Thinking Clouds

Over the past week I have been phasing out my word study centers and bringing in literacy centers that focus more on reading strategies such as Reading is Valuable and Cootie Catcher Reading. I turned to my current favorite website The Third Grade Wiki to help me find a way to have my students develop their metacognitive skills while using reading strategies. I found a great resource called Thinking Clouds.

I used the Thinking Clouds as a teaching strategy during Literacy and Social Studies for a couple of lessons before I set the students loose to use them independetly in a literacy center. I simply glued the Thinking Clouds onto paint sample cards and laminated them. As students read they place the cards throughout the story whenever they have that certain thought. If they finish reading and have cards left, they go back and read the story again. If it is a specific reading passage that I want them to read and answer questions with, then the students use a sheet of Thinking Clouds, cut them out, and glue them onto the passage at the point where they had that thought.