Think+Alouds

Think alouds are a great way to model to the students how to ask the really good questions about a particular reading. I began think alouds by going over the different levels of questioning according to Bloom's Taxonomy. We discussed some of the examples of questions you would ask to synthesize or evaluate the reading. Once the students have a basis for what creating good questions mean, they will be able to interpret the piece of literature easier. Other reading skills that students will learn through think alouds are: There are many great ways to go about doing a think aloud as a lesson. One way would be to give the students a book mark or hand out that identifies elements of higher level thinking. Examples of this could be:
 * Making predictions
 * Comparing and contrasting
 * Monitoring reading
 * Visualizing the text
 * Making connections
 * Identifying the problem in a story.
 * Fixing the problem.
 * Predict what will happen next or throughout the story.
 * Compare or contrast the context. (characters, settings, text with another text)
 * Picturing the story.
 * Connect the reading to self, text, or world.
 * Evaluating the outcomes.