Michigan Reading Journal Michigan Reading Journal

Volume 20 Issue 3 Article 6

July 1987

"Metacognition! What's that? A disease?" "Metacognition! What's that? A disease?"

Theresa Catalina

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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Catalina, Theresa (1987) ""Metacognition! What's that? A disease?"," Michigan Reading Journal: Vol. 20 : Iss. 3 , Article 6. Available at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mrj/vol20/iss3/6

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"Metacognition! What's tliat? A disease?"

Indeed many educators have made fun of the term "metacognition" and all the other "meta" words that are sprinkled throughout the literature. Current research indicates that the inability to apply metacognitive skills results in poor reading comprehension. These insights are enabling teachers to incorporate direct instruction of metacognitive strategies for their students.

What is it? Metacognition refers to the knowledge

and control which readers have over their own thinking and learning (Brown, 1980). Good readers monitor and naturally apply strategic interventions in the comprehension process as they read. Poor readers do not apply appropriate strategies or are probably not even aware that they are not comprehending. They get caught up in the task of coping with the print and never get around to realizing that they do not understand what they are reading. Therefore, reading instruction becomes an exercise in futility.

The Kenny Rogers song "The Gambler" laments "You have to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, and know when to walk away". To be a successful poker player, it takes more than knowing all the rules of the game.To be a successful reader, it takes more than phonics and sequential skills instruction (Pearson, IRA, Philadelphia, 1986). A master poker player acquires a card sense which helps him monitor each game. In order to become a good poker player it takes practice, along with the guided help of a skilled player. One of the best methods to improve in any game or sport is to play with players that are more proficient at the game than you are. These examples are analogous

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by Theresa Catalina

to acquiring metacognit,ve and active processing skills. Expert teachers coach students with models that demonstrate metacognitive strategies. These stimulate processing skills which lead to monitoring and active intervention, allowing better comprehension. At this point you may be wondering, "What is involved in the rules of this game call metacognition?"

Before a reader can pay attention to what he is reading, he must have acquired a level of fluency beyond basic decoding. Previously we have used the term fluency to refer to oral reading; now the term has taken on an expanded definition.

Readers must be able to decode words quickly and accurately so that this process can coordinate fluidly with the process of constructing the meaning of the text (Becoming a Nation of Readers, 1985).

Current research indicates that poor readers are usually not aware of their failure to understand print. In one metacognitive research study, students were asked to identify contrived errors embedded in written text. Good readers detected more errors, as they were less confused by the body of the text than the poor readers (Offutt, 1985).

Remember when you were learning to drive a car? You got in the car and mentally reviewed "key in ignition, turn key, press on gas pedal, put in reverse and sl_owly bac~ out of driveway." Now an experienced driver, you get in your car and automatically drive to work, thinking about anything but the mechanics of driving.

For skillful experienced drivers operating a car becomes automatic. According to automaticity theory, a fluent reader decodes

text automatically-that is, without consciously attending to the decoding process - thus leaving the mind free to focus on comprehension rather than word recognition (Samuels, 1979). When reading becomes automatic, the reader no longer gets bogged down with individual words.

Recently, I tutored Sam, an eighth grade student in history. Sam is a learning disabled youngster with normal intelligence who was failing history. His reading of text was so poor that he was not able to take the tests in the history class where he was mainstreamed. Instead, his resource room teacher would read him the test.

At our first tutoring session we discussed how his reading problem made it difficult for him to understand the text. We identified the different parts of the text and the terms that he had to remember. I suggested we read the chapter and write down the terms on 3x5 cards with the term on one side and the definition on the other. We read the terms and definitions taking five cards at a time, then five more, reviewing the previous cards. Sam studied the cards each night and on Friday took an objective test. Using this method Sam's final grade was a 8. The most rewarding factor for him was that he no longer needed to have the test read to him. His reading became automatic because of the repeated reading of the note cards.

By using the study cards his reading became active for the purpose of remembering. According to Baker and Brown (1984), the choice of metacognitive strategies will vary depending on whether the goal is to read for meaning (comprehension) or for remembering (studying).

A reader who uses metacognitive skills is an active rather than a passive reader. The passive reader thinks that in order to remember what is read he needs to concentrate or spend more time reading. The active reader attends, takes notes, writes a glossary, makes annotations in the margin or does something to organize the text structure for meaning and remembering. The active reader takes control of the interaction with the text regardless of its format.

An important part of metacognition is that the reader knows when he has failed to understand the print. When this happens, the reader does not have to be 'stymied', but he

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can use prior knowledge and background experiences to aid his understanding. Meaning is constructed as the reader links what he reads to what he already knows.

For example, the student who reads "the snow was black," immediately recognizes a discrepancy between the print and what he knows about snow. The mental structur~s that store knowledge about white snow in memory is call SCHEMATA. The student's memory of past experiences says that snow is white. Here is another example:

The house turned to water because the fire got too hot.

It is difficult to construct meaning from this sentence. Houses don't melt, they burn. However, if you knew this came from a text about Eskimos or if accompanied by a picture of an igloo, the reader could easily fit the melting ice into his previous experience found in the memory (schema).

Building background is important prior to making reading assignments. Linking prior experience and new information in a brief interesting manner is required for understanding. It is also important for teachers to be explicit about the purposes of instruction. When brainstorming, mapping or categorizing, tell students that when we activate prior knowledge we will understand and remember the concepts in an organized manner.

There are many aspects of prior knowledge from which the reader can draw. Some of our prior knowledge deals with what we know about the world -the reality we have experienced. We also have prior knowledge about the various forms of text or print which we have read. Print comes in many more forms than most readers have experienced. In fact, in the elementary grades the emphasis is on narrative writing, with a small amount of informational text and poetry intermixed.

Many of the strategies used to promote comprehension will also promote comprehension monitoring. When a teacher delineates for students the hierarchial relationships among ideas, students begin to recognize the different types of text structure common to their subject matter texts. Teachers may cue students to rely on signal words such as "however", "although" (comparison/contrast text structure), or

.,.

"therefore", "consequently", and "as a result" (cause/effect structure) (Vacca, 1981 ).

Students can be made aware that textbook writers often ignore certain

. principles of good writing and fail to signal the reader explicitly as to how the text is organized; then we say the text is inconsiderate (Armbruster & Anderson, 1981 ). Inconsiderate texts make comprehension more difficult.

Metacognition and Instruction Just as the batting coach models the

stance and the swing of a batter, a classroom teacher can model metacognitive strategies. The fol lowing are two suggested instructional activities: 1) Select a passage from a textbook that evidences problems in comprehending. Talk about what is going on in your mind, as you attempt to make sense of the print. Describe your mental processes of predicting, confirming, rereading for clarity, asking questions, linking to something else you have read, etc. This activity can be gradually released to students by allowing them to practice with a partner or in small groups. 2) Provide practice for students to reflect and evaluate what they have read. Ask what they have learned, what would they still like to know about the topic and how might they acquire more information. Students could respond orally or perhaps write in a journal or on an evaluation sheet.

Research indicates that through instruction students can be taught to know when comprehension has failed and what to do about it (Brown, 1982). As students incorporate some of these strategies into other reading tasks, they show they have become more actively involved in the reading process. They know they have a variety of options and know when and where to use them.

In conclusion, metacognition requires knowledge about the text one is to read and knowledge about the monitoring strategies necessary to complete the task successfully. Students' ability and awareness of applying metacognitive strategies differ between the good and poor readers. Good readers naturally apply some of these strategies and poor readers can improve their comprehension through explicit instruction of metacognitive strategies.

Theresa Catalina is a Teacher Consultant for Compensatory Education and Staff Development Trainer for the Port Huron Area Schools.

REFERENCES Anderson, T.H . and Armbruster, B.B. Content Area

Textbooks. Reading Education Report No. 23, Urbana, IL Center for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois, 1981.

Baker, L., and Brown, A.L., 1984. Metacognitive Skills and Reading. In P.D. Pearson (Ed.), Handbook of Reading Research, pp. 353-394. New York, Cohen, Longman.

Becoming A Nation of Readers: The Report of the Commission on Reading, ed. by Anderson, P.C., Hiebert, G.H., Scott, J.A., and Wilkinson, A.G., Champaign, Illinois, 1985.

Offutt, T., 1986. "Activating Children'sMetacognitive Reading Processes" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1985) p. 124.

Pearson, P.D. (presentation - International Reading Association, Philadelphia, April 1986).

Samuels, S.J. 1979. "The Method of Repeated Readings." The Reading Teacher, 32, pp. 403-408.

Vacca, R.T. Content Area Reading. Boston: Little Brown, 1981.

continued on page 21

"Quality 1s never an

accident; it is always the result of

high intention, sincere effort,

intelligent direction and

skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of

many alternatives." Willa A. Foster

"Understanding Expository Text:

More Power to the Reader continued from page 17

Meyer, Bonnie J.F., and Elizabeth G. Rice. "The Structure , of Text. " In Handbook of Reading Research, edited by P. David Pearson. New York and London: Longman Press, 1984, p. 328.

Slotsky, Sandra . "A Proposal for Improving High School Students ' Ability to Read and Write Expository Prose." Journal of Reading, vol. 28 (October 1984), p. 5.

Thelen, Judith. "Preparing Students for Content Reading Assignments", Journal of Reading, vol. 25, (March, 1982), p. 544.

Prior Knowledge and Schema Theory - What and Why?

continued from page 10 Hansen, Jane, and Ruth Hubbard . "Poor Readers Can

Draw Inferences." The Reading Teacher, vol. 37 (March 1984), pp. 586-89.

Holmes, Betty C. "The Effect of Prior Knowledge on the Question Answering of Good and Poor Readers." Journal of Reading Behavior, vol. 15, no. l (1983) pp. 1-18.

Holmes, Betty C., and Nancy L. Roser. "Five Ways to Assess Readers' Prior Knowledge." The Reading Teacher, vol. 40, no. 7 (March 1987) pp. 646-649.

Kintsch, Walter, E. Kozimsky, W.J. Streby, G. McKoon, and J.M. Keenan. "Comprehension and Recall of Text as a Function of Content Variables." Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, vol. 14 (April 1975), pp. 196-214.

Langer , Judith A. and Victoria Purcell-Gates. "Knowledge and Comprehension: Helping Students Use What They Know," Reading, Thinking, and Concept Development, editors: T.L. Harris and E.J. Cooper, College Entrance Examination Board, N.Y., 1985.

Lipson, Marjorie Youmans. "Some Unexpected Issues in Prior Knowledge and Comprehension." The Reading Teacher, vol. 37, no. 8 (April 1984) pp. 760-764.

McNeil, John D. Reading Comprehension New Directions for Classroom Practice. Scott, Foresman and Company, 1984, pp. 2-25, 61-65.

Markham, Ellen M. "Realizing You Don't Understand Elementary School Children's Awareness of Inconsistencies." Child Development, vol. 50 (September 1979), pp. 643-55.

Niles, Olive S. "Organization Perceived." In Perspectives in Reading: Developing Study Skills in Secondary Schools, edited by H.H. Hoover, Newark, Del.: International Reading Assoc., 1965.

Ohlihausen, Marilyn McKenney and Cathy M. Roller. "Teaching Students to Use a Nation Schema to Learn About Countries." Journal of Reading, vol. 30, no. 3 (December 1986), pp. 212-217.

Paris, Scott and Meyer Myers. "Comprehension Monitoring, Memory. and Study Strategies of

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Good and Poor Readers." Journal of Reading Behavior, vol. 13 (Spring 1981 ), pp. 5-22.

Pearson, P. David . "Asking Questions About Stories," Ginn Occasional Paper Number 15, 1982.

Zakaluk, Beverly, S. Jay Samuels, and Barbara M. Taylor. "A Simple T echniquefor Estimating Prior Knowledge: Word Association." Journal of Reading, vol. 30, no. l (October 1986), pp. 56-60.

Reading Standards: The Real "Bottom Line"

is Not the MEAP! continued from page 5

Becoming Readers in a Complex Society, National Society for the Study of Education, Part 1, p. 66.

5. Kirsch, Irwin S. and Jungeblut, Ann (1986), Literacy: Profiles of America's Young Adults, National Assessment of Educational Progress, p. 5.

6. Venezky, Richard, Kaestle, Carl F., Sum, Andrew M. (1987) . The Subtle Danger: Reflections on the Literacy Abilities of America's Young Adults, p. 43.

7. Hodgkinson, Harold L. (1987), Michigan: The State and its Educational System, The Institute for Educational Leadership, Inc., Washington, D.C., back cover.

8. Applebee, Arthur, Langer, Judith, Mullis, Ina (1987) Learning to be Literate in America: Reading, Writing, and Reasoning, National Assessment of Education! Progress p. 48.

For Using Research and Effective Instruction to

Improve Reading Literacy continued from page 20

What Research Says to the Classroom Teacher About Reading for the Compensatory Education Student. (Michigan Reading Association, $1.50)

What Research Says to the Classroom Teacher About Reading for the Second Language Learner. (Michigan Reading Association, $1.50).

Reading Curriculum Review Process (trainer's manual). (Consultant required. Contact Curriculum

Review Committee members or Dr. Elaine Weber, Michigan Department of Education).

Essential Goals and Objective for Reading Education. (Michigan Department of Education, single copies free of charge).

New Decisions About Reading: Instruction. (Michigan Reading Association, $1.50).

Videotapes of The State of Reading Conference. (REMC, available free of charge).

Bookmarks from "The State of Reading: Basals" Conference. (Michigan Reading Association, $4.00).

The Document from The State of Reading: Reading, Thinking and Learning in the Secondary Classroom. (Michigan Department of Education, single copies free of charge while a limited quantity last).

Reading at a Glance for Michigan Administrators. (MDE Reading Curriculum Review Committee, $1 .00, c/o Glenowyn Jones, Genessee I.S.D.)