Metacognition, or thinking about thinking, is something we learn at an early age but we don't really think about it as being a huge important thing. We learn this as early as 8year olds, or so I assume based on the second grade classroom I am in. My MT always reads books to the kids. She teaches them new tricks such as summarizing and pausing at periods but this past week she was practicing metacognition.The kids got ready to hear the story and the teacher said she was going to be thinking aloud and that the students should listen, and they did. The teacher made little comments like asking questions about the book, making predictions on the big scenes of the book , and making infrences on why things were happening in the book or why characters were acting the way they were. At first the kids were having a hard time because they had to pay attention to not only the book and the pictures in the book but also to see what the teacher was asking or saying. Most of them found the activity hard and the teacher assured them it was fine. Lastly, the kids were asked to reflect upon the book. They had to write about what the book taught them. They also never had done that either. Usually, they just write about their favorite part and why but never to reflect on what the story was teaching them.
This video is for my visual learners, it explains what metacognition is and the strategies used for metacognition ie ( questioning, visualizing, predicting and connecting). It explains how it is beneficial for you in the long run the sooner you start practicing it. So my 2nd graders are well on their way, are the kids in your school practicing metacognition skills?if not why do you think they’re not? And if they are how can you help them get better at it? What age should kids start thinking about thinking?"
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI think that the way your mentor teacher introduced metacognition was great. It was a subtle way to model for the kids exactly what thinking about thinking might look like. I'm not exactly sure what metacognition looks like in my fourth and fifth grade social studies classrooms. I think maybe the fact that they are taught to review their writing and check for errors and take a look at the sentence structure can count as that. Thanks for providing us with a visual!
Hey Desirae,
DeleteOne way it can be used in fourth grade is one on one feedback on things such as papers or projects to get students to talk about their work and ideas. I do thing it's time consuming but you should do it more than twice in a year just to get a sense of where your students are at.
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI think that the way your mentor teacher introduced metacognition was great. It was a subtle way to model for the kids exactly what thinking about thinking might look like. I'm not exactly sure what metacognition looks like in my fourth and fifth grade social studies classrooms. I think maybe the fact that they are taught to review their writing and check for errors and take a look at the sentence structure can count as that. Thanks for providing us with a visual!
My MT sort of does the same thing with math. When teaching a new lesson she goes through details by telling the students out loud how she is thinking about the math that is going on in the problem they are trying to solve. I really like this in math because it gives the students a path to go down when they are thinking about how they should begin to solve the problem. I also believe this is a huge skill that helps students with word problems and trying to figure out what the problem is actually trying to have you figure out. It was interesting to see how easy it can be applied across subjects and even grades since my teacher has 7th and 8th graders.
ReplyDeleteRhys
My student's are in fourth grade and they'll use their metacognition skills during their writing process. She models it while she's doing opinionated pieces. I think one thing that can help them is asking why which allows them to really think about their thought process. She doesn't ask them what they're thinking in other lessons. Kid's should start thinking about what they're thinking in second grade because they start to become aware of their actions and their words.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Besan
My first grade students are always learning new thing. For example they need to be think while they are doing math because it is new to them. Times they do not really think about what they are doing is outside during recess. We go over "life skills" everyday that include sharing, listening, and being nice...that goes out the door during recess.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post Ashley! Yeah my students are practicing their metacognition skills in both math and reading. During their reading time they do a read aloud, and the teacher will ask them different types of questions throughout the read aloud time because she wants to see if they are able to comprehend everything that is being read to them and see if they are able to think what might happen next or what might happen at the end. For math they get asked by the teacher what the answer is or how they got to that spot in the problem. I think kids should be thinking about thinking when they're in 3rd or 4th grade for sure. Maybe briefly touch up upon it in 2nd grade, but when it comes to 3rd or 4th grade, I would say they really need to be able to understand the concept of metacognition and thinking about the material that they are being taught or etc.
ReplyDeleteLinda,
DeleteI also recently saw my teacher using small chapter books to get the second graders thinking and to pay attention. She asks them to recall events and asks them about the characters and how the characters are acting. I think it's great that you can do read aloud thinking with simple and chapter books because kids need to be exposed to both specially at second grade.
Hey Ashley,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experience and I think explicitly teaching students, especially in the younger grades how to monitor their thought process while reading is super important.
As far as my placement, my MT loves to teach strategies that help students think reflectively about their work in Math. In our Math class we really push for students to articulate what they did step by step and why they did it. Unfortunately, we don't do this as much during reading and writing. we've recently been teaching them about emotions, actions, and responses to characters in stories. This has helped them with comprehension a lot! I think 2nd grade is a great time for students to start thinking about meta-cognition and self-monitoring.
Hi Ashely,
ReplyDeleteGreat Job on your blog post. I think that it is important to use metacognition in classrooms because it helps students understand the process of their thinking. In my placement, we use metacognition because when we have discussions, I ask students about their opinion having them elaborate on their thoughts.
Whitney Jean
Whitney,
DeleteWhat kind of discussions are your kids involved with? Are they discussing current events or books they're reading in class? Regardless I think it's great that your kids are using meta cognition
Hi Ashely,
ReplyDeleteGreat Job on your blog post. I think that it is important to use metacognition in classrooms because it helps students understand the process of their thinking. In my placement, we use metacognition because when we have discussions, I ask students about their opinion having them elaborate on their thoughts.
Whitney Jean