating this session: Please note that you leave this session with: • Good notes to use for think-alouds • Think Aloud bookmarks • Other print and online resources in your handouts Thank you for coming! Please fill out the evaluation form.

23. Reflection: 3-2-1 List three big ideas from today’s in-service. List two ways you plan to share this information with your teachers that will impact instruction and student learning. List one question you still have.

24. Resources Florida Online Reading Professional Development http://www.forpd.ucf.edu Beers, K. (2003). When Kids Can’t Read What Teachers Can Do. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemen. Blachowics, C, & Ogle, D. (2001). Reading Comprehension: Strategies for Independent Learners. New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Caroselli, M. (1998). Great Session Openers, Closers & Energizers. New York: MacGraw-Hill. Farstrup, A. E., & Samuels S. J. (2002). What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension for understanding and engagement. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Tierney, R. J., & Readence, J. E. (2000). Reading strategies and practices: A compedium. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Wilhelm, J. D. (2001). Improving comprehension with think-aloud strategies. New York, NY: Scholastic.

25. Contact Information Carmen Concepcion cconcepc@mail.ucf.edu Jennifer Escandell jescande@mail.ucf.edu