Use of Thinking Aloud in Identification and Teaching of Reading Comprehension Strategies

Analysis of protocols from adults thinking aloud while reading identified four potentially teachable strategies. In a teaching experiment involving 80 students in Grades 7 and 8, significant advantages were found in both target strategy acquisition and reading comprehension for a treatment that combined thinking-aloud strategy modeling and practice with instruction in identification and use of the target strategies. Neither strategy modeling and practice alone, nor question-answer comprehension activities, were effective. Even in the successful group, instruction was effective with only three of the strategies. Implications for identification of teachable strategies are discussed.