At
the end of a cold winter day, what can be more welcoming than a crock pot full
of spicy chili – or artichoke chicken, or pulled pork, or beef-vegetable soup. Are you hungry yet? The point is, unless you’re the cook, you don’t
know what’s simmering inside a steamy crock pot until you take off the lid,
releasing wonderful smells and making peaking possible. Expert thinking can be kind of like that –
only the “cook” knows what’s inside until she makes her thought-processes
public.
To “take
the lid off” the comprehension process, teachers often verbalize their own
thoughts while reading orally. Listen in
as Debbie Miller opens her mind to her first graders so they can understand the
processes she uses to think about the book, Night
Sounds, Morning Colors by Rosemary Wells:
“Listen
again to the words about the faraway train and its whistle,” she says. “When I read those words, such vivid images,
or pictures, come into my mind. I have
an image of my mother, brother, and me streaking across the flatlands of Kansas
on a train called the El Capitan….I hear the rumble of the wheels on the tracks
and see the porters in their fancy red and black outfits.”
(Excerpted
from Reading with Meaning)
This
detailed process of making thinking public is called “think alouds.” In a similar way, coaches can model expert
thinking and problem solving as they work with teachers. When coaches think about modeling for a
teacher, they usually think in terms of modeling in the classroom (see Jan. 4 post). It’s also important, however, to model the
decision-making strategies used to design and guide instruction.
As
you meet with a teacher, you can think
aloud about approaches that might be taken during a lesson and illuminate
the many factors under consideration. For
example, a coach may review assessment information, consider students’
strengths and weaknesses as readers, determine where students lie on a
developmental continuum, weigh possible learning experiences (considering the
benefits of each), and determine a plan of action all while making her thinking public by sharing it aloud as she goes
through this process.
It
might feel strange at first to verbalize your thinking in this way. It’s about being really in tune with how you
make instructional decisions – all those many factors you automatically
consider -- and then taking the lid off
your brain and letting your teacher-friend see how you do it.
It
will take some practice, but soon you’ll find that modeling expert decision-making
becomes natural and begins to pay dividends. Coaching conversations become more productive
as coach and teacher thoughtfully reflect together on the many factors under
consideration. Instructional decision
making is a complex process; take the lid off of that process and everyone will
benefit.
This week, you might want to take a look at:
Math think aloud lesson plan:
Math think-aloud video: Here’s
a (very amateur) video that does a good job of getting at the math thinking
behind doing a word problem:
Comprehension think-aloud
lesson plans on
the IRA/NCTE website Read-Write-Think:
Miller, D. (2002). Reading
with meaning: Teaching comprehension in the primary grades. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
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