Fact Finders!

Streaming video - 2014

When is the best time to invite students to become actively involved in think-alouds? Join classroom teacher, Patrick Allen, in this 35 minute video, and watch as he engages the students in his fourth-grade classroom, demonstrating that you don’t need to wait very long to make the most of your think-alouds. The importance of nonfiction literature in literacy instruction is. Using Seymour Simon’s Animals Nobody Loves, Patrick demonstrates how comprehension strategies such as determining importance in text, inferring and synthesizing can be taught using the specific qualities of the nonfiction genre. Have a seat on the rug in the gathering area with Patrick and his students, and you’ll watch a master teacher working with think-aloud. Yo...u’ll come away with new strategies for teaching nonfiction reading skills as you invite students to think through text together with you. Patrick Allen received his bachelor's degree in communications disorders and his graduate certification in elementary education from the University of Northern Colorado. He received his master's degree in curriculum, instruction, and pedagogy with a mathematics and science emphasis from the University of Colorado at Denver. He is currently a teacher at Frontier Valley Elementary School and a staff developer/lab classroom teacher at the Public Education and Business Coalition. He has over twenty years of teaching experience. more