Introducing Metacognition

When you read, there should be a little voice in your head like the storyteller is saying it. And if there's not, then you're just looking at the words.

-LaKeisha, grade 9 student

Students quickly pick up on the concept of metacognition, or thinking about thinking. LaKeisha's academic literacy teacher introduced metacognition in September, and within days LaKeisha was not only using metacognition daily but also explaining it to others. She had learned how to look inside her mind and observe her own thinking processes.

Students' responsiveness to the idea of their own thinking is thrilling for teachers as well. Monica Figueroa, a middle school social studies teacher, was delighted with the way her students took to the practice of thinking about their thinking:

The very first benefit [of Reading Apprenticeship], that I really saw early on, was metacognition, the idea of having them actually think about what they were thinking. It was just so great to me, to have them actually participate in their own brains. That their brains do these miraculous things and they can actually control that! Paying attention to the wheels in their head - knowing that they have wheels I see the pride growing in them.

Anyone who has worked with adolescents knows that they can be intensely self-absorbed, consumed with questions of individual identity and of their place within their peer group and the world. When we first developed Reading Apprenticeship, we realized that we could use this self-interest to get students thinking about their own reading processes. We thought of this self-absorption as our ally: Why wouldn't adolescent students naturally be motivated to uncover how and what they thought as they read, and to want to compare their thoughts and thinking processes with those of their friends?

Over the years, we have found that most adults have the same fascination with the usually hidden inner workings of their own minds and the minds of others.

Thinking About Thinking

In the previous chapter, we describe an activity in which teachers model think­ ing aloud as they try to read texts that students bring into class to "stump" them. These are texts the students read comfortably in their lives outside of school, such as computer manuals or song lyrics. In addition to showing stu­ dents that reading competence is not an absolute state (which their teacher enjoys and they do not, for example), the activity introduces students to a par­ ticular kind of metacognitive conversation, the Think Aloud.

Teachers often follow up this initial exposure to thinking about thinking by involving students in a Think Aloud experience that does not involve reading at all, one that allows students to focus almost entirely on metacognition. Such tasks with lower cognitive demands tend to put students at ease with sharing their thinking. (Box 4.2 presents an example of how to introduce students to thinking aloud.) Teachers have invented many other examples appropriate for their contexts and content, including having students think aloud while observing a science experiment.

Purpose

To give all members of a class a low-risk opportunity to practice thinking aloud and to see how available their thinking is to them, model and then have partners take turns describing their thinking as they engage in a nonthreatening cognitive task such as the one described here.

Procedure

• Model thinking aloud metacognitively during the pipe cleaner task that follows (or another of your devising), and have a partner make notes on what you say.
• Display these notes for all to see and ask students to identify and explain examples in the notes that demonstrate metacognition.
• Give each student four or five pipe cleaners and a piece of paper. Assign partners.
• Instruct students that one partner will create a pipe-cleaner creature that can stand on two feet; the other partner will observe and record the creature creator's thinking aloud. Encourage students to be inventive with the pipe cleaners. Set a time limit of two or three minutes.
• Some ideas for the creature creator to think aloud about
  • What do I predict will be tricky about creating a creature that won't fall over?
  • What do I want my creature to look like and why?
  • What am I thinking and feeling about each step of joining and shaping the pipe cleaners?
  • What am I going to do next and why?
• Have the partners trade roles.
• Ask the partners to choose one or two comments from their combined notes to share with the class.
• Lead a class discussion focusing on metacognitive elements of the comments.

Students also respond with interest when asked to imagine a scenario in which their thoughts are a comment to themselves on what they are doing or thinking at the time. For example, students might imagine an internal metacog­ nitive conversation when they are pitching to a strong batter in a high-stakes game, when they're stuck on mass transit and notice an attractive stranger, when they are on the phone with someone but want to end the call, or when they need to study but are upset by a friend's behavior earlier in the day. Thinking about such scenarios, talking about them with others, or even acting them out makes it clear to students that they can tune into their internal thought processes, which means they can also work to control them. Having students describe these kinds of scenarios using cartoon thought bubbles with metacognitive conversation in the bubbles is a graphic way for students to get in touch with this perhaps strange concept of thinking about their thinking.

Once students have a sense of metacognition and their ability to think about their thinking, they can benefit from a class discussion of the Student Learning Goals for Making Thinking Visible (see the Assessment Appendix). Students should understand that they will be making their thinking visible to themselves and others by monitoring and repairing their reading comprehension and by means of internal and external conversation and writing.