Think Aloud Planning Sheet

Directions for Full Credit:​ Use the think aloud strategy planning sheet below to plan your strategy instruction. Please submit
this completed template to Canvas with the reflection.
Name: Jennifer Valencia
Strategy: ​Double Entry Journals
Content Area and ELA Standards:
9-10.RI.2​ ​Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text,
including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary
of the text.
9-10.RI.5 ​Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular
sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).
9-10.RI.6​ Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses
rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.
Objective: ​Students will organize their thoughts on each poem using a double entry journal in order to
determine the central idea of each text and then they will compare and contrast the two texts in order
to explain the connection and the evolution between the two texts.
Text: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iAZPQcMUL6g0z8f0R5oAx2gL3xYzdqvMBjrTKWbGF2Q/edit?
usp=sharing
Ling to Screencast: ​https://www.loom.com/share/ff1943536b954c6e8740f3e277f2e91c
:​*You may use bullet points if desired in the blue sections below*

Strategy Awareness & Explanation (Purpose for selecting the strategy)

How will provide students with a clear picture of the ​why​ and ​how​?
I selected the Double Entry Journal strategy because it requires students to stop and
think about what the poems are saying. The double entry journal helps students learn
more and retain more because they are not only interacting with the text, but also
reflecting on it with their own thoughts and experiences.
Strategy Demonstration & Modeling (Think Aloud)
How will you model, explain, practice, and reinforce the rules or procedures of the strategy?

What the Text Says What I Say What Comprehension Strategy

I Model
“The free bird leaps  This free bird reminds me of  Using context clues
on the back of the wind  nature and gives me a vivid 
and floats downstream  picture of how free this bird is. It 
till the current ends  also makes me think the bird is 
and dips his wings  happy living its free life 
in the orange sun rays 
and dares to claim the sky.”

But a bird that stalks  This bird is not free and it makes  Asking questions
down his narrow cage  me wonder why it isn’t free. Why 
can seldom see through  are it’s wings clipped?  
his bars of rage 
his wings are clipped and 
his feet are tied 
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings  The caged bird longs to be free, it  Making inferences
with fearful trill  is scared and alone because it is 
of the things unknown  not free to do as it pleases. The 
but longed for still  bird sings because he is sad and 
singing is the only thing he is free 
and his tune is heard 
to do. 
on the distant hill for the caged 
bird 
sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another  This reminds me of movie scenes  Making connections
breeze  where the people drive with their 
and the trade winds soft through  top down and hands in the air, 
the sighing trees  because they are free. They get 
to go wherever they want and do 
and the fat worms waiting on a 
what they want 
dawn-bright lawn 
and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the  This is a direct contrast to the  Making connections
grave of dreams  previous stanza because they use 
his shadow shouts on a  the word “but”. This bird is stuck 
nightmare scream  literally and emotionally. Speaker 
personifies his shadow to show 
his wings are clipped and his feet 
the reader the effects being 
are tied  caged has on the bird 
so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings  I noticed this stanza is repeated  Noting important details & asking
with a fearful trill  as a way to end the poem. It  questions
makes me wonder if the caged 
 of things unknown  bird is ever free, or if the free 
but longed for still  bird hears his tune 
and his tune is heard 
on the distant hill 
for the caged bird 
sings of freedom.

Guided Practice
How will you have students practice the strategy with support?

I will guide them through the poem and fill out the double entry journal as a class. We will work our
way through each stanza and noting any important details or phrases then stopping to note them
down and write down our thoughts/reflections. This way students can see an example of how they
should approach a text and what to look for.

Strategy Application
How will students apply the strategy independently?

They will get the opportunity to practice this strategy on their own with the second poem. I will still be
available to guide student thinking if they have questions or maybe they think they don’t have any
connections to the reading.

​ -3 paragraph detailed reflection​ about your teaching experience based off your
Reflection ​Write a 2
own self-assessment.
● How did the structure (awareness & explanation, demonstration & modeling, guided practice,
application) help support your instruction and student learning?
● How does this strategy support learning in your discipline specifically?
● What were your strengths, and areas for growth (please consider both your planning and your
instruction of the strategy).

Having to structure the strategy helps with my instruction because I often feel like my mind is all over
the place and I have so many things I want to bring up and show students but I don’t want to
overwhelm them. Not only that but in overtalking, I think my key points and what I want students to
get out of the lesson, is lost in everything that I said. Being able to plan it all out helps me know what I
am going to say and when in order to make it most beneficial for the students. It definitely helps
student learning because I have to be more mindful and intentional with my word choice and activity
choice, so it avoids filler talk that is not helpful to students. With more direct and concise language,
students should be able to know what they understand and what they don’t in order to ask questions.

This strategy helps support learning in English because it requires students to interact directly with the
text. They have to consider connections, questions, ideas, etc that come up during their reading. I think
this strategy promotes active reading and also reflective reading. This is helpful for English because
there will be a lot of things that students have to read and this is a good way to break down texts and
make it easier to work with. Having said that, I would say my strengths were taking key ideas and
noting them down for students. Though one thing I did struggle with was my questioning. I need to
work on knowing what questions to ask and how to ask them to help guide students.