Interactive Read-Aloud Instruction With Narratives: Teaching Inferencing Using Theory of Mind

Abstract

Interactive read alouds (IRAs) present an opportunity for early elementary educators to support their students’ academic skills as well as social development. Conducting IRAs with narrative texts, in particular, showcases how academic and social skills work together to support children’s reading comprehension alongside social development. When IRA instruction targets higher-order reading comprehension skills such as inference-making around characters’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, students draw on their emerging Theory of Mind (ToM; i.e., a socio-cognitive skill that refers to the ability to identify another’s mental state) skills. In this article, we aim to provide a framework for earlygrade educators to leverage and support students’ emerging ToM skills to facilitate inferencing making as part of IRAs in order to support students’ overall comprehension and social development.

Graphic Narratives as Opportunities for Professional Learning

“…Reading fiction engages theory-of-mind by inviting the reader to create attributions of mind throughout the text, including attributions about characters, plot, and setting. ELA teachers will connect these attributions of mind to inferential thinking, and rightly so (Kelly & Taboada Barber, 2021). Theory-of-mind thinking takes up inferential thinking as a complex sociocognitive task (Zunshine, 2011;Kelly & Taboada Barber, 2021).…”

“…ELA teachers will connect these attributions of mind to inferential thinking, and rightly so (Kelly & Taboada Barber, 2021). Theory-of-mind thinking takes up inferential thinking as a complex sociocognitive task (Zunshine, 2011;Kelly & Taboada Barber, 2021). The engagement with the character's thoughts and feelings encompasses an interpersonal mind-reading conversation and an intrapersonal act of pleasure, especially when reader mind-reading is rewarded as the frames, pages, and narrative progress.…”

Teaching the Language Strand of the Reading Rope Through Mentor Texts

“…This is called "Theory of Mind," and readers use this understanding to predict and explain the behavior of others. While reading books, practices such as talking about character behaviors and what characters are thinking that trigger their behaviors is one way theory of mind can be enhanced (Kelly & Barber, 2021). Many children's stories often require the reader to make inferences about theory of mind-the references in stories are implicit.…”

Fact from Fiction: The Learning Benefits of Listening to Historical Fiction

“…This form of delivery allows teachers to introduce challenging concepts to the class as a whole and offers opportunities for class discussion (Lennox, 2013). Read‐alouds have also been shown to support student's social understandings of others, such as the feelings and behaviors of the book characters (Kelly & Taboada Barber, 2021).…”