How to Teach Metacognitive Reading Strategies

One of the most powerful learning experiences for students is thinking about how they are learning. Metacognition, put simply, is thinking about thinking. Metacognition may increase learning outcomes. Moreover, by engaging students in the consideration of the processes and strategies that got them there, students may be more able to replicate those outcomes independently.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Reading material

1. Acquire reading materials (or other texts; as a music teacher, I have used these strategies with music, as well). You're going to want two kinds of reading materials--one to use with the kids, and one for the kids to practice with on their own. The material you'll model for the kids should be somewhat challenging--you're going to model your thinking, and you want it to be reasonable that you might use these strategies. The material for the kids should be slightly beyond what they could access without strategies, but easily accessible with the strategies, since the point right now is for them to practice.

2. Consider if you want to use any graphic aids. Graphic aids or graphic organizers can be especially helpful for more visual learners and are highly recommend. Some great sources for these: Beers, S., & Howell, L. (2003). Reading Strategies for the Content Areas. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Buehl, D. (2001). Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning (2nd ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

3. Read the material aloud to a class. You'll have to play around with how long you want your excerpt to be. If it's too long, it will be overwhelming for what you want to do with it. If it's too short, you won't have enough material to practice with.

4. After you've read through the material, go through it again, this time doing a "think aloud." As you read, verbalize the thought processes you're using. If you come across a difficult word, describe what you did to understand it. Did you use context clues? Or do you know the root of the word? If there's a long, confusing sentence, describe how you broke it down. Mention how you made a connection to something you already knew. It takes some practice to be really aware of all of the things you attend to when you're reading. As adults, we tend to take this for granted, but spell out every step you go through in comprehending the material.

5. If you're using a graphic aid or teaching the kids about note-taking while reading, model this during the think aloud. When I teach note-taking, I talk about what I'm thinking as I decide what details are important enough to write down. "Okay, if I'm only writing three paragraphs about this person, and only one of them is about his life, is his pet parrot's name one of the big things I want to include?"

6. Ask the students, "What questions do you have?" Allow at least 15 seconds wait time.

7. Give students reading material (again, not too much to start) and time in class to practice this strategy. After the students have read and completed any graphic aid you may have provided, ask them to list any strategies they used. When everyone has had a chance to finish, ask students to share any new strategies they used to understand the material. Remember that even if it is not a strategy you would use, it may be very helpful to another student in the class.

Who Can Help Sponsored

• Earn your degree from industry experts at University of Phoenix. Take the next step in your career.