Ways to Help Students "Hold Their Thinking"
Source: Cris Tovani, 2001
1. Give students a specific purpose for their reading and writing. Give them something to look
for and write as they read. Model how readers mark text and use sticky notes.
2. Show students how to use a Double Entry Journal. The left side of the page holds words
lifted from the text. The right side of the text holds the readers' thoughts about the words.
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Confusing parts in the text
Personal connections to the piece
Places indicating character traits
Reasons for an event
Steps in a process
Words evoking questions
Interesting facts that support thinking
3. Share with your students what you do to help yourself remember what you read. Perhaps
you write in the margins or maybe you jot notes to yourself. Notice how you as an "expert
reader" remembers what you read and share that with your students.
Jane Cook’s Notes from Cris Tovani Presentation at the AIC Literacy Conference – Page 1
Double-Entry Diary
Quote or description from a scene in the
reading
Record of the strategy being taught - What are
you are thinking, wondering, visualizing, or
inferring from the words in the left column?
Jane Cook’s Notes from Cris Tovani Presentation at the AIC Literacy Conference – Page 2
Double-Strategy, Double-Entry Diary
Name:
Quote or word/s from article/reading
Connection to quote
Quote or word/s from article/reading
Question/s
Jane Cook’s Notes from Cris Tovani Presentation at the AIC Literacy Conference – Page 3
Inner Voice Sheet
An Inner Voice Sheet is a way of capturing and holding thinking. Cris calls her “bad voice” her
reciting voice – like the Charlie Brown adult characters ("Wa Wa Wa Wa Wa"). Turn your
reciting voice off and your conversation voice on by reading with a purpose – you’re
talking/interacting with the text. If you’re reading with your reciting voice, you’re not reading.
The tools for holding text are great assessment devices.
No matter how good we are as teachers, we can’t make anyone get anything.
Cris did an Inner Voice Sheet with a book that she’d been avoiding. She shared this as a
model with her students. The kids were riveted by this model. She then named the thinking by
using different colored highlighters, for example:
Blue:
Green:
Orange:
Red:
Make a statement or comment about the book
Make a connection
Pull out quotes and respond to them
Ask a question that is curious (one that you don’t know the answer)
If the kids are filling out their Inner Voice Sheets, you don’t have to read the book to know
whether the kids are reading. The kids can take their inner voice sheets to their book groups and
have an authentic conversation. They don’t need the literature circle roles. It works with all
grade and ability levels. See next page for a blank Inner Voice Sheet.
Conversation Calendars
The kids write in the top box and Cris writes in the bottom box. 20 points a day – it’s a
strong motivator. This is a way for us to get to know each other. If you have questions, you can
ask them here. She rates them on their behavior in class and what they write to her. It’s very
subjective. They self-evaluate and Cris evaluates them. The kids are upset when she doesn’t do
the conversation calendars. See page after next for a blank Conversation Calendar.
“School should not be a place where young people go to watch old people work.”
Hang Wong
Jane Cook’s Notes from Cris Tovani Presentation at the AIC Literacy Conference – Page 4
Name: ___________________________________ Date: __________
INNER VOICE SHEET
(for during reading or re-reading)
Source: Cris Tovani
Title of Text: ________________________________________ Author: ________________________
Section of Text (chapter #, page #’s) __________________________
Directions: Record the conversations you have in your head as you read in the boxes below.* Stop
yourself at least 4 times during your reading to make notes about these conversations; the times you stop
should be spaced throughout the text. Be sure to have at least four (4) sentences per box. Work to
write these sentences clearly.
Inner Voice Conversation on page:
___________
Inner Voice Conversation on page:
___________
Inner Voice Conversation on page:
___________
Inner Voice Conversation on page:
___________
* Note: Some purposes for reading or for re-reading are:
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ask a question/ask several questions
look for the answer to a question
make a connection between what you’re
reading and something you already know
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look for clues to help yourself draw an inference
(inference = not explicitly said in the text)
react to what has been read and explain your
reaction
visualize a picture
Jane Cook’s Notes from Cris Tovani Presentation at the AIC Literacy Conference – Page 5
Conversation Calendars
Source: Cris Tovani
Name ________________________________________
Monday
Tuesday
Period __________
Wednesday
Jane Cook’s Notes from Cris Tovani Presentation at the AIC Literacy Conference – Page 6
Week of ______________________
Thursday
Friday