Metacognitive+Strategies

Describing metacognition: being conscious of one's mental processes. Thinking about thinking.

Knowing Oneself as a Learner:
Student is aware of what he/she knows, his/her reading abilities, what is easy or difficult for them, their likes/dislikes, interests and is able to activate prior knowledge.

Regulating:
Student knows what to read and how to read it. Student is aware of the structure of the text and how this might be used to aid comprehension. Student also understands the task that they will be able to complete as a result of reading this selection.

Checking:
Student is able to evaluate his or her performance. Student engages in self-questioning to determine whether goals are being achieved. Student recognizes words in the reading that they should know.

Repairing:
Student takes corrective action when comprehension falters. If the repairing step is not completed correctly, these problems can occur:
 * words may be unknown or may be known but used in an unfamiliar way
 * concepts are unknown
 * punctuation is misread
 * words or phrases are given the wrong emphasis
 * paragraph organization is difficult to follow
 * pronouns and antecedent relationships are confused
 * relationships among paragraphs and sections are not established
 * the reader becomes lost in details
 * the reader has inadequate prior knowledge, or a conflict exists between that knowledge and the text

Repair Strategies (Gunning, 2010, pg. 340)




__Teaching Techniques__

 * Model how to recall prior knowledge.
 * Model how to set a purpose.
 * Model how to choose a reading strategy.
 * Model how to execute the strategy.
 * Model how to monitor for meaning.
 * Model how to organize information.
 * Model how to apply knowledge gained from reading.
 * Discuss these processes with students by asking what they know about a topic, how they plan to read a selection and what they might do if they do not understand what they are reading.

Types of questions teachers should ask that reinforce the use of metacognition:
 * Product questions - focus on content of the story: main character, problem he or she had in the story and how he or she felt
 * Process questions - attempts to uncover how a student arrived at their answer.

Click here for a list of picture books that use metacognition strategies! [|Reading Rainbow - reading of And Still the Turtle Watched by Sheila MacGill-Callahan]