Think-alouds have been described as “eavesdropping on someone’s thinking.” With this strategy, teachers verbalize aloud while reading a selection orally. Their verbalizations include describing things they’re doing as they read to monitor their comprehension. The purpose of the think-aloud strategy is to model for students how skilled readers construct meaning from a text.
In addition to explicit phonics instruction, teachers need to support students’ ability to understand complex text and build background knowledge. Teachers also deserve access to high-quality curriculum materials — a thoughtfully arranged, comprehensive, sequential curriculum that embeds standards, the science of reading, and key instructional shifts.
Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) teaches students to use comprehension strategies while working cooperatively. Student strategies include previewing the text; giving ongoing feedback by deciding “click” (I get it) or “clunk” (I don’t get it) at the end of each paragraph; “getting the gist” of the most important parts of the text; and “wrapping up” key ideas. Find out how to help students of mixed achievement levels apply comprehension strategies while reading content area text in small groups.
To help students become comfortable with multimedia, it is useful to incorporate it into your instruction wherever possible. Providing varied means of representing information (Universal Design for Learning) can help improve your students’ access to complex texts.
A veteran teacher describes how she used visualization, Google images, video, and Skype to build background knowledge and enrich her students’ classroom read aloud of a fiction book about ospreys.
The best story times are very interactive: You are talking about and reading the story, your child is talking, and there is conversation taking place between the two of you — what educators call “dialogic” reading.
Teacher read alouds are a vital part of literacy instruction in primary classrooms. Learn how to conduct read alouds that feature high-quality children’s books which will prompt children to think and talk about social issues that impact their daily lives.
When kids have lots of experiences to draw on, they have a better chance of making a connection with what they read! Help your child build background knowledge this summer with these activities.
Students need to think while they are reading. By using modeling, coached practice, and reflection, you can teach your students strategies to help them think while they read and build their comprehension.
Educators may find timelines a useful strategy for a variety of educational purposes. They can be used to record events from a story or a history lesson in a sequential format. They can help students keep events in chronological order as they write summaries.
How does the mind work — and how does it learn? Teachers’ instructional decisions are based on a mix of theories learned in teacher education, trial and error, craft knowledge, and gut instinct. Such gut knowledge often serves us well, but is there anything sturdier to rely on?
Good readers construct mental images as they read a text. By using prior knowledge and background experiences, readers connect the author’s writing with a personal picture. Through guided visualization, students learn how to create mental pictures as they read.
Kids and adults alike couldn’t wait for the release of the newest Harry Potter book. Young readers embraced the young wizard and his friends, and have made Hogwarts, the rivalry between its Houses, the names of the faculty, and the passion for Quidditch household terms.
