Directed listening and thinking activity
Encyclopedia
The directed listening and thinking activity (DLTA) is a strategy that was first identified by Stauffer (1980). It is used with early childhood
Early childhood
For the video game rating with a similar age group see ESRBEarly childhood is a stage in human development. It generally includes toddlerhood and some time afterwards. Play age is an unspecific designation approximately within the scope of early childhood.-Education:Infants and toddlers experience...

 students or students who are not yet successful independent readers
Independent reading
Independent reading is a term used in educational settings, where students are involved in choosing and reading material for their independent consumption and enjoyment. People choose to read independently. It gives student the right to be creative in what they want to read...

. Teachers use this strategy to establish a purpose for reading with their students. With the use of this strategy students can become engaged in a text that they could not otherwise read on their own. Students are prepared to listen to a story that will be read by their teacher by being given specific information that they are to focus on as they listen. The strategy utilizes pre-reading, reading, and post-reading questions and discussions. Teachers use this strategy in an attempt to build on the knowledge that students already know and apply it to new information and situations. Students are provided with a framework to organize and recall information form storybooks. The directed reading and thinking activity is a very similar strategy that can be applied once this strategy is mastered and students become more advanced, independent readers.

Purpose

Students need to be explicitly taught strategies for the comprehension
Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text. ....

 of a story. The purpose of this strategy is to give the students skills so that they can eventually internalize reading skills such as, setting purposes for reading and summarizing
Summary
A summary, synopsis, or recap is a shorter version of the original. Such a simplification highlights the major points from the much longer subject, such as a text, speech, film, or event...

 what they have read. As a result of continuously using this strategy in the classroom students should develop metacognition
Metacognition
Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing." It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving...

 of their own reading abilities and as a result a better comprehension, understanding, and connections to texts.

Preparing for reading

The first step in the directed listening and thinking activity is to prepare the students for the read aloud by introducing the story and making predictions. The teacher can do this in several ways; one way is by leading the students through a book walk of the story. This means that the teacher does not read any of the words but flips through each page and lets the students look at the pictures. After they see all the pictures they can then make some predictions about what they saw. The teacher can also have the students look at just the title and the cover and use it to help them make predictions. It is very important for the teacher to accept all predictions that are given. Students need to feel comfortable taking risks in their classroom environment. To establish this level of comfort they must know that their opinions are valued. All predictions should be recorded to come back to after the story has been read.

The teacher will then ask pre-questions, which activate prior knowledge and set the purposes for reading the story. These questions will try to connect with the students’ real-life experiences when possible. They will also relate to the main themes
Theme (literature)
A theme is a broad, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character,...

 in the story and the objectives for reading. At this time, the teacher is establishing the purpose and what students should be thinking about as the story is read.

Reading the story

The teacher now begins to read the story. It is important to make sure that students can see all of the illustrations
Book illustration
The book illustration is specific type of illustration, which appears in books. Some of modern illustrations are performed by American Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators....

. The teacher should stop one or two times to discuss the story and to ask the students which previous predictions were correct. Students should also continue to make predictions at a few points in the story as well. It is important not to ask too many questions while reading the story. To help students to focus attention on the story, it is better to wait until after reading it through once to ask most of the questions about the students’ reactions, comments, and questions.

Discussion after reading

This is the final part of the directed listening and thinking activity. At this time there should be a discussion between the students and the teacher that is connected to the objectives and purposes for reading that were originally established. For example, if the skill that was established was sequencing the students will need to recall information about the order of the events in the story. The end is a way to tie together the skills that the students were focusing on and to summarize what they have learned as a result of listening to the story. If the students do not respond to particular questions that are asked about the story it is the teacher’s responsibility to model or scaffold their responses. This can be done by asking a question in a different or simpler way or by giving the student more information. This should also be a time to go back to the predictions that were initially listed and revise and discuss them. After the teacher has discussed the story and the objectives as a group an independent activity can be done to assess what the students have learned.

Reading objectives

There are a wide range of objectives that you can use with this strategy. Basically any skill that pertains to the text can be employed. Examples of the different types of skills that the directed listening activity can be used to enhance are: literal information such as, sequencing and recalling facts, inferential responses such as, interpreting the feelings of characters, making predictions, relating story events to real-life experiences and visualizing, or critical responses such as, evaluating and problem solving. The strategy can also be used with various genres and story structures. However, it is important to remember that the three steps to using this strategy are always the same:
  1. preparation for reading
  2. reading
  3. discussion after reading.

Conclusion

In a study conducted by Morrow (1984) children scored higher on comprehension tests when this strategy was utilized in the classroom because of its focus on many skills that are important to good readers. The study also proved that the modeling and scaffolding used by the teacher during this technique better prepared students to understand unfamiliar texts. When this strategy is used in classrooms it will allow students to better comprehend and connect with the texts that are being read to them. If this strategy is done correctly and frequently it will bring students more independence and reading readiness
Reading readiness
Reading readiness has been defined as the point at which a person is ready to learn to read and the time during which a person transitions from being a non-reader into a reader. Other terms for reading readiness include early literacy and emergent reading....

. It will lead to the creation of more engaged and skilled readers who possess the ability to think critically
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the process or method of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The origins of critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic...

and analyze the texts that they have read.

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