One way teachers can improve students' reading comprehension is to teach them to think while reading, questioning the text and carrying on an inner conversation. This involves: choosing the text for questioning; introducing the strategy to the class; modeling thinking aloud and marking the text with stick-on notes; and allowing time for guided…

Argues that significant improvement in high school students' spelling can result from direct diagnostic teaching that helps disabled spellers analyze and overcome their problems. Presents a cognitively based error-analysis protocol which has the promise for providing the insights needed to enhance the effectiveness of spelling instruction for…

Describes a 10-lesson instructional program for teaching students to think aloud during reading as a means to help them monitor reading comprehension and to address comprehension breakdowns. Presents a sample lesson, and offers suggestions for how teachers might adapt, modify, or extend think alouds in a classroom reading program or in content…

Describes an activity (the first assignment in a graduate reading course for teachers) which provides teachers with the opportunity to develop awareness of their own reading processes by thinking aloud about the strategies they use when reading texts that are difficult for them. (SR)

Describes the results of a study that asked two classes of 14 and 15 year olds to think aloud in the presence of an interviewer through their several readings of a poem. (DF)

Outlines procedures used in an investigation of college students' thinking aloud protocols and discusses the framework developed for differentiating student-text interactions and identifying the common problems of less able comprehenders. Suggests ways to use protocols to look into the ways students comprehend texts, to identify comprehension…

Focuses on three ideas pertaining to modeling and thinking aloud, presents examples of how the processes can be applied to teaching both text comprehension and study strategies to college developmental readers, and discusses reasons for using modeling and thinking aloud in the classroom. (FL)

Describes an informal assessment procedure that uses think alouds (readers' verbal self-reports about their thinking processes) to obtain information about how they attempt to construct meaning from text. (MG)

Uses on-line protocol analysis to contrast the effects on the writing process of knowledge taught in three instructional treatments: models, general procedures, and task-specific procedures. Finds that the task-specific group integrated their ideas purposefully, thought critically about the concepts being defined, and appeared to establish a…

Examines a fourth-grade teacher's interactions with a child, showing that actually allowing students to use their point of view when discussing literature is a real challenge that requires most classroom teachers to rethink their roles as readers and listeners. (RS)

Outlines a model for understanding the second-language reading process. Uses errors in comprehension to illustrate how the reading comprehension process works. Discusses pedagogical implications and suggestions for teaching students to develop and practice better comprehension strategies using think-alouds. (RS)

Notes that teachers make intentional decisions during interaction with children and reflect on what occurs in the environment. Focuses on teacher behavior along several continua: soft-hard, simple-complex, open-closed, intrusion-seclusion, and high versus low mobility. Illustrates theory with a transcribed observation. Adapts Jones and Prescott's…

A discussion of misunderstandings occurring in the college classroom looks at the common sources of misconceptions and offers three ways to diagnose and address them: (1) asking students to think aloud as they solve problems; (2) having students teach course topics; and (3) reviewing students' notes with them. (MSE)

Discusses ways in which talk during writing and group discussion can help children's writing, including (1) helping teachers learn to listen, (2) teaching children to elaborate and clarify, (3) giving children experience with an audience and reasons for writing, (4) helping children gather ideas and assistance, and (5) teaching children to be…

Argues that microcomputer programs in LOGO can support children's development of invented spelling within a language experience approach. Presents protocols of three nursery school children using such programs that show promising growth in their writing and reading skills. (FL)