Talking About Reading as Thinking: Modeling the Hidden Complexities of Online Reading Comprehension

This article highlights four cognitive processes key to online reading comprehension and how one might begin to transform existing think-aloud strategy models to encompass the challenges of reading for information on the Internet. Informed by principles of cognitive apprenticeship and an emerging taxonomy of online reading comprehension strategies, I introduce think-aloud instructional models for explicitly teaching students how expert readers approach, interact with, monitor their understanding of, and respond to online information texts. Over time, think-aloud strategy lessons in online reading environments help students recognize, label, and define a range of more and less familiar online cueing systems and related reading purposes. In turn, students can begin to actively consider additional strategies for effectively comprehending and using the range of informational texts they encounter on the Internet.