Think-Aloud Lesson

Text Title: Lift Every Voice and Sing (Black National Anthem)
Teacher Name: Taton Bennett

TWO “I wonder” Questions:

1. (clarify confusion): “Looking at this text, I see some words and phrases I don’t recognize. I
wonder what a “chastening rod” is. I wonder what the phrase, “listening skies” means.”

2. (deepen/extend understanding): “I’m looking at the second stanza. I wonder what the author
of this text means by, “Felt in the days when hope unborn had died.” How can hope be unborn?
How can hope die? I wonder what the author of this text means by, “Have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our fathers sighed?” Why would their fathers sigh for a place?”

TWO Potential Challenges:

1. One potential challenge is understanding the way the rhythm of the song fits with the
text. For students who struggle with beat and rhythm, this could be a barrier to them fully
understanding and appreciating the song’s expression.

2. Another potential challenge is being able to draw the deeper meaning of certain
passages without the teacher telling them directly what it means. For example, the lyrics
in the last 5 lines of each stanza are particularly impactful, but use language that may
make it difficult for some students to comprehend and be able to put the meaning into
their own words.

Your thinking Literacy/Learning Strategies Modeled

(model how you are making sense of
something difficult within the reading)

Challenge #1: To help students understand
the rhythm of the song, I would play a video
of a group performing it. Not only would this
give them an aural example from which they
could copy the rhythm, seeing a group
perform it may help give them context for the
expression and emotional meaning of the
piece. After watching the video, I would lead
the class in chanting the lyrics (not singing,
just chanting) line by line by having them
repeat after me.
I’m not sure if this is a particular
literacy/learning strategy like the ones listed
in the module since it is more geared towards
music, but this is how I would work through
reading this piece on my own if I didn’t
understand the rhythmic context. I would first
go look up a video of a group performing it,
then try to say it in rhythm by myself.

Challenge #2: To help students understand
the deeper meaning of the lyrics, I would first
take them through a few levels of diving into
the text. I would maybe use a graphic
organizer with a pyramid or different levels on
Once again, I’m not sure if I’m using a
specific, named strategy. I would probably
use a graphic organizer that looked
something like the Fact Pyramid from the
Beuhl article. I think having students put the
 it. First, we would look at surface level. What text into their own words is also a great
words do we not recognize? Then, we can strategy to help them understand what the
write those down and look up the definition. text is saying and relate to it on a more
Next, what is the context of this song and the personal level.
reason it was written? We can go look up
these facts online and write them down. Now
we can get into a deeper level. Splitting it up
line by line and stanza by stanza, I would
work through each phrase with the students
and try to decipher what they meant. For the
final step, I would zoom out for the big picture
and ask what the author was really trying to
say. The strategy I would use for this is
putting it into my own words.

The Text:
Lyrics to the Black National Anthem, originally written by J. Rosamond Johnson and James
Wheldon Johnson

Lift every voice and sing

Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us,
Facing the rising sun
Of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,

Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears have been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,

God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, Our God, where we met Thee;
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our GOD, True to our native land

Prepare a brief response to each of the following questions (1/2 page total will be great!)
– based upon your lesson:

1. What was the hardest part of creating your think-aloud lesson? Why?
The hardest part for me was putting the strategies I would use to teach it into words. I
think this is because when I encounter a difficult text, I do use some of those strategies
to work through it, but I do so without really thinking about it. I don’t ever have to put into
words which steps I am taking to break down a text and understand it and I don’t ever
use a graphic organizer or write it all down. Having to think through these steps and then
put them into words was a good exercise for me.

2. Describe your viewpoint on using think-aloud lessons within your own classroom.
Using think-aloud lessons is a really great way to do the important modeling work of a
teacher. I often forget that one of our roles as a teacher is to not only teach the concepts
and topics, but teach our students how to think about them. A lot of times, things like
drawing meaning from song lyrics or sight-reading a piece of new music are skills that
we have been using for years without really thinking about them anymore. I forget that
there used to be a time when I didn’t know how to do that. These aren’t just skills that
students develop on their own; they have to be taught. It is important to take them
through the steps we take mentally when we encounter new texts not only to show them
the steps they should be taking, but to show them that even we as teachers have to
break down new texts like this too and it’s not always easy for us.

3. If you had this assignment to redo, what would you do differently? Why?
If I could redo this assignment, I would possibly pick a different text. I thought this would
be a good text to cover because I could see myself teaching a lesson about this piece in
my future classroom someday. I think it is important for all students to learn about the
significance of this song and the music classroom is the place to do that. However, I
would also like to practice using these think-aloud strategies on a different type of text,
like a piece of music. I think this lesson structure could apply well to teaching students
about how to sightread a new piece. I also think I could do a better job with the
strategies section of this lesson. This part confused me a little and I don’t think I did it
exactly the way it was meant to be done. I struggled to think about how I would lead
students through the exact same process I would take when tackling this as a new text
and it was difficult to put it all into words.