Learning strategies…

Autonomous LearningLEARNING STRATEGIES…

Lina Martínez Paternina

2014

Lic. Lía Montalvo

METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES

Metacognitive strategies refers to methods used to help students understand the way they learn; in other words, it means processes designed for students to 'think' about their 'thinking'.

Teachers who use metacognitive strategies can positively impact students who have learning disabilities by helping them to develop an appropriate plan for learning information.

The activities of Metacognitive strategy selection and application include those concerned with an ongoing attempt to plan, check, monitor, select, revise, evaluate, etc.

Plan / Organize

Identify Problems

Evaluate

Manage Your Own Learning

Think-Aloud

Plan / Organize Before beginning a task:• Set goals. • Plan the task or

content sequence.

• choose strategies.

• Preview a text.

Identify Problems While working on a task: • Check your progress on the

task. • Check your comprehension

as you use the language. Do you understand? If not, what is the problem?

• Check your production as you use the language. Are you making sense? If not, what is the problem?

EvaluateAfter completing a task: • Assess how well you have

accomplished the learning task.

• Assess how well you have used learning strategies.

• Decide how effective the strategies were.

• Identify changes you will make the next time you have a similar task to do.

Manage Your Own Learning • Determine how you learn

best. • Arrange conditions that

help you learn. • Seek opportunities for

practice. • Focus your attention on

the task.

Think-AloudGreat for reading comprehension and problem solving. Think- alouds help students to consciously monitor and reflect upon what they are learning. This strategy works well when teachers read a story or problem out loud and periodically stop to verbalize their thoughts. This allows students to follow the teacher's thinking process, which gives them the foundation they need for creating their own strategies and processes that can be useful for understanding what they are trying to comprehend.

Cognitive Strategies

A cognitive strategy is a mental process or procedure for accomplishing a particular cognitive goal. For example, if students' goals are to write good essays, their cognitive strategies might include brainstorming and completing an outline.

The cognitive strategies that students use influence how they will perform in school, as well as what they will accomplish outside of school. Researchers have found that effective learners and thinkers use more effective strategies for reading, writing, problem solving, and reasoning than ineffective learners and thinkers.

Cognitive strategies can be general or specific (Pressley & Woloshyn, 1995). General cognitive strategies are strategies that can be applied across many different disciplines and situations (such as summarization or setting goals for what to accomplish), whereas specific cognitive strategies tend to be more narrow strategies that are specified toward a particular kind of task (such as drawing a picture to help one see how to tackle a physics problem). Specific strategies tend to be more powerful but have a more restricted range of use. Effective learners use both general and specific strategies.

Strategies have been distinguished from skills. Although skills are similar to strategies, they are different in that they are carried out automatically, whereas strategies usually require individuals to think about what strategy they are using (Alexander, Graham, & Harris, 1998). Effective learners develop the ability to use strategies automatically while also reflecting upon those strategies when necessary. People who are able to reflect upon their own cognition and cognitive strategies are said to have metacognitive awareness.

The use of cognitive strategies can increase the efficiency with which the learner approaches a learning task. These academic tasks can include, but are not limited to, remembering and applying information from course content, constructing sentences and paragraphs, editing written work, paraphrasing, and classifying information to be learned.

Content Enhancement

Impacting both the task and the learner using cognitive strategies is referred to as Content Enhancement. Bulgren, Deshler, and Schumaker (1997) highlight three important teacher activities in their model of content enhancement:

• Teachers evaluate the content they cover.• Teachers determine the necessary approaches

to learning for student success• Teachers teach with routines and instructional

supports that assist students as they apply appropriate techniques and strategies.

• In this way, the teacher emphasizes what the students should learn, or the "product" of learning. Content Evaluation

When a teacher is comfortable with the content he/she is teaching, he/she knows which parts are the most important, the most interesting and the easiest (or hardest) to learn.

The use of cognitive strategies can increase the efficiency and confidence with which the learner approaches a learning task, as well as his/her ability to develop a product, retain essential information, or perform a skill. While teaching cognitive strategies requires a high degree of commitment from both the teacher and learner, the results are well worth the effort.

TASK-BASED STRATEGIES… (USE WHAT YOU KNOW) Use Background Knowledge

Make Inferences

Make Predictions

Personalize

Use Cognates Paraphras

e

Use Background Knowledge • Think about and use

what you already know to help you do the task.

• Make associations between new information and your prior knowledge.

• Use new information to clarify or modify your prior knowledge.

Make Inferences• Use context and

what you know to figure out meaning.

• Read and listen between the lines.

• Go beyond the text to understand its meaning.

Make Predictions • Anticipate information

to come. • Make logical guesses

about what will happen in a written or oral text.

• Make an estimate (math).

• Make a hypothesis (science).

Personalize • Relate new concepts

to your own life, to your experiences, knowledge, beliefs and feelings.

Paraphrase • Use a synonym or

descriptive phrase for unknown words or expressions.

Use Cognates • Apply your linguistic

knowledge of other languages (including your native language) to the target language.

• Recognize cognates.

TASK-BASED STRATEGIES… (USE YOUR SENSES)

Use Images

Use Sounds

Use Your Kinesthetic Sense

Use Images• Use or create an actual

or mental image to understand and/or represent information.

• Use or draw a picture or diagram. Use Sounds

• Say or read aloud a word, sentence, or paragraph to help your understanding.

• Sound out/vocalize. • Use your “mental tape

recorder” to remember sounds, words, phrases, and/or conversations.

Use Your Kinesthetic Sense• Act out a role, for

example, in Readers’ Theater, or imagine yourself in different roles in the target language.

• Use real objects to help you remember words, sentences, or content information.

TASK-BASED STRATEGIES…(USE YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS)

Apply Patterns

Classify

Take Notes

Use Graphic Organizers

Summarize

Use Selective Attention

Apply Patterns • Apply a rule. • Make a rule. • Recognize and apply

letter/sound, grammar, discourse, or register rules.

• Identify patterns in literature (genre).

• Identify patterns in math, science, and social studies.

Classify• Categorize words or

ideas according to attributes.

• Classify living things; identify natural cycles.

• Identify order and sequences in math, science, and social studies.

• Sequence events in history.

Take Notes• Write down important

words and ideas while listening or reading.

• List ideas or words to include in speaking or writing..

Use Graphic Organizers • Use or create visual

representations (such as Venn diagrams, time lines, webs, and charts) of important relationships between concepts.

Summarize • Create a

mental, oral, or written summary of information.

Use Selective Attention • Focus on specific

information, structures, key words, phrases, or ideas.

TASK-BASED STRATEGIES…(USE A VARIETY OF RESOURCES)

Access Information Sources

Cooperate

Talk Yourself Through It (Self-Talk)

Access Information Sources• Use the dictionary,

the internet, and other reference materials.

• Seek out and use sources of information.

• Follow a model • Ask questions

Cooperate • Work with others to

complete tasks, build confidence, and give and receive feedback.

Talk Yourself Through It

(Self-Talk) • -Use your inner

resources. Reduce your anxiety by reminding yourself of your progress, the resources you have available, and your goals.

THANKS

Licenciatura en lenguas extranjeras:

Ingles- Francés Unisucre