Think Aloud: The Importance of Helping Young Readers Understand What They Read

Dr. Delphia Smith

Think aloud, a strategy often characterized as “eavesdropping on someone’s thinking,” is important in helping young readers understand how meaning is constructed from a text. It also helps the reader think while reading. When readers utilize think-alouds, they are able to monitor their thinking as they read, while improving their comprehension. They are also able to re-read a sentence, read ahead to clarify and look for context clues to make sense of what they are reading, while slowing down the reading process and allowing them to monitor their understanding of a text. To help readers understand and be able to implement this strategy, the teacher must first model how it is used while reading. Focus should be placed specifically on areas such as new vocabulary and unusual sentence structure. Here, the teacher is providing readers the opportunity to become aware of the many strategies and monitoring behaviors good readers use. Once the teacher has modeled the strategy, readers should be given opportunities to practice on their own, while structured feedback is provided. After which, readers should be encouraged to reflect on the use and process of a think aloud in helping them understand what they read.

Legislative Season is upon us!

Please be on the lookout for opportunities to advocate for yourself and the students you serve. The following are legislative agenda items for the LaDDC. On www.laddc.org under the Policy and Advocacy tab, you can find Fact Sheets for each item. The Fact Sheet will detail relevant facts about the proposed issue, why it’s important, and the action required from our legislators. It is our responsibility to keep up-to-date on the legislative agenda items that will directly impact our roles as educators. Remember, we implement laws everyday in our classrooms!

• Fund and Implement TEFRA Equitably
• Fund the Human Services Districts/Authorities
• Fully Fund State Personal Assistance Services (SPAS)
• Public Reporting of Special Education Monitoring Findings and Corrective Actions
• Require Cameras in Special Education Classrooms Upon Request

OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES

• Children’s Special Health Services (CSHS) is a program for children in Louisiana with special health care needs. This includes health problems that affects how the child grows, moves, and acts, and children who need more health services than most other children. http://www.dhh.la.gov/CSHS

• Affiliated Blind of Louisiana is a non-profit organization that services deaf and deaf-blind persons at least 18 years of age. Referral to the organization is not required. www.affiliatedblind.org

• The Epilepsy Foundation-Louisiana provides free services and v helps connect families affected by seizures and epilepsy. Besides providing educational support to families to help them better manage and control the disorder, it educates the general public to improve understanding of epilepsy and seizures and basic first aid. https://www.epilepsy.com/louisiana

We need you!

We are looking for committed members who would be interesting in serving under the Louisiana-DEC board under any of these positions :

• Communications/ Social media
• Membership
• Professional development

If you would like to become more involved in what is happening with Louisiana-DEC, please email us at louisianadec@gmail.com.

Visit us at https://www.louisianadec.com/