Monitoring Reading Comprehension by Thinking Aloud. Instructional

26 Pages·2012·0.55 MB·English

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 360 612
CS 011 364
AUTHOR
Baumann, James F.; And Others
TITLE
Monitoring Reading Comprehension by Thinking Aloud.
Instructional Resource No.
1.
INSTITUTION
National Reading Research Center, Athens, GA.;
National Reading Research Center, College Park,
MD.
SPONS AGENCY
Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED),
Washington, DC.
REPORT NO
NRRC-IR-93-1
PUB DATE
93
CONTRACT
PR-117A20007
NOTE
26p.
AVAILABLE FROM
National Reading Research Center, University of
Georgia, 318 Aderhold Hall, Athens, GA 30602 ($4;
prepaid by check or money order payable to
NRRC/UGARF).
PUB TYPE
Reports
Descriptive (141)
Guides Classroom Use
Teaching Guides (For Teacher) (052)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
Elementary Education; Elementary School Students;
Instructional Effectiveness; Lesson Plans;
*Metacognition; Program Descriptions; Protocol
Analysis; *Reading Comprehension; *Reading
Instruction; Reading Strategies
IDENTIFIERS
*Think Aloud Program
ABSTRACT
A think-aloud instructional program was developed to
help students acquire the ability to monitor their reading
comprehension and to employ various strategies to deal with
comprehension breakdowns. Several research studies indicate that
comprehension monitoring abilities discriminate successful readers
from less successful ones and that think-aloud instruction is
superior to directed reading activity. Clark Canine, Super Reporter,
a play on the Superman character, appears through the 10 lessons of
the instructional program. Students are taught to see the role of the
reader (one who interviews writers) as analogous to the role of a
reporter (one who interviews people). Each of the lessons has three
phases: an introduction consisting of an overview and verbal
explanation of the strategy; a teacher modeling segment; and a guided
application and independent practice period. The 10 lessons are: self
questioning; sources of information; think-aloud introduction;
think-aloud review; predicting, reading, and verifying; understanding
unstated information; retelling a story; rereading and reading on;
and two lessons involving think aloud/comprehension monitoring
application. The instructional program can be modified or adapted in
various ways in classrooms other than regular reading classrooms.
Think alouds provide teachers an effective, useful, and flexible
technique for helping students acquire control over their
comprehension processing of written texts.
(A figure of the Clark
Canine character and a table listing lesson content are included; 28
references are attached.) (RS)
MONITORING READING COMPREHENSION
BY THINKING ALOUD
Nancy Seifert-Kessell
James F. Baumann Leah A. Jones
vsa,1
k'
U.I. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Othc of Educational Research and Improvement
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
X,Thls document has been reproduced as
ecerved from the person Or Orpanizstion
ongInehng It
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rePrOdochon Quality
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NRRC
ment do not netosurity represent official
OERI position or policy
Instructional Resource No. 1
National Reading Research Center
Summer 1993
ifir,r.
BEST. Cf7r.sY
4°
NRRC
National Reading Research Center
Monitoring Reading Comprehension
by Thinking Aloud
James F. Baumann
University of Georgia
Leah A. Jones
Chandler, Arizona
Nancy Seifert-Kesseil
Cleveland State University
INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCE NO. 1
Summer 1993
The work reported herein was prepared with partial support from the National Reading
Research Center of the University of Georgia and University of Maryland. It was
supported under the Educational Research and Development Centers Program
(PR/AWARD NO. 117A20007) as administered by the Office of Educational Research
and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. The findings and opinions expressed
here do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of the National Reading
Resehrch Center, the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, or the U.S.
Department of Education.
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About the Authors
James F. Baumann is Professor of Reading
Nancy Seifert-Kessell is Visiting Lecturer in the
Education at the University of Georgia and Department of Specialized Instructional Pro-
Associate Director of the National Reading
grams at Cleveland State University. She has
Research Center. As a member of the Native
taugh' fourth grade in Gary, Indiana, has served
as a reading consultant at the Common School
American Teacher Corps project, he taught third
in Amherst, Massachusetts, and has taught
and fourth grade in a rural Wisconsin communi-
reading to learning-disabled children at the
ty. He was editor of The Reading Teacher from
Smith College Campus School in Northampton,
1989 to 1993.
Massachusetts.
Leah A. Jones earned her M.S. in elementary
education at Purdue University, where she
worked on Volume 43 of The Reading Teacher.
She has taught kindergarten and the primary
grades in the Vancouver, British Columbia, area.
+
ei
Monitoring
In a recent study (Baumann, Seifert-Kessell,
1992), we asked fourth-grade
& Jones,
Reading
students to read an excerpt from Laura
Ingalls Wilder's On the Banks of Plum
Creek, in which Laura, playing in the haz-
Comprehension
ardous, fast-running waters of Plum Creek,
rolls off a footbridge and nearly drowns.
by
As the students read the story aloud, we
stopped them occasionally and asked "Can
Thinking
you tell me what you were doing or think-
ing about as you read this part of the
Aloud
Consider the following sets of
story?"
responses by two different groups of
children. Ann, Kim, Sam, and Tom respond-
ed to our question, in part, as follows:
James F. Baumann
I was asking questions, and I asked
Ann:
University of Georgia
questions like 'Why did she go to the
creek when her mother told her not to?"
Leah A. Jones
And 'Why did Laura take her shoes and
Chandler, Arizona
socks off when she knew the creek was
going to be rocky and muddy on the
Nancy Seifert-Kessell
bottom?'
Cleveland State University
I was asking myself 'Is this making
Kim:
sense? and I was asking if /ike [what] do I
think what would happen next without
National Reading Research Center
reading the next page-just reading that
Universities of Georgia and Maryland
[the present] page. [Researcher: Can you
Instructional Resource No. 1
tell me a bit more about this?]
She'll
Summer 1993
probably go down there again and play
when the water's down and when it's not
so high and when it's not so like roaring
and stuff.
Sam: I retold what I read the first time to
[page] 193 as I was reading the last part of
the story to see if it would make sense.
I was thinking that like when she
Tom:
wanted to get deeper and deeper in the
9
James F. Baumann, Leah A. Jones, and Nancy Seifert-Kesseil
2
Oh, trying to stop at every period
water, then the water would probably try
Lynn:
and take her off or sorrething.
and trying to pause at the commas.
And I
[Re-
really didn't knowin the beginning
there anything else you were
searcher:
I
Is
I was trying to
trying to do as you read?]
didn't think I'd be right in what I thought
read loud like instead of talking real soft
because it talked about so many other
.
. .
and you couldn't hear me.
things. Then when I got further on in the
[Researcher:
Anything else you did or
What else?
story, then it started to make sense.
thought about as you were reading this
section?] Not really.
The students who gave these responses
a group that had
had participated
in
kept saying blank.°
Ron:
[Researcher:
learned how to think aloud as they read
I
Can you tell me more about that? Why
stories. The intent behind the think-aloud
did you keep saying °blank?" (No student
lessons was to help them develop the
response.) What do you do to help you
ability to monitor their reading compre-
understand what you read?] Look at the
hension and employ strategies to guide or
Can you think of
pictures.
[Researcher:
aid their understanding. And, indeed, in
anything else you do besides look at the
their responses, these children demonstrat-
Ask a friend.
pictures?]
[Researcher:
ed that they were using various compre-
What kinds of things would you ask a
hension monitoring and fix-up strategies,
If he could pronounce a word.
friend?]
such as self-questioning (Ann), asking if
the story made sense (Kim), using retelling
Kate, Lynn, and Ron had not received
technicue
construction
instruction in thinking aloud but instead
meaning
as
a
(Sam), or offering hypotheses and reaeng
read stories according to a conventional
on to verify or modify them (Tom).
directed reading activity format.
Rather
In contrast, consider how Kate, Lynn,
than focusing on comprehension processes
and Ron responded to our question "Can
as did Ann, Kim, Sam, and Tom, these
you tell me what you were doing or think-
students emphasized literal comprehension
ing about as you read this part of the
(Kate), accurate oral reading (Lynn), or
story?':
word identification strategies (Ron).
It is the purpose of this report to de-
Nothing?
Nothing.
scribe the think-aloud instructional pro-
[Researcher:
Kate:
What kind of ideas did you have as you
gram we developed to help students ac-
That her mom was very nice and
read?]
quire the ability to monitor their reading
understood that it could have killed her.
comprehension and to employ various
Any other ideas you had?]
[Researcher:
strategies to deal with comprehension
Anything
She was nice.
[Researcher:
breakdowns. First, we provide some back-
else?] No.
ground information about comprehension
NRRC National Reading Research Center
0
'L