Write a precise script of how you will perform a think-aloud of a read-aloud. Make sure to write everything you would say, including any expected student responses.

                I would use this technique when reading the poem “Nobody” by Shel Silverstein to my class.

I feel that my classes expected responses would be

·         Was “Nobody” an imaginary friend?

·         Was he/she a real person?

·         Was “Nobody” a Ghost?

“Nobody loves me, nobody cares,

Nobody picks me peaches and pears.

Nobody offers me candy and Cokes,

Nobody listens and laughs at me jokes.

Nobody helps when I get into a fight,

Nobody does all my homework at night.

Nobody misses me,

Nobody cries,

Nobody thinks I’m a wonderful guy.”

                Here is where I would pause and ask the class “Who was ‘Nobody’?” I would share that I feel sad for the narrator because he has “Nobody” as a friend.

“So, if you ask me who’s my best friend, in a whiz,

I’ll stand up and tell you NOBODY is!

But yesterday night I got quite a scare

I woke up and Nobody just WASN’T there!

I called out and reached for Nobody’s hand,

In the darkness where Nobody usually stands,

Then I poked through the house, in each cranny and nook,

But I found SOMEBODY each place that I looked.”

                Here I would pause and ask “What do you think is being described the poem? Was “Nobody” an imaginary friend? Or, was he/she a real person, by any chance?” I would also ask them for their support in the story for their ideas of who “Nobody” is. I would then share what who I think “Nobody” could be.

“I searched till I’m tired, and now with the dawn,

There’s no doubt about it-

NOBODY’S GONE!!”

                Now after it is over I would ask them again “Who really was ‘Nobody’?” What makes you think that it could be some one? Then I would read it again, asking them to put whoever it is they think it could be in the story to “see” if it is possible. After the second reading, I would then ask “Was “Nobody” a Ghost? Or Was “Nobody” a representative of some kind? If ‘Nobody’ is something and not a person what could ‘Nobody’ be?” After this I would explain to the class my thinking from my first read to now.

                “When I read it for the first time I felt bad for the “child” because the narrator did not have a friend, later after reading it to the end I thought that “Nobody” was an imagery friend. But now as we read it, I feel that “Nobody” is not a person at all, perhaps “Nobody” is a representation of a child’s Imagination. The reason I feel this way is because it does feel like that one day we just wake up without out our “childlike” wonder to the world. This is how I feel, the narrator was relating the loss of their childhood fantasy.”

Scott

References:

Kindle, K. J. (2009, November). Vocabulary development during read-alouds: Primary practices. The Reading Teacher, 63(3), 202-211. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/39979/

Silverstein, S. (n.d.). Nobody. Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/27574-nobody-loves-me-nobody-cares-nobody-picks-me-peaches-and

Reading Rockets. (n.a). Think alouds. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think_alouds/