Transcript of Metacognition Lori Pitcock REED 663 Dr. Pitcher Fall 2010.
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- Metacognition Lori Pitcock REED 663 Dr. Pitcher Fall 2010
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- Metacognition as a Comprehension Strategy O Metacognition is
Thinking about your thinking. (MacGregor, 2007). Thinking while we
read is something that we all do. It is the piece of comprehension
and understanding that lets us get lost in the text. We can make
connections to experiences that make us want to laugh or cry with
the characters. O The purpose of metacognition is to activate a
particular strategy in our inner conversation, such as questioning,
connecting, or determining importance, when we read because we are
more likely to notice and consider our own thinking, as we go
(Harvey & Goudvis, 2007). O The project was completed with a
group of seven year-olds in second grade at a Title I school.
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- Research on Metacognition O Research states that metacognition
involves active monitoring and consequent regulation and
orchestration of cognitive process to achieve cognitive goals
(Flavell, 1976, p. 252). O Metacognition is the active and
conscious monitoring, regulation, and orchestration of thought
process. Understanding and controlling cognitive process may be one
of the most essential skills that teachers can help second language
learners, as well as, all students to develop.
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- O Reading comprehension is an ongoing process of evolving
thinking. O When readers read they must construct meaning, through
a process called an inner conversation with the text. The inner
conversations help us, as readers, monitor our comprehension and
keep us engaged in the story, concept, information, and ideas,
allowing us to build our own understanding as we go. O The voice in
our head, as we read, is speaking to us. It is a voice that
questions, connects, laughs, and cries with the story line.
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- Teaching Metacognition through Gradual Release of
Responsibility O One method of teaching metacognition is to model
your own thinking as the teacher. Learners should be taught not
only about learning strategies, but also about when to use them and
how to use them. O I began teaching this strategy to a group of
seven year old students through a read aloud. I began by reading a
small portion of a book to the children. As I was reading, I would
stop and think to myself, which was out loud for the children to
hear. O I would make connections to things I already knew or have
read before. I would ask questions of the text. I would also
determine importance of materials and monitor my
comprehension.
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- O I explained to the children that the pictures can often times
give us clues for our thinking about what might happen next or
develop an understanding of the text that we might have questioned.
O I told the children that thinking about our thinking was called
metacognition. O I then continued reading another small section of
the text. This time I would model my thinking by evolving my
previous thinking.
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- O After modeling how you can change your thinking as you go
along, I gradually released responsibility for metacognition. I
would read a section of the text and have the children turn to a
partner and share their thinking. This allowed them to think about
their thinking and a partners thinking. O I would continue reading
and would pause occasionally during the reading of the text in
order to allow the children to share with each other their
thinking. Some of the thinking was shared with me and I placed it
on post-it notes for field notes.
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- O I would continue reading and periodically stopping. While
stopped I would add my thinking to the post-it notes I was
collecting with the students thinking. O When the story was
completely read, I directed the students to write down one thing
they were thinking on a post-it note, while I did the same. O Next,
we compared our thinking (students and teacher). We then shared
thinking about the thinking by asking questions of each others
thinking and evolved our thinking by what was stated on the post-it
notes. This allowed us the chance to reinforce the comprehension
strategy and assess who still needed assistance.
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- O As the students became more comfortable with the
comprehension strategy of metacognition, I introduced a graphic
organizer that you see below.
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- O The students then would use this graphic organizer in
partners while reading a story together. This would allow them to
share their thinking immediately with a partner and gain ideas they
might not have thought of. They would also be able to evolve their
thinking based on something they missed from the text. O The
graphic organizers were then shared with the class and used by the
teacher as field notes. O Students made their own graphic
organizers to help them remember metacognition.
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- Examples of Graphic Organizers for Metacognition
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- Childs Own Example of Metacognition
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- O As we progressed, I taught the children a song about
metacognition to help them remember their thinking. This song was
used as a transition to reading groups and was often heard while
the children were independently working on their own thinking. O
The next logical step would be to have the students work on a
another way to track their inner conversations that they design to
work best for them. I would also like to have used the
metacognition comprehension strategy to work on a Reading Salad Mix
visual (MacGregor, 2007).
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- Metacognition Song
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- Student Work
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- Reading Salad Mix Visual O In the Reading Salad Mix visual, the
students would work in small groups of three or four to read a
text. As they were reading, if they thought of something that was
not directly stated in the text (inner conversation), they would
place a green piece of construction paper in a bowl (lettuce). If
they thought of something that was important that was directly
stated in the text, they would place a red piece of construction
paper in the bowl (tomato).
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- Reading Salad Mix Visual Conclusion O At the end of their
reading, the ultimate goal would be to have more lettuce than
tomatoes because salads are mostly made of lettuce. It is okay to
have a few tomatoes in the salad, but you shouldnt have all
tomatoes. Lettuce makes the base of the salad (inner conversation),
and therefore, should have more color in the bowl. O A conference
would be held with the teacher to explain this concept (above) to
the students from their model and would be used to jump start more
conversations and thinking.
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- Classroom Example
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- Colleagues Reaction O I shared my project with a colleague of
the same grade. O She felt she needed to model more for her
students because she has a group of very low readers (below-grade
level by more than two years). She found that the activities,
including the graphic organizer and the Reading Salad Mix visual
were very adaptable for her low reader group.
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- O My colleague found the song and the Reading Salad Mix
activity to really make a connection with the low level readers,
more so than the graphic organizer, because it gave them a
kinesthetic visual and auditory connection. O She also felt it
could be adapted easily for other leveled students. These are some
of her examples. O Elementary: The students could find other ways
to show their thinking about the text. For example, through
drawings or games. O Middle School: The students could think about
their thinking through chapter books by creating their own pictures
for the text. O High School: The students could think about their
thinking of the text, especially in different languages, by
creating their own inner conversations and connections in a journal
to help them understand the text.
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- Second Grade Team Meeting Metacognition Planning
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- Conclusion O Using gradual release of responsibility to
introduce metacognition produced great results. The modeling and
song allowed for the students to become quite comfortable with the
strategy of thinking about text. O The students thinking was very
imaginative at many points throughout the thinking process. The way
the students could make connections to things they already knew was
quite creative and vivid. The children were able to monitor their
comprehension while reading through this thinking process. If
something did not make sense to them, they knew to reread so that
their thinking did make sense.
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- O The children were able to make accurate assumptions about
what was about to happen in the text through their thinking. O The
children were able to ask questions about the text. O The children
were able to evolve their thinking, if they proved while reading
that their original thinking was not accurate. They were also able
to ask questions about why their original thinking was not
accurate. O The children were able to share their thinking with
peers and this opened up dialogue and discussions about text, which
is how adults discuss text.
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- O Ive learned that metacognition is a very important
comprehension skill that leads into many other comprehension skills
such as, making connections, inferring, determining importance,
questioning, etc. O Ive learned to start with metacognition as a
comprehension strategy taught in future years to better build the
other comprehension skills for my students and to build the
background for them in this metacognition skill.
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- O Overall, I learned that the children are able to Think about
their thinking.
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- References Flavell, J. H. (1976). Metacognitive Aspects of
Problem Solving. In L.B. Resnick (Ed.), The nature of intelligence.
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. (2007).
Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and
Engagement. Portland, MA: Stenhouse Publishers. MacGregor, T.,
(2007). Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading.
New York, NY: Heinemann.