USING THE THINK ALOUD TO
TEACH READING STRATEGIES
IN COLLEGE COURSES
Jessica Darkenwald-DeCola
February 13, 2013
Challenges for College Level Students
 High level, discipline specific texts that may include
unfamiliar language and structure that makes
comprehension difficult
 More specialized and discipline-specific expectations for
comprehension
 For these reasons a student who may not have struggled
comprehending text earlier in their schooling, might very
well struggle in college when introduced to new content
area reading
Successful College Readers
read with a purpose
know how they use strategies when they
read
monitor their reading comprehension
use a variety of reading methods
“BECAUSE MEANING DOES NOT EXIST IN TEXT, BUT
RATHER MUST BE ACTIVELY CONSTRUCTED, INSTRUCTION
IN HOW TO EMPLOY STRATEGIES IS NECESSARY TO
IMPROVE COMPREHENSION” (SNOW, 2002, P.32)
Best Practices for Higher Education
• Explicit instruction
• A “gradual release” of responsibility that
includes the use of scaffolds, such as
teacher modeling through think-aloud
(Block & Duffy, 2001: Duke & Pearson,
2002; Keene & Zimmerman, 2007;
Rosenshine & Meister, 1992).
• Focus on metacognition (Almasi & Hart,
2011; Keene & Zimerman, 2007).
Purpose of My Study
• To explore if students will use reading comprehension
strategies more frequently and effectively after explicit
instruction of monitoring comprehension through teacher
and student think-alouds.
• To find out whether or not students feel that the strategies
have improved their comprehension of the course texts and
their ability to write about them.
READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES
 Questioning: Identifying information, themes and ideas that are central and important
to the reading. Create questions based on the central ideas, themes, and important
information.
 Summarizing – Identify the important information, themes, and ideas in the text. Using
this information, create a “clear and concise statement that communicates the essential
meaning of the text” (Doolittle et al. 107).
 Clarifying – Identify unclear, difficult, or unfamiliar aspects of a text such as awkward
sentence or passage structure, unfamiliar vocabulary, unclear references, or obscure
concepts (Doolittle et al. 107).
Strategies such as re-reading, putting the text in
context, and using outside resources (like a dictionary, thesaurus, or the internet) can
help to clarify difficult information.
 Integration: What connections can you make between the text that you just read and
other sections of the text? What connections can you make between the text that you
have just read and other readings in the course (or outside the course)?
 Elaboration: What connections can you make between the text and your own
experience and knowledge?
Other Strategies
 Monitoring Comprehension
 Predicting
 Visualizing
 Contextualizing
 Making Inferences
 Corroborating
 Drawing Conclusions
 Synthesizing
Think – Alouds
Encourages metacognitive thinking
An instructional tool – model thought process
used while reading – makes invisible visible
Also a strategy for student – alone, in pairs, part of
“gradual release” – eventually internalized
Useful to model variety of thinking processes and
strategies – might focus on one or multiple
Does not need to be time consuming – show the
trick – remind students to use – checking work
DEMONSTRATION
You are Experts in Discipline-Based Reading
 Identify the reading skills that you use automatically in the
reading required in your discipline - metacognitive
strategies, habits of mind – I focused on monitoring for
meaning, but you can use a think aloud for any process
 Model for students – thinking out loud while reading for
students can make an invisible processes visible – students
take notes or use checklist
 “Gradual Release” – model
independence
supported activities
Some Ideas for Identifying Strategies to Model
 Read texts from your own discipline – alone or with colleagues. What
are the strategies that you use to make meaning from the text? What
do your students need to do?
 Read texts from other disciplines. What do you learn about the
difference between the reading process in a different discipline as
compared to your own?
 Make lists of the strategies students need to successfully make
meaning from the texts in your course.
Discipline – Specific Example
Anderson, A. & Kim, Y.J. (2011a). Reading across the curriculum: A framework for improving the reading
abilities and habits of college students. Journal of College Literacy and Learning, 37, 29-40.
Doolittle, P., Hicks, D., Tripplett, C.F., Nicholas, W.D., & Young, C.A. (2006). Reciprocal teaching for reading
comprehension in higher education: A strategy for fostering the deeper understanding of texts.
International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 17(2), 106-118.
Kucan, L. & Beck, I.L. (1997). Thinking aloud and reading comprehension research: Inquiry, instruction,
and social interaction. Review of Educational Research, 67(3), 271 – 299.
Lei, S.A., Rhinehart, P.J., Howard, H.A., & Cho, J.K. (2010). Strategies for improving reading
comprehension among college students. Reading Improvement, 47(1), 30-42.
Pearson, D.P., Moje, E., & Greenleaf, C. (2010). Literacy and science: Each in the service of the other.
Science, 328, 459-463.
Rosenshine, B., & Meister, C. (1992). The use of scaffolds for teaching higher-level cognitive strategies. Educational
Leadership, 49(7), 26-33.
Taraban, R., Rynearson, K., & Kerr, M. (2000). College students’ academic performance and self-reports of
comprehension strategy use. Reading Psychology, 21, 283-308.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/reading/bestpractices/comprehension/flowchartofbehavior.pdf
Some Results of my Practitioner Study
Findings: Pre and Post Test
 Nine students scores increased
 Four students who did not all had high
pre-test scores
 Lowest scorers went up 33-60 points
Findings: Self-Reflection
 Sixteen students completed them.
 Fifteen students specifically said their approach to reading
had changed, and all students named at least one strategy
that worked well for them and/or they planned on using in
preparation for the final.
 Re-reading and Highlighting was mentioned the most as a
strategy used.
 One student described my introductory lesson as
strategy/approach to writing she found most helpful.