I am in a departmentalized fourth grade transitional bilingual classroom, my students are having a bit of a hard time with this transition for they are no longer able to speak in Spanish nor are we allowed to support them through the language but instead have to try to help them articulate the words in English. We teach Reading and Social Studies and are trying to figure out what is the best way for them to get the most of their reading experience for all of our students are below their reading level.
My mentor teacher and I have been working on their stamina and are currently working on metacognition. We began by modeling how you can go writing down questions or thoughts that you have on sticky notes, as you are reading. The students were able to practice this for about a week and then we introduced buzzing. This was also modeled for our students by my mentor teacher and I. The point of buzzing is two people share and discuss what they wrote about when they were reading their just right book. (their independent reading level book) The students were suppose to comment on what the other wrote and ask questions. We just started doing this but I can already see this helping them, they were asked to share after their first buzzing session and it seemed as if they were getting a deeper understanding of what they were reading. I also liked how one of the articles talked about this helping students who are not at their reading level, and it helped teachers not see their students as "hopeless". I've personally seen this happen, teachers feel the extra pressure when their students are two years "behind" when it comes to reading level. I think these kids just need the right tool box that works for them.
So I guess my question would be have you seen metacognition being applied in you classrooms? Do you think it will be beneficial? I would love to hear specific examples of this in our disciplines!
Thanks for reading gals and guy! lol (:
Great blog post on Metacognition!!!! :D
ReplyDeleteI have seen a few different forms in my classroom. I really think that teaching our students about thinking about their own thinking is a great way to generate active learning in the classroom. I have seen it mostly during literacy instruction where the students are given prompts to for example, stop and jot about their reading and explain their own sense making. I believe that it is very beneficial because it allows for students to deepen their own thinking instead of breezing through reading a text.
Becca
we learned about this in one of our classes last semester. It is a confusing topic but one we can all do a lot of thinking and reflecting upon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for including me in your sign off haha but I already posted on Ashley's about how I've seen it in math so I will give you another example. For a small part of the day, my CT and I have to go into a 6th grade science class and we work with small groups. We work with two of the lower groups in the class. This past week specifically, while I was reading with them, I was saying outloud and stopping at certain points to say how I would be thinking about this statement. Or I am highlighting this section because it relates to the main heading of the paragraph. Things like that to help them think about what is important in the paragraph they are reading so that hopefully they can think that way easily by themselves when they are reading.
ReplyDeleteRhys
Honestly metacognition is a confusing topic at times for me but in the end I believe it is a useful tool to teach our students because in the end it makes them more conscious of not just their learning but the thought process that got them their therefore creating a more deeper understanding of the learning topic.
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDeleteAwesome job on your blog post!! I really like it. Nice visuals too! I do see metacognition being used in my classroom. For reading, we are reading Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing, and as I am reading to them out loud, I will think out loud for them when I am reading something that is very important in the chapter. After that, I have some of the students do it after they read a part in the chapter. I do this to see how they are interpreting the text. Another example is in the math portion. We just got brand new math text books that the students started using last week. This math textbook focuses a lot on the reasoning behind mathematics. The students are required to explain what they are doing in each step and why they are choosing to do it. It is different to see metacognition being used in math, but also very interesting because it allows the students to think about what steps they are taking and why they are choosing to take each step in order to come up with a solution. I think using metacognition is very beneficial because students can understand why they are doing what they are doing. They are thinking about their "thinking" so they are understanding why.
Awesome Job!
Resilda.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteMetacognition is usually applied in my classroom while the student's are writing. I've seen her implement it while the students are writing opinionated pieces. Heck yeah, I think it's beneficial. You should always be questioning the way you think and the way your mind works!
Thanks,
Besan Mohammad
Hey Jessica. I really liked hearing about how metacognition is being used in your classroom. I think that is awesome. I also think it is super beneficial for students learning. I wish I saw it happening in my classroom, but it is difficult to get kids into that mindset with mathematics. Hopefully, that can change. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Jess,
ReplyDeleteI think it's a great thing that your mentor is implementing metacognition into your class. I feel that is a valuable tool to help students learn about how they think when learning. I feel that my teacher also uses metacognition in his science class. For instance, many times after explaining something particular, he will stop and ask the students to come up with their own ideas about what their own understanding of the lesson. He wants to see how the students are thinking, and if they have grasped the knowledge, but in their own way. Evidentially, it's a great tool for students.
Hi Jess!
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've seen in the classroom, using metacognition helps the students understand how they are processing the information in different texts. Whether they are reading an article, watching a video, or listening to a presentation, they can jot down notes about what they're understanding. This helps them notice what misconceptions they might have about a topic, figure out where they went wrong, and fix those misconceptions.