Thinking Aloud and Reading Comprehension

Developed by Michael W. Kibby largely on the works in the references and most especially Kucan and Beck, 1997.
Domain: Reading Comprehension
Supporting Theory/Research Rationale Preparing texts for reading comprehension instruction and
preparing students to read that text (other handouts) are important components of reading
comprehension instruction; however, the essence of reading comprehension instruction begins
only after students respond to the text in discussion, retelling, writing, or acting out. Note that
"answering questions" is not on the list of post-reading activities appropriate in reading
comprehension instruction -- and most especially excluded are wh-transformation questions (i.e.,
who, what, when, where). Questions are eschewed here because the purpose of reading
comprehension instruction is to encourage students not simply to state the "right" information,
but even more importantly, to describe the thinking that resulted from that reading. Kucan and
Beck (1997, p. 286) describe this rationale in one phrase "What do you think and why do you think
so?"
One way to help students to say what it is they are thinking and why they are thinking such is for
teachers to demonstrate or model these thinking aloud activities as they read a text, and then
help their students learn to deploy these same strategies for thinking about a text on their own --
or better yet, within a group engaged in discussion of the text. "From a social constructivist
perspective, the potential result of participating in a social situation involving reading and
thinking about texts is that individual students can draw upon the teacher and other students to
help them construct not only an understanding of text ideas but also an understanding of what it
means to read and think about texts (Kucan & Beck, 1997, p. 289).
The research on think aloud (verbal reports, verbal protocols) spans 40 years. In the early 1960’s,
Newell and Simon (building on the work of cognitivists such as Lashley; Chomsky; Bruner,
Goodnow & Austin; and Broadbent) used think aloud protocols to examine how people solved
problems. Though this methodology is not without its critics, it still has made its mark over the
last 40 years. Over that period of time, however, "a shift from talk about discrete strategies to talk
about the meaning of the text itself is apparent" (Kucan & Beck, 1997, p. 272):
1. 1960-1980s - think alouds viewed mainly as a research tool to investigate processes
involved in thinking, problem solving, and reading comprehension. Major researchers were
Newel and Simon, 1972; Ericsson and Simon, 1980; Flower and Hayes, 1977; Hayes and
Flower, 1980 and 1983; Olshavsky, 1977; Waern, 1978 and 1980; Collins, Brown and Larkin,
1980; Brown and Day, 1983; Garner and others, 1987, 1981, 1983; Afferbach and Johnston,
1984; Olson, Duffy, and Mack, 1984.
2. 1980s - think alouds viewed as a technique to model to students the strategies teachers
use to comprehend text in order to help students improve thinking and reading
comprehension. Collins and Smith, 1982; Roehler and Duffy, 1984; Paris, Jacobs, Wixon and
Lipson, 1983-86; Davey, 1983; Miller, 1985; Palincsar and Brown, 1984; and Bereiter and Bird,
1985 conducted major research in this area of think alouds.
3. 1990s - think alouds became accepted as a an integral component of the process of
constructing meaning within a social interaction -- that is, the notion of thinking aloud is
now viewed less as a tool or strategy, and more as "an aspect of social interaction,
specifically as an aspect of the discourse in social contexts designed to teach reading
comprehension" (Kucan & Beck, 1997, p. 272). "The focus of reading instruction shifted
from the individual to the social context of a group" (Kucan & Beck, 1997, p. 285). Major
researchers in this strand include Anderson & Roit, 1993; Beck, McKeown et al., 1994;
Palincsar & Klenk, 1992; Almasi, 1995; Nuthall & Alton-Lee, 1995; and Raphael and
colleagues, 1992-1995.

Benefits of Think Aloud in Reading Comprehension Instruction The underlying philosophy of think-
aloud is that reading a text is a form of communication, and "communication is the heart of the
educational enterprise" (Kucan & Beck, 1997, p. 289). John Dewey said (1916/1966, p. 5):
  Not only is social life identical with communication, but all communication (and hence all
genuine social life) is educative. To be a recipient of a communication is to have an
enlarged and changed experience. One shares in what another has thought and felt and so
in fact, meagerly or

 amply, has his own attitude modified. Nor is the one who communicates left unaffected. Try
the experience of communicating, with fullness and accuracy, some experience to another,
especially if it be somewhat complicated, and you will find your own attitude toward your
experience changing . . . . The experience has to be formulated in order to be
communicated. To formulate requires getting outside of it, seeing it as another would see it.

Kucan and Beck (1997, p. 290) argue that:

 When students participate in discourse environments and engage in dialogue or
communication, their learning is not confined to knowledge constructed as a product in
such a context, but also includes a developing understanding of and ability to use the
processes by which such knowledge is constructed. For example, in discussion about text
in which students communicate their developing understanding of text ideas and listen as
other students do the same, students would be expected to construct not only an
understanding of the text content but also an understanding about the process of
constructing meaning from text.

Pontecorv (1993, p. 191) sums this point well: "forms of discourse become forms of thinking."
Instructional Guidelines
The overall strategy of teacher modeling of reading comprehension with think alouds is that she:
 models her own process of comprehension monitoring and
 models how she generates hypotheses, evaluates content, and revises her understanding.

The basic steps in teacher modeling or reading comprehension by using think alouds are:
 teacher models while reading a text aloud (students should have text also),
 teacher elicits students participation in thinking aloud, then
 students internalize same strategies by practice (e.g. reciprocal teaching, Request).

The points to elicit and talk about while modeling with the think aloud procedure include the
following, many of which are from Beth Davey (1983):
 Activating prior knowledge - demonstrate how you to preview a chapter, unit, or other text
that the students will be reading; orally state what you are looking at, how you are
interpreting it, what questions you are asking yourself, how it affects your expectations for
what you will learn by reading this text; conclude by demonstrating how you recall
information and attitudes related to the gist of the text and how you have organized this
information in your mind in preparation for reading.
 Predicting - demonstrate how you use this activated prior knowledge to formulate
expectations for the text, i.e., information or points of view you expect will be presented in
the text you are about to read.
 Visualizing - discuss or tell students what you are seeing in your mind and why.
 Making analogies - many times an idea or event we read reminds us of some similar idea or
event from our own experience, and we then find that which has been read analogous to
real life; these analogies need to be explained and demonstrated to students.
 Expressing confusion - even the best of readers is unsure of the meaning of certain
segments of text, which should be demonstrated to pupils.
 Demonstrating fix-up strategies
 restating or rephrasing text into simpler terms,
 backtracking - going back to earlier portions for purpose of establishing connections or
relations,
 rereading - rereading the immediately preceding section in order to clear up understanding,
  reading ahead to clear up misunderstandings,
 use the context for an unknown word.
 Identifying important and less important information -- in this process, a mental outline
might be constructed
 Summarizing and organizing - after completing the reading, demonstrate how you would
scan back through the text to collect major organizing ideas, sub-topics within major
organizing ideas, and techniques for writing, memorizing, or recalling content.

Specific Teaching Techniques

Reciprocal Teaching (Palincsar & Klenk, 1992; Palincsar & Brown, 1984), teacher/student,
student/student, or students/students discuss and analyze a text by alternating from one to the
other in:
 asking questions,
 summarizing or condensing text (maybe as much as summarizing each sentence),
 identifying sections of text requiring clarification, and
 making predictions about text.

Request (see Request handout)

Discussion (see Discussion handout, see also Gambrell & Almasi, 1993)
Questioning the Author (see Questioning the Author handout, see also Beck et al. 1996).