Think Big with Think Alouds: A Three-Step Planning Process That Develops Strategic Readers / Edition 1

by Molly K. Ness

Overview

A think-aloud process that comes close to bottling magic

Grab a pencil, and you are on your way to dynamic lessons using Molly’s three-step planning process.

• Read Once: Go wild, putting a flurry of sticky notes on spots that strike you
• Read Twice: Whittle your notes down to the juiciest stopping points
• Read Three Times:Jot down what you will say so there’s no need to wing it in front of the kids

Molly helps you focus on just five strategies: asking questions, making inferences, synthesizing, understanding the author’s purpose, and monitoring and clarifying. Includes more than 20 ready-made think aloud scripts, activities, templates, and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506364964
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	08/15/2017
Series:	Corwin Literacy
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	407,326
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Molly Ness is an associate professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University, and earned her Ph D in Reading Education from the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on reading comprehension instruction, the instructional decisions and beliefs of preservice and inservice teachers, and the assessment and diagnosis of struggling readers. A former Teach For America corps member, she is an experienced classroom teacher. She is the author of Lessons to Learn: Voices from the Front Lines of Teach For America (Routledge Falmer, 2004). Her research has been published in national and international peer-reviewed journals including The Reading Teacher, Educational Leadership, Reading Horizons, Journal of Reading Education, Reading Psychology, and Journal of Research in Childhood Education. She is an active member of the following professional organizations: Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER), National Council of the Teachers of English (NCTE), Literacy Research Association (LRA), International Reading Association (IRA), Professors of Reading Teacher Educators, Organization of Teacher Educators in Reading, and Phi Delta Kappa. Her book, The Question is the Answer, was published in 2015 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Douglas Fisher
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1 The Genius of Think Alouds: To Think Big, Readers Need to Hear What “Big” Sounds Like
What Think Alouds Are
What Think Alouds Are Not
Why Think Alouds Are Relevant Today
The Educational Theories Behind Think Alouds
Practice Makes Perfect: The Three-Step Process to Planning Think Alouds
A Final Note About the Three-Step Process
How to Use This Book
Final Thoughts
Ready for a Trial Run?
CHAPTER 2 Think Aloud With Focus: Five Comprehension Strategies That Go the Distance
How Think Alouds Benefit Our Readers
Arming Yourself With the Five Essential Think Aloud Strategies
The Five Essential Think Aloud Strategies
Final Thoughts
Ready for a Trial Run?
CHAPTER 3 Read Once: Identifying Juicy Stopping Points
An Overview
Using Poetry in Kindergarten
Using Narrative Text in Third Grade
Using Informational Text in Fifth Grade
Final Thoughts
Ready for a Trial Run?
CHAPTER 4 Read Twice: Determining Where and When to Think Aloud
Examining the Original Stopping Points in “Sick” by Shel Silverstein
Examining the Original Stopping Points in Enemy Pie by Derek Munson
Examining the Original Stopping Points in Eyes and Ears by Seymour Simon
Final Thoughts
Ready for a Trial Run?
CHAPTER 5 Read Three Times: Writing the Scripts on Sticky Notes
Signaling for Think Alouds
Think Aloud Sentence Starters
Introducing the Three-Column Chart
The Think Aloud Scripts for Our Model Texts
Final Thoughts
Ready for a Trial Run?
CHAPTER 6 How Did They Go? Teachers Share Successes and Challenges
Inside K–5 Classrooms: A Yearlong Study
Lessons Learned From the Yearlong Study
Ideas to Hone Your Thinking Aloud
Evaluating Your Own Thinking Aloud
Final Thoughts
Ready for a Trial Run?
CHAPTER 7 Students Do: Tips and Tools for Helping Your Readers Think Aloud on Their Own
Using Gradual Release of Responsibility to Scaffold Think Alouds
Encouraging Self-Evaluation With Think Alouds
Applying Think Alouds Across Content Areas
Thinking Aloud With Visuals
Final Thoughts
Ready for a Trial Run?
Appendices
Appendix A: Sample Think Aloud
Appendix B: Sample Texts
Appendix C: Think Alouds for Sample Texts
Appendix D: Think Aloud Sentence Starters
Appendix E: Three-Column Think Aloud Chart
Appendix F: Think Aloud Script for The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen
Appendix G: Think Aloud Script for A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
Appendix H: Think Aloud Self-Evaluation
Appendix I: Think Aloud Scripts
Appendix J: Putting It Together: Think Aloud Scripts
References
Index