Jillian Goltz EDR 550 Think Aloud Assignment March 27, 2015

Text: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

Grade: 3rd grade

Skill: Visualization with a Narrative Text
You and I can read texts of many types and see in our minds what is
happening, almost like a mental movie. While it is easy for children to see
the images that are shown to them on television, for some, it is more difficult
to form those images in their minds when reading. Visualization is a
comprehension strategy. If students do not understand the text that they are
reading, they are not forming a mental image of the text or only bits and
pieces of it. Because of this, they do not understand and are not learning
(Opening the door, n.d.).
Visualization makes use of the fives senses, in the sense that, certain
words in a text make us visualize certain images. What is the text making
one smell or hear? Struggling readers need guidance on how to identify
these words, and with that, how to use the descriptions to form an image.
Modeling out loud what we are visualizing can help students understand and
gain the confidence needed to start visualizing texts themselves (Picture it,
n.d.). Visualizing also helps readers remember events in the story better,
further allowing students to comprehend and recall events in the book.
By reading a book and not showing the pictures, students can visualize
what they are hearing. From that, they can draw the image that they
thought of. Teachers can also implement a class discussion to talk about
what students visualized. It is important to let students know that what one
student visualizes is not what every student is going to visualize; we all have
different background knowledge and experiences that make our images
different (Picture it, n.d.).
Introduction:
Teacher Talk: Who has a favorite movie? Who can tell me a favorite
part of that movie? What did you see or hear? How did it make you feel and
why? (Students volunteer to share). Did you know we can do the same thing
with a book? Its called visualizing. Visualizing creates a mental movie in
our heads. The words that an author uses in a book are written to help the
reader, you, create a picture in your head to help you remember events in
the book.

Authors use sensory words to help readers see the words that are
written. Sensory words relate to our five senses. Can anyone remember
what those are? (Wait for answers). Our five senses are: sight, taste, touch,
hearing, and smell. The words the author uses in the book help us create an
image of the setting, the characters, or what is happening in the book. What
is neat is that we all create our own images; we do not all come up with the
same mental movie because we all have different experiences that have
happened to us, that make us all have different ideas.
I am going to share out loud parts of my mental movie using the book
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. While I read, I want you
to listen to the text for words that help make your mental movie of the book
because I will not be showing you the pictures just yet! When I am done
sharing, I would like some friends to share with the class what they
visualized in their heads and why. Then, I will share the pictures in the book.
After, Ill give everyone a copy of another text to help you visualize. I
would like each person to draw a picture of one of the paragraphs that I
assign you. Then, I want you to discuss in small groups what each of you
visualized. What similarities did you have or differences? Why?
Modeling:
Teacher reads first page of text to visualize: We were all sitting
around the big kitchen table. It was Saturday morning. Pancake morning.
Mom was squeezing oranges for juice. Henry and I were betting on how
many pancakes we each could eat. And Grandpa was doing the flipping.
While I was reading the words, I thought of what breakfast is like at my
house on the weekend. I pictured a family sitting around a round kitchen
table, still in their pajamas! I can smell the pancakes and hear them sizzling
on the pan. In my head, I picture grandpa, flipping them up in the air like a
professional chef on TV and then catching it back in the pan. My mouth is
watering because of the smell of the pancakes. I hear Henry and his sibling
going back and forth and arguing about who would eat the most. I used to
always argue with my siblings!
All of these thoughts I made in my head from the short paragraph in
the story. I used words from the story to create the image. When I think of
pancakes, it helped me to smell and taste it in my mouth. When the text
told me Grandpa was flipping the pancakes, it made me think of seeing that
on TV, so my mental movie created that image. Who else had a similar or
different image and wants to share?
The teacher will continue reading the book and will model visualizing using
other parts of the book. When the teacher finishes, the class will have a
short discussion of what mental movies they came up with and why. Then,
a new text will be introduced that will be used to further practice the
visualizing strategy.

Next, I will provide everyone with only a text copy of the book The
Salamander Room by Anne Mazer. We will read the book out loud together.
After, you will go back to re-read the book independently to further visualize
the book. Then, you will be asked to draw what you pictured in your head
and share it in a small group. From that, you will discuss with your group
and write down any similarities or differences you noticed based off your
discussions.
Guided Practice:
Students will be given another text to practice visualizing with. Each
student will be given a copy of The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer but
without the pictures. The class will read the book out loud together. After,
students will independently go back and re-read the text to further help them
visualize. They will all draw an illustration of the same page(s) selected by
the teacher. Remember, the teacher provided a text with no pictures. It
should be stressed that art will not be graded, as some people do not excel
as well at art as others. As long as the illustration gets it point across and is
labeled if needed, this should be fine. Typically though, a lot of children tend
to enjoy expressing themselves through the arts. Students will then be put
into groups of four. As a group, students will discuss what they visualized as
they read. Then, they will share their pictures. A group scribe will write
down any similarities or differences amongst the group in their discussion
and in their drawings.
Progress Monitoring:
The teacher will circulate around the room to assist students with
questions. If a student has a question about the text, the teacher will be
available to ask. The teacher will circulate as the groups meet together and
listen to conversations. She may also sit in on a few group meetings and
offer his/her visualizations. She can gain insight into what students are
visualizing and why by joining in with groups briefly. The teacher will then
provide students with a copy of the illustrated The Salamander Room book to
look at and compare their visualizations with after discussions are finished
amongst all groups.
The teacher will collect the drawings that the students did in order to
evaluate how well the student understood the strategy and applied it. If
questions arise from the students work, the teacher can meet with the
student separately to discuss his/her thinking and further evaluate if the
student will need more assistance with learning the comprehending strategy
of visualization. The similarities and differences recorded by each group can
be used to see if there are similar confusions between groups in the class
and can be a stepping stone for another lesson if need be.
Accommodations for Tier II and Tier III:
Tier II After the teacher reads the book out loud, the Tier II students
can meet with the teacher or a qualified aide and a group of students to

again read the text out loud together. It may be difficult for the students to
read the text back silently so to hear it again with the support of others can
be helpful. Throughout the week, these students can be supported with
other texts to further help them learn and practice the visualizing strategy.
These students can still do the activity listed above but would benefit from
more guidance from a teacher/aide to clear up any questions.
Tier III Like Tier II, these students will meet with the teacher or an
aide and possibly a smaller group of students or one on one. As opposed to
the guided practice of providing students with only text from the book, I
would venture to keep the pictures with the text for these students. If the
Tier III student is having trouble with vocabulary, it may be helpful for them
to see those words and make those connections with the pictures in the
story. From that, the student is seeing the picture, but the picture he creates
in his head could still take on a different form. These students would be
asked to illustrate a page or two like the other students.
I also thought it may be helpful to provide a synonym bank. Some
words may be difficult for students, so in the book, the teacher can change
those words to a word that the student may comprehend better. The teacher
can highlight that word for the student, making the student aware that there
is another word for it in the synonym bank. An example may be changing
the word boulders to big rocks. That way, the student can make a
connection with the vocabulary and realize there are different words that
help us make the same mental movie.
I also found a YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=hZrtzCA9pmY) of the book The Salamander Room being read out loud.
This can be helpful for the Tier II and III students, too. They can view it and
go back to parts if needed, if they are allotted with the capability to do that.
The text is read slowly, too, which is helpful.
Reflection:
To start, hearing yourself recorded is always a little odd and something
to get used to. That aside, I felt pretty confident listening back to my think
aloud. My volume seemed good, and my rate of speech was better than I
thought, though there are a few points where I think I could have slowed
down. From learning in my classes, it is always a good idea to slow down
your rate of speech so students can follow and understand. I felt fine with
how I delivered the text of the story, though I know I could have done it a lot
differently. I think not having an audience of children played into this. I love
reading to the children where I work and really like to get into it because it
keeps them engaged. I think without the audience, it kept me toned down!
Along with that, I tend to talk and gesture with my hands, so when I was
reciting the think aloud, I was gesturing, which obviously cannot be seen in
an audio recording. I think gesturing can help make the think aloud come to
life for students, too. For example, when I spoke about the maple syrup
ocean outside the window, I pointed to a window. Doing that gets the
children involved with the think aloud and can help them visualize.

I cannot remember think alouds used when I was in school, but I think
it is important. It is important to model authentically strategies or behaviors
that one wants students to learn and replicate. I work with very young
children (1-2 year olds), and I model how to do things, though I know
because of their age, they just do what they want, and that is okay.
However, I know that modeling it helps them learn, and repetition is key.
This is the same for all learners. Though, there is a lot of preparation and
work to be successful with using think alouds, a teacher is only helping her
students become more successful learners. I see myself using think alouds
in all subjects, but especially language arts because there is so much more
you can do with it, in my opinion. Think alouds are a form of scaffolding that
helps learners reach their fullest potential.
Like I said, I think the most challenging thing about think alouds is the
time and preparation to put the whole think aloud together. It is easy to
come up with the general idea in ones head but then to put it on paper is a
different story because there is so much one needs to include and not miss.
What a teacher does during a think aloud is what a student is going to follow,
so there is not much room for error. A teacher needs to be confident and
also be sure that what she is teaching is accurate and authentic.

References
Opening the door: Teaching students to use visualization to improve
comprehension. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2015, from
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev/profdev094.shtml
Picture this! Using mental imagery while reading. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18,
2015, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/picture-using-mentalimagery-whilereading