Understanding Metacognition for

Teachers & Their Students

Shery l RossED 561 Adv. ED Psych

Dr. Michael Rousel lApr i l 26, 2012

“THINKING-ABOUT-THINKING”

A METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS CONSORTIUM

By Cristóbal Vila

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkGeOWY

NATURE BY NUMBERSAN ATMOSPHERE FOR LEARNING

Six Key Strategies for Teachers

Alliance@al4ed.org, Case Study,2005

VOCABULARY & LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

EXPLORING VOCAB WORDS WITH ACADEMIC CONCEPTS BUILD ON STUDENT’S BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGEDIVERSE NEEDS

GUIDED INTERACTIONSTRUCTURE LESSONS FOR STUDENTS TO WORK COLLABORATIVELY ABOUT ACADEMIC CONCEPTS-LISTENING-SPEAKING-READING-WRITING

METACOGNITION & AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTTEACHERS MODEL EXPLICIT CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS TO CREATE HIGHLY SKILLED READERSUSE A VARIETY OF ASSESSMENTS TO CHECK UNDERSTANDING

EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONDIRECT TEACHING OF CONCEPTS & ACADEMIC LANGUAGE

MEANING-BASED CONTEXT & UNIVERSAL THEMESTAKING SOMETHING MEANINGFUL FROM STUDENTS’ LIVES TO SPRINGBOARD INTO ACADEMIC CONCEPTS

MODELING-GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS- VISUALSMAKES LANGUAGE & CONTENT MORE ACCESSIBLE TO STUDENTS

The Metacognitive Competence of ChildrenInternational Journal of Bilingualism, 2010

A Role-Play Scenario of Student Strategies- How kids do it

Thinking…Knowing…Learning...Control…Cool…• Directed attention- The child focuses on a semiotic cue identifying the problem.• He/she tries to get back on track.• Control of emotions- The child shows self-determination to communicate and does not manifest any frustration feelings.• Anticipation- The child elaborates a plan to act while thinking aloud.• Mime- The child proposes to show something using mime.• Cooperation- The child proposes an explicit action to communicate withthe other child.• Code-switching- The child proposes another language to communicate (signlanguage included).• Imitation- The child proposes to do the same as the other.• Clarification- The child makes more propositions in order to reassess theinformation source.• Ask for assistance- The child explicitly refers to an external help to intervene.

Mnemonics

Loci Method: Technique of associating items with specific places, for example, picturing where something belongs to think of the name.Peg-type Mnemonics: systems of associating items with cue words, for example, one is bun, two is shoe, three is tree. The words you want to remember are “pegged” to already known systematic words that naturally link together. Acronyms: Technique for remembering things by using the first letter of each thing to create a word that is easy to remember. Distributed Mnemonics: sorting words in categories.Chain Mnemonics: linking a memory strategy in which each thing in the series is linked to the next, for example, “i before e except after c” or GenkiEnglish.com songs and activities to match phonicsKeyword Method: system of associating new words with similar sounding words or images in order to remember them more easily. Visual Memory: multi-sensory, mental imagery, using physical items, pictures, word cards,

The art of memory using systematic procedures for improving memory. These strategies take what needs to be learned and connect it with

already known words or images.

A Metacognitive Awareness Lesson for TeachersA Time to Reflect & Learn- Professional Development

Duration- 55 minutesObjectives-Metacognition Strategies • What are the mnemonic strategies?• What strategies work best for you, the

learner?• How can we transfer metacognitive

awareness into the elementary classroom to help our students with their learning?

Materials Needed:The Set- the quiet atmosphere for learning because we deserve it:SMARTboard for Video “Nature by Numbers” on Vimeo or YOUTubeCandle, lighter (low lighting) or battery-lites and group table labelsOnline or CD Player, instrumental musicNote: This was a part of a lesson we did last year and our peers loved the experience.

Banners- made with plastic table rolls, silver paint, ribbon in soothing colors hanging floor to ceilingEthnic- gentle music online or CD and playerBrain Food-Table- I prefer big bowls of fruit, bread nuts, bottled water, table, cloth, serving utensils, service Tables for small groups of teachersTable strategy labels: Visual Imagery, Loci Mnemonics, Chain Mnemonics, Distributed Mnemonics, Rote MemorizationTable strategy materials for group learning Hand-out of strategies:Metacognitive Journalshttp://freeology.com/wp-content/files/metacognitivejournal.pdfMetacognitive toolkithttp://www.readingresource.net/support-files/metacognitionyoolkitrevised.pdfList of common words for strategies on posterSmall tablets to write down words, pencilsAdditional informative posters

Lesson continued…ResourcesOnline Video- Nature by Numbers. Vila, Cristobal, 2008, YouTubeOnline Video-Metacognition Song, 2010. Uploaded by frogeeteacher. youtube.com.Google Images

PreparationPrepare set materials and roomPrepare bannersPrepare foodPrepare strategy materials for group tablesSet-up with food available as audience walks in.Opening: 10 minutes

Meet and Greet- teachers asking them to find a seat with one of the group tables and eat.Turn on Nature by Numbers video presentationIntroduce metacognitive concept with word gameRole-Play Student metacognitive CompentenciesIntroduce class table activities and Tables- each group instructor introduces table strategyBreak-out into groups:

Demonstrate and provide strategy lesson with each group: 10 minute rotation

Visual Imagery: Using physical items, picture and word cards using common wordsLoci-type Mnemonics: List of words, association, acronyms using common wordsChain Mnemonics: 1st word associaltion-2nd word association and on, verbal association using common wordsDistributed Mnemonics, sorting using common words.Rote Memorization, flash cards, repetitious writing using common words.Each Group- Ask everyone to write down the list of common words without looking at their materials after table strategy implementedConversation: Prompts- All tables-How did this make you aware of your cognitive thinking process?What strategies have you taught yourself?How did the music, food, ambiance effect how you think?What does this mean for our young learners?

Closing: Youtube Video, Metacognition Song in the Classroom

Lesson Outcomes

Metacognitive awareness will transfer into our

classrooms at either the university or elementary

levels.

We will teach students how they think-to remember-how to recall informationWe will teach students new understandings-awareness-how to explain new ideas or conceptsWe will teach students analysis-how to discriminate or compare and contrastWe will teach students how to strategize and evaluate-to defend and stand for a decisionWe will teach students how to create, design construct their thinking strategies

Multimedia coding-To br ing out the best thinking strategy!Using physical i tems: with texture-smell -colorUsing picture and word cards: to correspond with physical i temsBui lding connections: show or discuss cultural s imilarit ies and differencesWorking memory for verbal-visual images:Frames for Fluency and pic word cue cards, Carousal

Topics based on phonics lessonSee attachment for pictureand word cards example

VISUAL & IMAGERYA PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Apply to My Classroom

Phonology-Study of soundsSound-Symbol AssociationSyllable InstructionMorphologySyntaxSemanticsCurriculums:Modified Orton-Gillingham MethodThe Spaulding MethodEnglish to a BeatAlphabetic PhonicsSeq. English EdLindamood-Bell MethodThe A.P.S. Linguistic Approach to LiteracyStarting OverFrames for FluencyGenkiEnglish.com

A Multisensory Structured Language Program

Teaching is done using all learning pathways in the brain simultaneously in order to enhance memory and learning:Systematic & Cumulative following the logical order of languageDirect Instruction-inferential learning with student/teacher interactionDiagnostic Teaching must be adept at prescriptive or individualized instructionSynthetic/Analytic Instruction uses parts of a language builds to whole meaning/and vise versa

…because our students think differently!

“Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.”

Parker J . Palmer, The Courage to Teach