Pedagogy First. Technology Second.

Think Aloud

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Modelling & Worked Examples in 05 Explanations & Modelling, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.

Why you might use it

The problem it may help with

Experts make invisible decisions constantly: where to start, what to check, when something looks wrong. Pupils see the finished product and none of the decisions, then are asked to produce the same kind of product themselves.

Thinking aloud while you work makes the invisible expertise visible. It is modelling the process rather than the product, and the process is what novices actually need to copy.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

Under a visualiser, a teacher annotates an unseen source, narrating the decisions: I am reading the provenance line first, because it changes how I weigh everything else. I am not sure about this phrase yet, so I am marking it and moving on. The narration is the lesson; the finished annotation is just its residue.

Try it

A way to begin

Choose one task this week that you would normally demonstrate silently or show finished, and narrate your way through it live: the choices, the checks, and what you do when unsure.

What to notice

Reading what happens

  • What shows up in pupils' subsequent attempts. Copied structure and copied self-checks are the strategy working; copied surface features are a sign the narration stayed too shallow.
  • The questions pupils ask afterwards, which tend to move from what is the answer towards how did you know to do that.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

  • Narrating decisions is different from narrating actions. Now I underline the date is a caption; I am underlining the date because it tells me which rules apply is thinking made audible.
  • This is the start of a handover, not the whole of one. The strand's scaffolding strategies describe the fade from modelled to guided to independent.

Inclusive practice

The lens this connects with

Through the inclusive practice lens, this is one of the approaches that may reduce barriers around:

Technology second

Where technology fits

The visualiser is the stage here, and a screen recording of the same narration gives pupils the modelling on replay, pausable at the exact moment they lost the thread. Use the approved tools in your setting for both. The technology carries the modelling; it doesn't replace it.

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Rosenshine's principles put modelling and worked examples at the centre of effective instruction; thinking aloud is those principles applied to the parts of expertise pupils cannot otherwise see. The card’s attribution stands as published: Rosenshine.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Explanations & Modelling.

Keep exploring

Where next?

Back to this strategy in 05 Explanations & Modelling, across to what you're trying to improve, or into all 144 at once.

Want to take this further?

Support is available

Pedagogy First gives you a starting point. If you want support exploring how approaches like this can work across your school, trust or professional learning programme, that work is available.

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