Strategy #5 - Think-Aloud
The strategy that I will be focusing on this week is the Think-Aloud strategy. This strategy is helpful for struggling readers because the teacher demonstrates good reading strategies out loud in front of the class. Thinking out loud for the students effectively teaches them good reading strategies that they can use on any and all assignments. Struggling readers usually give up once they get stuck or continue to read without ever actually comprehending the text. By using the think-aloud strategy, we as teachers are showing them how to overcome these difficulties in a more productive and successful manner. Struggling readers need to see and be taught how expert thinkers solve problems. Teachers need to teach students how to learn if we want them to be successful on their own.
As a math teacher, think-alouds are super helpful when first introducing word problems. Most of my students are relatively strong math students but that is not helpful if they don't know where to begin when they are given a word problem. I begin the year by thinking out loud as I read through a word problem. I model how to determine the important information and make inferences. I model how to create explanations for the events going on in the word problem and providing details for the setting. After modeling several examples I ask the students to walk me through their thought processes on new examples. By the end of the unit they will be working through word problems and practicing good reading strategies with their partners as I walk around the room to monitor their progress.
It is important that students understand that we all struggle with some readings. Reading is not always going to be easy or fun, but we must make sure that we learn the skills to help us get through a reading and understand it. "Think aloud" helps us as teacher to work with the students through difficult text. It is not as simple as giving them the answer, but teaching context and sounding out to work through the reading. It is a form of modeling that we can do for the students. Most of my strategies are focused on writing and how we learn literacy of reading through writing. Writing creates better readers, because they are asked to use the context and other skills to make it so others can read their writing and understand it. In my future classroom I will think aloud with my students when reading to help them learn to better their reading. I will not just give them the word they are struggling with, but ask them how what surrounds the word can help them understand what it means.
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