Do you ever think about your thinking? For instance, do you actually listen to yourself while you read and listen to yourself think? Honestly, it is so cool when we do this! It is called metacognition and is a strategy that all our readers need to know and understand! It is a powerful way to build comprehension! So, let’s explore some tips for teaching metacognition to help our students the best we can!
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What is Metacognition?
Before exploring tips for teaching metacognition, it is important to understand what it means. The definition of metacognition is actually thinking about your thinking. While it is an obscure concept, it is a really powerful strategy when students understand it and can apply it.
Why it is Important
Have you ever had those times when you cannot understand why students do not understand something? Or, you feel frustrated why they are not catching on? I’m sure all teachers have, and metacognition is almost always the key! By implementing tips for teaching metacognition, students have essential strategies in their toolbox to think about what they are doing. So, let’s explore these tips and how they work for any grade level!
Teaching the Different Types of Thinking
There are three types of thinking. You want to make sure you expose students to each of them. Additionally, you want them to observe, witness, and recognize the type of thinking occurring.
The first type is distracting thinking. This is when the reader is thinking about something unrelated to the text. The second is interacting thoughts. These thoughts take place while you read and are about the text. This can be times when they are accessing their scheme, making cognitive connections, or when they stop and think to clarify information. There are many different types of interacting thoughts! The final type is reacting. This happens when students have to do a certain behavior because of the text. For instance, if they do not understand something, they react by asking a question or rereading it. They may also think about how they react after reading, such as being surprised by a character’s actions.
So, you want to make sure to teach your students about distracting thoughts, interacting thoughts, and reacting thoughts. This helps them understand metacognition and recognize the different times they apply it.
A great activity to teach this skill is modeling. You can have certain thoughts written out on sentence strips or notecards. Then, as you read, you put them in the order you use them on the front board or anchor chart paper. After finishing the text, students can help sort out the different types of thinking they had while reading. If you want this to be more authentic, write your thoughts as you have them! This activity will help them become more aware of different thoughts while reading and work on identifying the distracting thoughts. After modeling, students can sort out their own thoughts!
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Connection Between Text and Thoughts
When exploring tips about teaching metacognition, I cannot stress this one enough. It involves really focusing on the connection between the text and thoughts in your head. By thinking about these thoughts, students use metacognitive strategies and connect to the text. This will help them understand it more concretely and help them identify text evidence. This is a game changer when asking students to prove their answers! By using this strategy, students create a correlation between their thoughts and where/when they occur in the text.
To practice doing this, provide students with notecards that have thoughts on them based on a text they read. Then, have them match where this thought goes in the text. Students can then discuss the event in more detail and why it is important. This is a great way to build powerful conversations among classmates!
Model by Thinking Out Loud
I love this strategy! Students really get into it, and it is powerful.
Research shows that with any of the actual strategies we teach students, such as visualization and asking questions, modeling is key. So, when applying tips for teaching metacognition, we need to consistently model our thinking out loud for students.
It is important to know that this can be tricky at the beginning of the year. Students want to respond to everything we say, which is good! However, with metacognition, we want to tell students we will model thinking out loud. They only need to listen. As with any learning, building the habit of just listening will take time. This practice will be powerful as students begin to see what happens inside a reader’s brain!
As students become used to this, they can even model their thinking for the class! Teachers can use the Reading Comprehension Strategies Bundle to help students process many literary aspects. They can even complete a mind map, which is a super fun and neat activity! This is like a game board, such as those swivel-shaped ones or a grid of boxes. Then, there are different color codings off to the side representing the different types of thinking out loud that may be taking place. You can use different colors for distracting, interacting, and reacting thoughts. Or, you can take it a step further and add other strategies, such as asking questions and making connections. Students can then make their mind maps and compare them. Honestly, it is so neat to hear these conversations, such as the different inferences made.
Applying Metacognition Tips
Metacognition is so important to teach! However, it can take time to gain a sense of comfort with pausing lessons and teaching thinking about thinking. Luckily, there is a Metacognition Printable & Activities bundle focusing on building comprehension. There are lessons, graphic organizers, anchor charts, crafts, and centers where students implement these tips!
Ultimately, I cannot stress the importance of teaching metacognition enough! It is one of the first things I teach every year and is one of the foundational skills I always return to. By applying the tips for teaching metacognition, students will actively think about their thinking and improve their comprehension significantly.
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