Developing Metacognitive Skills in our Students

1. Developing Metacognitive Skills in our Students Presented by Claire Mognaga TriValley Teacher Induction Project March 25, 2010

2. Outcomes: • Define and articulate the metacognitive strategies • Understand the gradual release of responsibility model • Increase repertoire of teaching strategies • Understand how to incorporate metacognition into any content teaching • Explore a variety of resources

3. Metacognition…What Is It, Really? • A person’s conscious awareness and control of his/her thinking process • The difference between a passive and an active learner • When done strategically, metacognitive processes occur before, during, and after • The center of meaning construction • According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, metacognition is the “awareness or analysis of one’s own learning or thinking processes”

4. Strategies of Proficient Readers: • Make Connections • Pose Questions • Visualize and Create Images • Draw Inferences • Determine Importance • Synthesize Information • Monitor Understanding • Repair Faulty Comprehension

5. Your Turn: • In triads, your assignment is to process the strategies of proficient readers using the activity provided to your team. I will check in with your team as you complete this cooperative task to determine how much time is needed. Please select a reporter and be prepared to share out both content and process with the group.

6. Gradual Release of Responsibility Model(Created by Claire Mognaga, 2010; Adapted from the work of Pearson and Gallagher, 1983) Responsibility for Task Completion All Student Joint Responsibility All Teacher Independent Experiences Cooperative Experiences More Explicit Guided Experiences Shared Experiences Teacher Think-Aloud and Modeling

7. Effective Metacognitive Instructional Practices: • Thinking aloud • Modeling • Creating anchor experiences • Conferring • Posting and strategically using students’ thinking around the classroom to direct instruction • Connecting comprehension strategies throughout all content areas • Providing a variety of experiences for student practice • Providing opportunities for student response and reflection

8. Think-Alouds One way to model the metacognitive processes we want to help our students engage with is to make our internal thinking “public” through a think-aloud • When embarking on this strategy, remember to: • Select and preview text with attention to modeling options • Be precise about why you’re thinking aloud • Be precise about when you’re thinking aloud versus reading aloud • Be clear about how being metacognitive helps you to comprehend adapted from Keene, PEBC, 1999

9. Incorporating Metacognition into any curricular area…some examples While we engage in the activities, you may choose to copy and use one of the organizers on the wall to record your thoughts.

10. Key Questions to use across the curriculum: • Did ___ remind you of anything you know about? (Making Connections) • What did you wonder about ___? What questions do you have about ___ now? (Questioning) • What images did you create in your mind? (Visualizing) • What prediction can you make about ___? What conclusion can you draw from ___? (Inferring) • Are there some parts of ___ that are more important than others? Which parts? Why? (Determining Importance) • If you could tell another person about ___, what would you tell them? (Synthesizing) • What challenges did you have in learning ___? How did you fix them? (Monitoring Comprehension) An essential follow-up question to all those posed above: What do you understand now that you didn’t understand before? adapted from The Major Point Interview for Readers, Keene, 1995

11. In Closing - Word Toss… Take a moment to think of one word that describes/summarizes/connects with our work today and write it on a post-it. We will use these to complete a “word toss” activity. Thank you!

12. References: Harvey, Stephanie, and Anne Goudvis. 2000. Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Harvey, Stephanie. 1998. Nonfiction Matters: Reading, Writing, and Research in Grades 3-8. York, ME: Stenhouse. Hyde, Arthur. 2006. Comprehending Math: Adapting Reading Strategies to Teach Mathematics, K-6. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Keene, Ellin, and Susan Zimmermann. 1997. Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader’s Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Miller, Debbie. 2002. Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

13. One last lingering thought… The experiences we have that develop our intellect as mature adults need to be duplicated in the everyday lives of our students. Ellin Keene February 22, 2000 Denver, Colorado