Excellence in Education:
Using Think-Alouds
This past week, I was fortunate to see several teachers,
most notably Ms. Cooper and Mr. Christian, use think-alouds in their
classrooms.
When using think-alouds the teacher models the thinking
process that good readers, mathematicians, historians, etc. use when
processing. By sharing their thought process with all students as they read
(Ms. Cooper) or solve a problem (Mr. Christian), they model how experts solve a
problem, work through difficult concepts and builds such skills in their students.
For example, in math class as Mr.
Christian thought out loud, he was sharing with the students not just the
correct thought process but also how he (and his students) could overcome potential roadblocks
to correctly answering the question. Again this is much more than simply
explaining how to achieve an answer; instead it means demonstrating different
ways of approaching the task and internalizing the dialogue. By modeling the
process for students, they become more comfortable with the process, more
reflective and more ready to take on difficult tasks.
In collaborative classrooms, the process can easily be
developed and embellished by the two teachers playing off of each other (but it
will require a little pre-planning conversation).
In both classes, the teacher think-alouds served as the
leaping point for gradually releasing more responsibility to the students.
Once students are familiar with the think-aloud strategy,
you can use ask students to use the think-aloud process as they solve the
problem or read a passage. Doing so, is a great means of formatively assessing
students knowledge and skills and providing feedback.
Administrative Notes
If you haven’t yet completed the school safety survey,
please do so.
Please remind and invite parents through email, blackboard, remind101, etc. that Thursday is parent-teacher conferences.
And that’s a perfect segue to….tonight’s #vachat topic is Engaging All Parents. Please think about
joining and learning with us. It starts at 8. Use tweetchat.com to follow along
or an app like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck (which enable you to use columns to see
only #vachat tweets).
Positive referral link
Thursday we’re having our leadership meeting, if you have
anything that you would like addressed, please let your department chair know.
**First term, I asked for each of you to invite me to observe
a lesson that stood out for its creativity and student-centeredness. Thank you
to those of you who invited me to observe some wonderful lessons. If you
haven’t yet extended an invitation, please don’t forget to do so.**
Tweet of the Week
Worth Reading
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