Yes! And thinking aloud is one of the comprehension-monitoring
strategies. I agree that it's a very good reader strategy and can also
be an excellent teacher strategy. You as a teacher can model what you do
when you are "making sense of text" by reading and thinking aloud. You
are letting weaker readers know what good readers do when they interact
with text.

 

 

Susan

 

Susan McShane

National Center for Family Literacy

502-584-1133, Ext. 175

smcshane at famlit.org

 

________________________________

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Eugenio Longoria
Saenz
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 12:15 PM
To: 'The Family Literacy Discussion List'
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 964] Re:
ComprehensionMonitoringStrategiesDiscussionBegins Today

 

As far as I am concerned, read aloud is more than just uttering the text
aloud.  It is also thinking aloud.  Read aloud is about thinking aloud
as you read.  It is a way of making explicit the reading process.  This
should not be confused with read along.  

 

Read aloud, if done correctly, is a great indicator of reading ability.
For example, as a student is reading along (out loud) and comes to a
word he or she does not understand and then stops to think of the word
trying to figure out the meaning (but doesn't stop speaking out loud
about the process of comprehension), he or she is engaged in read aloud.
A reader sounding out a word he or she has trouble decoding is another
example of read aloud.  When done out loud, we see the skills being
utilized to master the task of reading.  This is why it is so powerful.
At higher levels of reading, the read aloud process becomes more
complex.  You can use it to teach symbolism, themes, comparison and
contrast foreshadowing, etc.   

 

Talking about this makes me miss teaching so much...

 

I am not sure if I made sense, but believe me read aloud is a very
powerful tool in developing the reading abilities of students.  I have
used it with great success in the past.  I am also very aware of this
process in my own reading.  After all, it is another one of the seven
habits of highly effective readers.   

 

Abrazos, 

 

Eugenio 

 

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Janet Isserlis
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 11:08 AM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 963] Re: Comprehension
MonitoringStrategiesDiscussionBegins Today

 

All

The answer to this question might be embedded in some of the earlier
posts, but I'd like to learn more about how it is that reading aloud
("sounding good" - I think someone said) is and isn't useful as an
indicator of reading abilities.

My understanding is that people who can read aloud fairly well are
decent decoders.  They can wrest sound out of symbol.  This, however, is
not the same as making meaning out of what's been read.  (I know that
when I read something aloud, I can't always remember or even make sense
of what I'm reading).

We tend to use reading aloud as a way of 'seeing' what learners can do -
but it seems to me that this gives us a very incomplete picture.

Janet Isserlis 

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