Making Comprehension Visible

Using Think Aloud Protocols for Comprehension Instruction and Assessment

Suzette Youngs & Frank Serafini – IRA 2005 – San Antonio

Comprehension Instruction

Since reading comprehension is predominantly an unobservable phenomenon, we teach children to comprehend by

demonstrating what proficient readers do and by

making our reading processes and practices visible

for novice readers.

Comprehension Assessment

Since reading comprehension is predominantly an unobservable phenomenon, comprehension assessment should make students’

literate abilities visible

for teachers to understand what readers are trying to do in order to help them become more

sophisticated readers.

Think Aloud Protocols

Readers report contents of working memory as they navigate through a text.

Self-Reported Data provides access to readers cognitive processes and strategies.

Teachers can use Think Alouds as an instructional strategy to call students’ attention to particular reading processes and strategies.

Think Alouds provide insight into the reading process during the act of reading.

Using Think Alouds for Instruction

Think Aloud Considerations

Choosing an appropriate text

Previewing the text and attending to your own reading strategies

Explaining purpose of think alouds

Focusing on reading strategies and text, not just text

Limiting objective of lesson to one reading strategy

Separating thinking from reading of text

Charting preliminary ideas

Think Aloud Objective: Using Text and Illustrations To Construct Meaning

Discuss concept of interplay

Call attention to textual features & design

Demonstrate posing questions

Bring knowledge of author into discussion

Non-Linear Chapter Book Think Alouds
Demonstrate how to:

Attend to changes in perspective

Follow changes in setting and time

Follow flashbacks

Identify and analyze foreshadowing and symbolism

Make connections between characters

Use graphic organizer to understand relationships among characters

Expository Text Think Alouds

Demonstrate how to:

Navigate through text

Call attention to expository structures

Discuss reading strategies specific to expository text

Make comparisons to narrative strategies

Attend to vocabulary and bold words

Use table of contents, index and headings

Historical Fiction Think Alouds

Demonstrate how to:

Make historical connections

Navigate a text that contains three genres: journal, letter and expository

Extracting historical facts from a narrative structure

Use personal experience and knowledge of history to make connections

Attend to changes in genre and structure

Attend to changes in perspective

Using Think Alouds for Assessment

•A window for gathering immediate reactions to texts

•Provides information about how readers navigate text

•Provides information about what readers are attending to, and not attending to, during reading

•Provides access to thinking processes

•Occurs during the reading process

•Can be used with any text

Think Alouds for Assessment

•Provide Instructions and Demonstrations for conducting Think Alouds

•Provide Prompts for Reporting

•Record Think Alouds for Analysis

•Analyze Think Aloud Data

•Use of Analysis in Retrospective Think Aloud Instruction

Instructions and Demonstrations

•Be consistent in your instructions

•Allow ample opportunities to practice think alouds before collecting data

•Demonstrate, demonstrate, and then demonstrate

•There is no single correct way to report data - justify procedures

Prompts for Reporting

•Mark text to signal when to report

•Have specific questions for reporting

•Stop at end of each page to report

•Report whenever reader chooses

•Read aloud and report at specific intervals

Tape Recording Think Alouds

•Provide quiet space for tape recording

•Let students practice with tape recorder

•Don’t collect more than you are willing to analyze

•Explain to parents, administrators why you are tape recording children

•Get a quality microphone & recorder

Analyzing Think Alouds

•Read / Listen to the think aloud for an holistic sense to the reported data

•Mark general codes within text if transcribed

•Consider what the reader attended to and what the reader was trying to do

•Evaluate the think aloud on specific criteria

•Construct instructional strategy ideas

Criteria 1: Reading Dispositions

•Understand that reading is a process of making meaning with texts

•Develop an awareness of their thinking when reading

•Willing to recognize and acknowledge confusion

•Apply comprehension strategies when meaning breaks down.

Criteria 2: Responses to Reading

Engagement & Involvement

Associations & Connections

Reflections & Evaluations

Engagement / Involvement

•Can describe visual images in head

•Relates to challenges characters face

•Relives the experience of the story

•Anticipates events in story

•Recalls specific events, language and story details

•Attends to specific details of text, illustrations

•Offers immediate reactions (laughs, worries, etc)

•Gets “lost” in reading

•Chooses other books from same author or illustrator

Associations / Connections

•Connects story to prior experiences

•Understands characters challenges in story world as connected to real world challenges

•Sees relevance in story themes

•Considers text in relation to other texts read

•Develops understanding of genre

•Makes connections from literary experiences to world experiences

Reflections / Evaluations

•Constructs themes

•Evaluates characters’ motives

•Considers author’s intentions / histories / perspectives

•Evaluates “quality” of the writing & story

•Questions the version of reality set forth in the story

•Analyzes own responses to stories

•Re-examines own worldview

•Uses elements of literature to discuss and evaluate text

Retrospective Think Alouds

•Using analyzed transcripts to provide points of entry for instruction

•Helping students consciously attend to what they are doing when they read

•Providing suggestions for appropriate strategies

•Helping students think about their thinking

•Asking readers, “Why did you do that?”

Contact Information

Suzette Youngs: youngss@unr.nevada.edu

Frank Serafini: serafini@unlv.nevada.edu

Serafini’s Website: http://serafini.nevada.edu