As I get farther into this semester, the work I am doing with my first-grade practicum students is definitely becoming more and more rewarding. I am able to see these students grow and learn, and it definitely has solidified why I am going to be a teacher. An example of this was when I did a think-aloud with one of my students.
For this think-aloud, I was able to work with the same student I worked with for my miscue analysis. My cooperating teacher and I discussed this a lot. She wanted me to work with him again, because she was really interested in seeing how he would do. My CT helped me with choosing a book, and was able to give me even more details into his background as a reader, which helped tremendously when it came to preparing for this. The book we ended up choosing was Horrible Harry in Room 2B. This book was a little on the difficult side for him, but when discussing it with my CT she thought he would really enjoy reading it.
I started the process by discussing what we were going to do. I had asked him if he knew what a think-aloud was--knowing that he had never done one before. I was impressed by his response, since he had gotten the gist of what a think-aloud was without ever experiencing it before. I have to say I was a little relieved knowing that he already sort of understood, and was more than willing to work with me. After we discussed this I assured him that I would go first, modeling reading the first few pages and openly stating anything I was thinking, questioning, and strategies I was using. I was going to go back over what I had read, but before I could he beat me to it. As soon as I finished, he went off connecting to some of the things I had said as well as answering some of my questions with his own ideas. I was extremely surprised when these comments came willingly from a student who would barely talk to me earlier in the semester.
Then it was his turn. He began reading, and at first didn't say much. He started out by just stating words he didn't know, or saying that he liked a part. I thought this was a great start for him, and I assumed there would be words he didn't know since the book was pretty difficult. What I didn't expect was for him to stop reading at one point and tell me he wanted to go back. I let him work through it on his own, giving him just enough to aid in his thinking. He told me he got a little lost and didn't get what was going on in the story. I was so surprised when I heard this. I would have never expected him to stop and go back because from my time working with him he has never done that before. I was impressed with how much he has grown from just the miscue analysis we did, as well as how much he actually obtained from our conversations.
This think-aloud proved to me how important it is for teachers to do these. I have seen how using this strategy can keep a teacher informed on how a developing reader is doing, as well as gaining insight into what works best for each student. When it comes to the student I worked with, I feel as though it went more like a check-in with him after doing his miscue analysis. He showed me through this think-aloud what strategies he kept and some that he has been using more to better his reading. I feel that using this strategy with students lines right up with my beliefs on the release of responsibility and using a student-centered learning approach. It gives the student a chance to reflect on their own learning, and overall become a better reader. I definitely will be instilling this in my future classroom after what I experienced with my practicum.
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