MONTHLY READING STRATEGY

This month's area of reading development is focused on the oral "Think Alouds". Students who have difficulty understanding the text they read often struggle with comprehending the purpose of why they are reading that particular story. They have a hard time understanding the message of the story. Readers need to be able to understand the story not just be able to read words. A "Think Aloud" is a great way that readers can speak their thoughts aloud while they are reading. Experienced readers do this all the time without even realizing it! In order to become fluent readers, children need to be able to predict, make pictures in their mind as they are reading, make connections, fix and re-read words they don't understand and monitor their comprehension. 

If readers can identify the words but do not understand what they are reading, they have not achieved the goal of reading comprehension. To gain a good understanding of the text, children must bring to it the foundational knowledge and skills of oral language, prior knowledge and experience, concepts about print, phonemic awareness, letter-sound relationships, vocabulary, semantics, and syntax. 
(http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/reading/effective.html#oral )

Why use think-alouds? 

• It helps students learn to monitor their thinking as they read and improves their comprehension.
• It teaches students to re-read a sentence, read ahead to clarify, and/or look for context clues to make sense of what they read.
• It slows down the reading process and allows students to monitor their understanding of a text. 

Talking to your child is key! Model your thinking as you read to them. Encourage your children to ask the following questions when they read. They will become better readers in no time! 



What does the Research say? 

Children need frequent opportunities to ask and answer questions, participate in discussions, and classify information in order to develop their capacity for higher-order, critical thinking. Bloom's Taxonomy in Reading Instruction is a tool that teachers use in the classroom to help students reach these higher-order skills when reading. Parents & Guardians can help support their children at home as well using the theory behind Bloom's Taxonomy.  High-order thinking skills allow our children to Apply, Analyze, Evaluate and Create.  Here are a some ways to help your child at home: 

APPLY - What do you think will happen next in the story?
EVALUATE - Why do you think the character did that in the story? Do you agree with him/her?
ANALYZE - How do you think this story was like another story you have read before?
CREATE - Can you think of an alternative ending to the story?

Resources Used

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think_alouds

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/reading/effective.html