Think Big With Think Alouds, Grades K-5: A Three-Step Planning Process That Develops Strategic Readers

by Molly K. Ness

A think-aloud process that comes close to bottling magic



Grab a pencil, and you are on your way to dynamic lessons using Molly’s three-step planning process.





Molly helps you focus on just five asking questions, making inferences, synthesizing, understanding the author’s purpose, and monitoring and clarifying. Includes more than 20 ready-made think aloud scripts, activities, templates, and more.

Genres: Education

280 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 13, 2017

Reviews

[Stephanie Affinito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Think Big with Think Alouds is an indispensable text for elementary educators looking to improve their practices to best support growing readers. As a literacy teacher educator, I am always looking for current texts based on sound theoretical research and pedagogical knowledge that are also accessible and practical. Dr. Molly Ness meets both of those needs with her comprehensive and practical text.

The text begins with a thorough discussion of what think alouds are (and are not) to help educators reflect on their own practices and think forward as they read the book. Molly’s simple, yet effective, three-step planning process gives just the right amount of scaffolding needed for educators to bring this practice to their classrooms. Each step is thoroughly and carefully described across grade levels and genres of texts. Filled with numerous examples and sample scripts to use immediately in the classroom, this text provides educators with the knowledge, tools and resources they need to successfully integrate high-quality think alouds into their literacy instruction. I have personally used the sample scripts within my teacher education classes and professional development experiences with excellent results. Teachers appreciated the three-column planning resource and the insights it helped them uncover about their own teaching.

Educators will appreciate Molly’s practice advice and support, the more than 20 think aloud scripts and numerous digital downloads available. This book is sure to support teachers as they model the work of strategic readers for their students.

[Kimberly Beasley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for teachers who need to revisit showing kids how to think while reading. This takes you through several scripts, includes texts from a variety of genres and grade levels. Ness uses a method to provide teachers with a guide to help them help readers.

[Jessica Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been trying to figure out how to strengthen comprehension instruction. I’ve already set a goal to read aloud daily and incorporate thinking aloud in writing. Now to be very intentional and use think aloud as train my kiddos (students and my own children) how to think.

[Jessica Homan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book with strategies teachers can use NOW to improve their craft. I liked the sentence stems and found that in action less is more when thinking aloud when it is intentional.