Read Alouds

This is one of my three READ classes that I have taken this year. Last term I was taking a READ class and read many books for teachers to help students with reading. One of the books I chose to read was When Kids Can't Read by Kyleen Beers. If you have never read it, I definitely recommend reading it. It gives you so many different strategies to help students with reading skills and it is a very easy book to flow through.

Among all of the reading strategies listed in this book was the think aloud strategy. I immediately put the strategy to work. There are so many ways that you can use think alouds in your classroom; the basic think aloud I did was during our reading of The Outsiders this year. I simply had three items on the back board during the entire reading of the book: questions, responses, and predictions. Students would start discussions after each chapter by simply asking a question, making a comment about a certain section of the book, or they could even predict what they think would happen later on or what they think a character really meant when he or she said something somewhat ambiguous. It was great! The kids really enjoyed it! I would make sure to call on everyone, as well as the students who always volunteered to share their thoughts.

These think aloud times after each chapter really allowed all of my students to speak, think, and get involved with the book. It was neat to see somewhat of a book club forming. I also think this worked so well because my classes this trimester are fantastic (great mix of students)and The Outsiders is just an amazing book. Students usually seem to connect with it whether they want to or not.

I am most anxious to make my think alouds even better next year by having more options for thinking aloud and maybe even having more activities...like maybe adding the fishbowl activity! :)