Use this collection of guidelines, checklists, and assessment tools from Jeff Wilhelm's book Improving Comprehension With Think-Aloud Strategies to start using think-aloud strategies with your students.
Getting Started
There are several strategies, called general reading processes, which researchers have discovered readers use every time they read anything. If your students don't do these things, this is the place to start your think-aloud modeling since these strategies will have the greatest pay-off for them across all reading tasks.
Use these guidelines for getting started with read-aloud technigues with your students:
- What Think-Alouds Can Do for Students (PDF)
- Starting Points: General Processes of Reading (PDF)
- Prompts that Guide Students to Use the General Reading Strategies (PDF)
Guide and Monitor Instruction
Rules of Notice Chart (PDF)
Use this chart to list things that students notice when inferring character.
Flow Chart of Comprehension Monitoring Behaviors (PDF)
Navigate students through self-monitoring reading instruction.
Stop, Ask, Fix: Student Checklist for Monitoring (PDF)
Use this handout when students are ready to take over the process of self-monitoring in small groups or individually.
Guidelines for Determining an Author's Main Idea (PDF)
Use this sample list to write a set of guidelines with your students.
Conversing With the Author Check Sheet (PDF)
Engage students in the author's craft and get them "talking back" about ideas expressed in the reading.
Genre Characteristics Chart (PDF)
This chart provides an overview of some genres (text-types) that are often read by students and the task-specific processes a reader uses to read them. As you introduce a genre, develop such lists of characteristics with your students.
Assessment Suggestions
What to Watch For: Questions to Help Assess Reading (PDF)
Use think-alouds for performance-based assessment.
Visualization Check Sheet for Readers (PDF)
This handout can be used as an informal assessment of how students visualize the text.
