Teach Children to Read and Write by Thinking Out Loud

    The word "metacognition" means to "think about your thinking." Teachers can use their own metacognition to model how they think when they read for meaning or compose a piece of writing. This strategy is called "thinking out loud" or "think alouds".

    Thinking About Reading

    Many children become experts at breaking the reading code and sounding out words. They read the words aloud and appear to be "reading", but in many cases they are not comprehending the text. Teachers can help students become aware of how good readers read by thinking out loud during reading lessons.

    The first step is to choose a piece of text on your student's reading level. You want to select a piece of text that is one level above their independent reading levels which requires teacher support during reading instruction. This is called their "instructional reading level." Tell students you are going to read aloud the text while they read along silently in their minds. You can accomplish this by using a big book, placing text on a projection system, writing the text on large chart paper, or giving each student a copy of the text. Explain to students that as you read the text aloud, you will "stop and think out loud" about the text and its' meaning.

    Begin by scanning the piece of text to determine what the text will be about. As a reader, you naturally make predictions about the text and ask relevent questions. As you are thinking out loud about your predictions and questions you will say something like this: "I think this story is going to be about...based on... I wonder if "fill in the blank" will happen... I'm going to read to find out." During reading stop and think out loud about your prediction. Confirm or adjust your prediction based on what happened in the story and make new predictions. The process of predicting and questioning continues throughout the story.

    Thinking out loud about your reading helps students to understand that good readers make meaning with the text when they read. You can teach students different reading strategies and skills by using "think alouds" strategically during lessons.

    Thinking About Writing

    Composing a piece of writing in front of children helps young writers "see" how writers work through the writing process. Teachers who "think out loud" demonstrate to students how writers make their decisions.

    If you are uncomfortable writing in front of your class, you can pre-plan your writing piece before your lesson. The important part of the process is to "show" your students how you think through your piece of writing. In the following writing example the "think aloud" is inside the parenthesis.