In this section, you will watch an example of a think-aloud about a literary text. The videos present a very comprehensive analysis of a text to illustrate the type of thinking that a teacher should share when modeling before-, during-, and after-reading strategies. The teacher stops and says what she is thinking after she reads aloud each paragraph or several sentences. Her students follow along in their own books. She also asks questions, but in an effort to streamline the segment, students' responses are not included.
The text used is The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.
Keep in mind that literary texts are appropriate for more than just English language arts. Different types of literary texts, such as poetry, short stories, biographies, autobiographies, and historical fiction, can help students better understand and learn new concepts in every content area, including social studies, science, and mathematics.
Please have your copy of the Engaging With Text handout available during the videos of the teacher think-aloud. You will refer to the first page (Engaging with Literary Text) in this section.
Locate the Sample Notes handout.
When you are ready, click play on the video below to hear a teacher explain how she helps her students engage and interact as they read and write different text types.
From The House On Mango Street. Copyright © 1984 by Sandra Cisneros. Published by Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House, and by Alfred A. Knopf in hardcover in 1994. By permission of Susan Bergholz Literary Services, New York, NY, and Lamy, NM. All rights reserved.
Click here for information about requesting a password to view the videos below.
Click play on the video below to watch a teacher use the information on the back of a book to think aloud before reading the literary text.
Click play on the video below to continue watching a teacher think-aloud that features before-reading strategies for literary text.
Click play on the video below to see a teacher demonstrate before-reading strategies as she takes notes to sum up what she has learned about the author, setting, and type of text.
Click play on the video below to continue with the teacher think-aloud. In this video, the teacher addresses the table of contents and then begins to read aloud the literary text.
Click play on the video below to see a teacher think aloud about the author's language choice and how sentence length affects meaning.
Click play on the video below to see a teacher continue to think aloud as she reads. In this video, the teacher notices the way one paragraph relates to the previous paragraph.
Click play on the video below to see a teacher think aloud about the ways that dialogue and word choice help us better understand the narrator.
Now it is your turn. Select a literary text you currently use (or plan to use) in your classroom. Use that literary text to develop a think-aloud to model the stages of reading. Include explicit modeling to help students develop different skills for different texts. Write your plan for your think-aloud in your teaching journal.