I did a think aloud in my own classroom. The skill we worked on was making predictions. I started off by having a very short mini lesson on just exactly what a prediction is, why predict, and how making predictions aids us in our learning. The students were spot on in knowing how we predict but not so sure on why we predict. I thought that this was kind of funny. Why are we teaching students a skill and never teaching them why it is a good skill for them to use in their own reading! I thought to myself this happens way to often in the classroom and it is truly disappointing not only to me but to the students who don't know WHY they are learning! When I realized this I told myself that during my think aloud I would need to really push for helping them understand why predictions are helpful.
For my think aloud we read our book that we were already working on called Clementine by Sara Pennypacker. I did not chose a different book because I wanted them to see how we can use predictions and think aloud strategies in all of their books! So instead of choosing a short book we chose to read a short chapter. I started off the think aloud by reading. I would stop and ask myself hmm...why would Clementine do such a funny thing like write on her arm or pretend to be Lily and then I would predict how this might affect Clementine and how this will impact what happens next in the book. I would then make a point to say what happens because of this will be something I am going to keep my eye out for late.
As we worked through a few predictions together I could see how much my students were getting it...a lot quicker than I had imagined! I had pre-written out questions to ask on sticky notes and we were flying through them. Everyone was able to make a prediction about what would happen next some right and some wrong. I noticed how bummed out some of my students were when they predicted wrong. I saw this as a major teaching moment and gabbed on to it. I wanted to teach my students that failure is okay and that is how we learn! Without making a wrong prediction or having a wrong answer to the math question there would be no need for school. The world would be boring if everyone knew everything there is to learn. My students really liked this idea and I could tell in there answers. They wanted to predict more and more. They had multiple predictions for everything they wanted to share them and most importantly they were looking for the answers while they were reading! Which is the point of predicting it helps us read with a purpose.
When my students were thriving I began to take myself out of the picture. I let them run the show and what they came up with was amazing. The students were stopping each other to challenge prediction questions. What happened when I took myself out as a leader really made me think. Why don't we as teachers do this more often. Sometimes I think we get so caught up with running the show that we fail our students. We can learn a lot from them and they can learn a lot from each other but only if we let them! We need to look at our students as potential teachers as well. As teachers it can be hard to give up the reins sometimes but what happens when you do can be truly amazing!
This think aloud went great! My students were making predictions like crazy but most of all they were reading with a purpose. It was not about reading the words on a page one by one without making a mistake it was about making connections and looking at the words all together to form a story. I could not be happier with this think aloud and to use it again in my own future classroom!
