Modelling Reading - Think Aloud

ELNG 310 Portfolio Activity Week 8

Modelling Reading - Think Aloud



Names: Hayley C, Karlee Andres, Dayle D, Shana B, Abigail G

Instructions

Read the following book and create a think aloud.

This think aloud should emphasize comprehension. You might focus on one of the strategies on pages 75-82 of the textbook:

  • Using and building on prior knowledge

  • Predicting

  • Monitoring comprehension

  • Inferring

  • Visualizing

  • Identifying and summarizing information

  • Responding to text



  1. What strategy will you focus on in your think aloud?

  • Generating and answering questions

Now write a script for your think aloud. Include everything the teacher will say. Remember the purpose of the think aloud is to model what you are thinking as you read.



2. What will you say before reading?

The first thing to do when predicting what will happen in the book is to look at the cover. From the cover, I can tell this young person likes to cook. I think this book will be about a young girl making a traditional dish from Syria. I also see a bunch of people surrounding her, I wonder what importance they have to her and the story.



3. What will you say during reading? Pick 2-4 points in the book where you will stop and think aloud. Include the page numbers and your script.


Pg. 3

What is a welcome center? Maybe it's somewhere people go when they first come to Canada to meet people.

I wonder how long she has lived in Vancouver? I have never moved to a new country. That must be extremely difficult, especially when they speak a different language than I do.

Page 9.

What is Arabic? English is the only language I know how to speak. Learning another language can be challenging.

What will you say after reading?

What have we learned about Syria? We have learned that a traditional meal is foul shami and that they speak Arabic in Syria.

The people on the front of the book is the community around her at the welcome center. Salma gets help from all of the people around her to make her traditional dish because the ingredients are harder to find and she is not able to read what the ingredients are in English. The people are very helpful around help.



4. Extension activities If you have time, brainstorm some activities that you might do with your students to extend the learning.


  • This book could relate to and have cross curricular connections to social studies or health.

  • Take a look at a map or globe and locate where Syria is. Is it close to anywhere or anything we recognize?

  • Figure out a traditional food dish from the student’s heritage to tell their classmates about and possibly make or bring a sample of the food.

  • Talk about how hard it is for people to move to a new county and be unfamiliar with a new language and surroundings and how we as a class can help our friends feel welcome.