That's So Meta

Metacognition is often defined as “thinking about thinking”. . Kids need metacognition for learning so that they can improve their reading, thinking and learning.

Why?

• Metacognition increases students abilities to transfer or adapt their learning to new contexts and tasks.
• They can think about the task and the context of different learning situations.
• It can help them think of themselves in different contexts.
• It can help kids become aware of their strengths and weaknesses as learners, writers, readers, test-takers, group members, etc.
• It gives kids the awareness of problems that need to be solved -- whether knowledge gaps, behavior issues, or social concerns.

The short argument is that metacognition helps kids learn. It helps them remember what they learned last year (or yesterday) and combine it with what they’re learning today. It helps them apply strategies from one lesson to another. It helps them know their own strengths and weaknesses  -- and then strengthen the weaknesses and build on the strengths.

The end-goal is for kids to become self guided. We can’t always do all the guiding. Someday, our little birdies will fly out of our nests and they need to be able to assess the situations that may arise and make to make in-flight decisions on their own

It makes kids become a part of their learning process. It helps us make learning something we do WITH them not, TO them.

It’s putting the “why” behind everything, everything you do.

It is an executive skill that helps kids MAKE THINGS HAPPEN.  

But it’s not a natural thought process for all kids. So how can we teach them to think about their thinking?

We can intentionally build it in to our classes, particularly with Formative Assessment (i.e. checks for understanding).

Here are my favorite ways of addressing Metacognition through Formative Assessment:

1. Misconception Check: Give kids a common Misconception statement about a topic. Have students quickwrite to explain why they agree or disagree with it.
2. Anticipation Guide: Choose several statements from the lesson you are about to teach that can be answered as True or False (make sure to have a few of each). Before the lesson, ask kids to give their best guesses and answer each statement. AFTER the lesson, ask kids to answer the same statements -- but this time, their answer should be based on learning. THis helps kids see where they learned and grew within a lesson.
3. Muddiest (or Clearest Point): At the end of a lesson, ask kids “What is the ‘muddiest’ point from today?”, meaning, what are you still confused about. You can drill down further and ask “what do you find unclear about the concept of Manifest Destiny?”. Alternately, you can ask about the “clearest point” and discuss the portion of the lesson that your students DO understand the most clearly.
4. I Used To Think But Now I Know At the end of a lesson, have kids complete the  sentence to see what they have learned about the lesson. “I used to think ______ but now I know ____________.
5. Four Corners: Have students choose a corner based on their level of learning for a particular topic. Once students have chosen their corners, allow them to discuss their progress with people who are in a similar point in their learning. Then, pair Corner 1 & 3 and 2& 4 for peer tutoring. For example, choose a corner based on your knowledge of the impact of Constitutional Rights:
1. Corner 1: The Dirt Road (There’s so much dust, I can’t see where I’m going!)
2. Corner 2: The Paved Road (It’s fairly smooth but there are a lot of potholes)
3. Corner 3: The Highway (I feel fairly confident bbut have occasional slowdowns)
4. Corner 4: The Interstate (I’m travelling along and could easily give directions to someone else)

How can you teach your kids to use metacognition? It will increase everything from their reading to their content knowledge to their test-taking to their real-life problem solving! I love to hear how you teach metacognitive skills in your class! Email me newmantr@pcsb.org

-Tracy

Start Me Up

So, when Mick Jagger sang “start me up”, I am pretty sure he wasn’t talking about sentence starters.

But I am.

I have learned a lot of things over the years about kids and learning. One of those things is that kids often struggle to know where to start when a teacher gives them an assignment. They also struggle to use academic language. (I can’t tell you how many times I got a writing assignment with a “lol” somewhere in there!). They also struggle to figure out what the teacher wants from them. Sometimes they struggle to understand the question.

Well, I have one idea that will cover those issues.

It’s a sentence starter.

Seriously.  It sounds so silly, I know. Some of us think of early elementary school, and think it’s not useful for our secondary students, but I would respectfully disagree.

I think a good sentence starter can help our kids first know where to start with a task, whether it’s a writing assignment or a graphic organizer or whatever. If you start a sentence for the kid, it will lead their thinking where you want them to go. Your kids will be more successful at thinking and at writing about the topic.

I also think a good sentence starter can help students use academic language. It doesn’t come naturally for many kids, especially kids who don’t hear more formal language at home. Heck, I don’t use formal academic language at home. (or here, either, when I say “heck”). Kids are not naturally academic speakers and writers and so we need to teach them how and when to use academic language.

Sentence starters help the kid figure out what the teacher is looking for. If you ask a kid for the causes of the Civil War and you give her “Three important causes of the Civil War are _____”, she can better understand the question and better frame her answer.

I also love sentence starters because they are a fabulous way to differentiate. Do you have English Language Learners? Sentence starters are a quick and effective way to help students who are acquiring the English Language to understand and express your content.  

I also think it helps with some of your “out of the box” thinkers. The kids who are smart but can’t keep their assignments on track without going off on a tangent -- it can help them too.  You can also differentiate “up” to challenge your more academically successful kiddos by asking them to do more than one thing with a sentence starter.

Wait! I want to clarify! Please know that when I talk about sentence starters, I don’t mean cloze notes. Cloze notes have one answer that goes in the blank. They’re basically copying made easy and unless your student has been learning English for two years or less, they’re not appropriate for middle or high school students. By sentence starters, I mean the teacher has begun the sentence for the students, to guide them, but then releases the students to finish their own thoughts with their own words.  Cloze notes are low level. Sentence Starter is higher order.

Cloze Notes: The _________ of the Civil War were __________ and __________/  

Sentence Starter: The most important cause of the Civil War was __________________________ because __________________________________________.

So, let’s wrap this up. Sentence starters help your kids get started, so they can be more successful. They help you differentiate for both English Language LEarners and kids who just need direction. They increase the practice your kids have with academic language. They are not the same as Cloze Notes.

How can you use sentence starters in your class and not make a grown man (or woman, or kid) cry? How can you start them up so they will be more successful with their thinking and writing?

As always -- I love to hear! Email me at newmantr@pcsb.org

-Tracy