2. 21st Century Learners
All educators need to
provide their students
with opportunities to
learn a wide variety of
metacognitive
strategies so that they
become autonomous,
self-monitoring,
independent, 21st
century learners.
It is imperative
students think about
their own learning in
order to be successful
both within and outside
of the school setting.
3. What is Megacognition?
Many people
are unaware of
their own
thinking
process.
Therefore,
students need
to be
specifically
taught
strategies on
how to think
about thinking.
4. What is the role of the student?
Students need to regulate their own thinking through planning,
monitoring, evaluating, and reflecting on their learning.
They need to know when, how, and what to do in the learning
process.
Students also need knowledge of themselves.
5. Talk about a wake up call!
My Own Findings
In my Spanish 1 class of twenty-six students, only four knew what
kind of learners they are.
In that same class, only three students said that they are aware of
and use specific study strategies.
The remainder of the class believed learning only involved showing
up to class, and possessed little knowledge about learning
strategies.
The majority of the class said that if they do not understand the
material the first time it is presented, they are unsure of the steps to
take to improve their comprehension.
6. What is the role of the teacher?
Teachers need to:
• provide opportunities to practice metacognitive strategies.
• be persistent and patient because it requires time to develop these skills.
• model the strategies and scaffold when necessary.
• be aware of developmental differences among students.
7. Developmental Differences: 4 levels
Tacit Learner =
Is not aware of
their learning
Aware Learner = Knows
about some kinds of
thinking, but is not
strategic in the learning
process
Strategic Learner =
Organizes their
thinking by using
problem-solving skills
Reflective Learner =
Is strategic, reflects and revises
learning strategies when needed
8. The Language of Metacognition
In order for students to be able to internalize cognitive vocabulary,
the teacher must integrate it into daily lessons as much as
possible.
Explai
n
List
Predict
ReflectClassify
Hypothesize
Justify
9. What Are Some Useful Strategies?
Our “Metacognitive Tool
Kit”
Useful strategies in our
“Took Kit”
•Thinking Aloud
•Thinking Journals
•Thinking with Mnemonics
•Thinking Maps
•Thinking as a Reader
• Thinking with Questioning
•Thinking while Studying
10. Thinking Aloud
One of the biggest misconceptions of students is that
teachers were born able to accomplish all tasks easily.
• This is why teachers need to 1st model appropriate thinking
strategies necessary to solve problems, improve
understanding, teach how and when to implement specific
strategies, as well as share some problems they’ve
encountered along the way.
•Examples: decoding a word, analyzing text, use of
mnemonic devices, graphic organizers, etc.
11. Thinking Aloud Continued…
• Students should be provided opportunities to first work in larger
groups until they are comfortable verbalizing their thoughts.
• Teachers are then able to point out possible problems or
misunderstandings while listening to students share their ideas
aloud.
• Students need to be aware that verbalizing thoughts while reading
has been proven to lead to better comprehension and test scores.
• Effective problem solvers restate the situation, recheck progress,
and evaluate whether or not thinking is moving in an appropriate
direction.
• Thinking aloud also helps to develop self-questioning techniques
that allow students to evaluate their knowledge of the material.
12. Thinking Aloud: Classroom Snapshot
Q: How can I integrate the think aloud strategy into my lessons to
engage students’ metacognitive skills?
A: One way is to start explicitly modeling how I talk myself through various
problem-solving situations. For example, I will start off by verbalizing how I
know how to pronounce a word in Spanish correctly by using phonetic rules. I
can also use it to demonstrate how I make meaning of new vocabulary. For
instance, the verb “Pensar” means “to think” in Spanish. I remember this
because I know that the word pensive in English means to be deep in thought.
Therefore I’m using prior-knowledge with new material.
Goal: I am going to model how I use the Think Aloud strategy while reading. I
want students to start asking themselves, “Did I understand what I just read?”,
“Can I put what I just read into my own words?”, “Can I explain what I read to
someone else?”, and “Do I have any prior-knowledge I can bring to this
reading?”
13. Thinking Journals
• Journaling is an active learning tool that provides students
the opportunity to reflect and recognize how they think, and
captures their 1st response or reaction to the material.
• Students are then able to see metacognitive growth by
looking back at previous journal entries, and viewing teacher
feedback.
• This strategy allows students to become conscious of what
they learned by exploring, questioning, and connecting
prior knowledge to new material. If they can’t explain what
they have learned, then they don’t understand it well enough
yet.
14. Thinking Journals Continued…
• There are 2 formats: Structured (double entry journals or
dialogue journals) & Unstructured (free writing)
• Possible Uses:
•to record ideas from a lecture, movie, presentation, field trip, or
reading assignment
•to make predictions about stories/movies, experiments, or a
school/national/world event
•to record questions
•to summarize the main ideas of a book, movie, lecture, or
reading
•to brainstorm, or record problem-solving techniques.
* Journaling is a vehicle to organize, summarize, and verbalize
thinking
15. Thinking Journals: Classroom Snapshot
Q: How can I integrate thinking journals into my lessons to
engage students’ metacognitive skills?
A: At the beginning of the year I gave each of my Spanish III students a
journal to utilize throughout the course. In their journals I have them write
predictions in the target language as to what they think will be the
outcome before reading the short stories in our textbook. I also have
them summarize the main idea of readings or video clips. For longer
journal writings, they are to always brainstorm their thoughts prior to
starting the writing process. This way, I can read the journals and give
immediate feedback on their thoughts, use of new vocabulary, and
comprehension.
I would like to start having the students record questions they have
throughout the lessons so I can read their entry at the end of each lesson
and see what what concepts I need to review again. This would be
helpful for my students who are shy and don’t like to ask questions during
class, and therefore often don’t get any clarification.
17. Kinds of Mnemonic Devices & Examples
Acronym = Take the first letter of each important word and create a word
with it.
Example 1: In Spanish I use the acronym WEDDING to teach when
to use the subjunctive mood. Wish/will
Emotion
Denial
Doubt
Impersonal Expressions
Negation
God (hoping for something)
Example 2: To teach the difference between “Ser” and “Estar”, two verbs that both
mean “to be” I use P.L.A.C.E. (Position, Location, Condition, Emotion). If the
example fits within this acronym, then the students know it is “estar”, and not “ser”.
18. Kinds of Mnemonic Devices & Examples
Acrostic = Create a sentence using the first letter of each word
that connects to the information being learned.
Example: I used this acrostic to help my Spanish 1 students
remember the Spanish-speaking countries in Central America
Great Eagles Sore High Nonstop Catching Prey. This stands for;
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and
Panamá.
*I chose this one to model for them because our school mascot is
the eagle, so it was easy for the students to remember.
19. Kinds of Mnemonic Devices & Examples
Chaining = Take the items or terms and weave them into a story to help
remember them. Remember, the more creative, the better!
Example: This is a short story to help students remember when to
use the Imperfect past tense instead of the Preterit past tense.
María always had a bad Habit of talking too much. She would give way too
many descriptions, and it felt like hours for her to set the scene. One day, her
mother told her, “It’s time you start acting your age!” The weather is nice outside,
so stop talking to me and go outside and play. María’s feelings were hurt and she
felt a new emotion of sadness. She decided that from now on she was never
going to stop talking. No one knows when she started talking or if she stopped.
Her talking is a real action in progress!
20. Kinds of Mnemonic Devices & Examples
Keyword = Create a mental picture by associating two key items.
Example: To help students remember vocabulary words, I have my students
try and visual funny images to help them recall the word. This is an example they
came up with during our reflexive verb unit.
Lavarse = To wash
My students came up with a picture someone washing with lava to kill the germs.
(Their picture actually had red lava coming out of the shower instead of water).
21. Kinds of Mnemonic Devices & Examples
Rhymes or phrases = Create a catchy phrase or jingle to help
remember information.
Example: To help students remember demonstrative
adjectives in Spanish 2, I teach them this rhyme.
This and these have “T’s”, that and those do not.
Demonstrative Adjectives:
This = Este/Esta That = Ese/Esa
These Estos/Estas Those = Esos/Esas
22. Why Use Mnemonic Devices?
• The use of mnemonic tools help students to construct, connect, and relate their
thinking to new content.
• Mnemonic devices offer a systematic approach for organizing material, and
remember facts that have no apparent link.
• Using mnemonic devices facilitates memory because the brain does not easily
encode written information, as well as engages a student’s thought process.
• This metacognitive strategy is particularly helpful for students with learning
disabilities.
• People who use mnemonic devices learn 2 to 3 times more information than
those who don’t
•Students who use mnemonic devices outperform their peers on tests.
• The information is also easy to access at later points, because the brain has
stored it in its long-term memory.
24. Why use Thinking Maps aka Graphic
Organizers?
• Thinking Maps help students to organize their thoughts by visually
representing and depicting the relationships between facts, terms,
and ideas within a lesson because the mind arranges and stores
information in an orderly fashion.
•Students are able to show sequential order, compare and contrast,
show cause and effect, and classify information, which all call for
higher-level thinking that engages the learner.
• By using graphic organizers, students are able to distinguish between
main ideas, smaller ideas, and supporting details.
• Students can then use their graphic organizer to participate in group
discussions or put their findings into a writing.
25. How do I use Thinking Maps in my
Spanish classes?
One of my favorite kinds of thinking map is the Venn Diagram. One
example is when I had my students compare a mural by Diego River
called “El Baile en Tehuantepec” with a photograph of teenagers in
Mexico at a Quinceañera.The students had to compare and contrast
what the people in the two pictures were wearing, as well as the
setting for both. This allowed students to practice Spanish while also
using higher-level thinking skills.
I also have students use K-W-L charts for cultural lessons. For
example, my Spanish 1 students filled one out for my “Día de los
Muertos” (Day of the Dead) lesson. By filling this chart out, students
were able to clarify misconceptions they had about this holiday being
just like our Halloween. There were also able to organize their
thoughts after learning the information to be able to write an
informational essay.
26. Thinking as a Reader
“Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.”
- Edmund Burke
27. Thinking as a Reader
• Good readers self-regulate and try to make
sense of the text as they interact with it.
• Simply reading words is not reading,
students must be able to comprehend the
message the author is trying to get across.
• A good reader is able to utilize a variety of
reading strategies to aid in comprehension.
28. Thinking as a Reader
My Spanish classes are ideal for modeling reading strategies
on a regular basis at all levels of abilities.
Here are some of the concepts I teach and model for the
students before all reading assignments:
1. I first have students preview the headings, subheadings, and
look for any pictures.
2. They are then to predict what the reading will be about based off
of their findings.
3. Next, they are to think of any prior knowledge they have about
this particular topic.
4. If there are comprehension questions that accompany the text,
they should also preview these before reading so they know what
information to look for.
29. Thinking as a Reader
These are the during reading strategies I model for them:
• Good readers will always assess whether or not they
comprehended the text. If not, they go back and reread the
material at a slower pace.
• You should break reading assignments into smaller chunks. After
each segment, see if you can summarize in your own words what
you just read. If you can’t, you probably didn’t understand it well
enough and should go back and reread.
• If you are unsure of a word, try and use context clues or prior
knowledge to figure it out. If not knowing the word is interfering
with understanding, then look it up in a dictionary.
30. Thinking as a Reader
Strategies I Use In My Classroom
•In order to slow down students while reading, especially in
Spanish, I have them take turns reading aloud back and forth with
a partner.
•After each paragraph, they are to help each other summarize what
they just read. If they don’t know, they are to utilize the strategies
they learned.
•Sometimes, I also tie in thinking maps by having the students
organize the information as they go. I have found it helpful to
actually have the students do these in English rather than Spanish
because they cannot copy directly from the text without knowing
what it is saying.
•My Spanish 3 class uses journals to practice writing their
reactions, thoughts, and opinions in the target language based off
of a reading they have just completed.
32. The “Art” of Questioning
Not all questions are created equally. The ability to
create strategic questions, also known as the “art” of
questioning is not something most of us are born
with. It is learned over time with practice, and the pay
off is that it leads us toward higher-level, complex
thinking.
Valuable questions also results in self-reflection, self-
monitoring, and self-regulating.
33. What Research Has Found About
Questioning in the Classroom
• Many educators don’t vary the approach to questioning in
order to maximize student learning.
• Teachers use a great deal of instructional time asking
questions. (About 20-60 questions in a class period)
• Many of the questions asked are fact-based, lower level
questions, that don’t motivate the learners.
• Questioning has been shown to be effective before, during,
and after instruction.
34. Reflection On My Questioning Techniques
• I call on a lot of the same students everyday, and need to start
involving all students to ensure their success. The more students
answer and ask questions, the better they do.
• In my lower level Spanish classes I have been asking fact-based
questions with only one correct answer. This does not motivate
students or encourage higher-level thinking.
• Good questions must be planned in advanced and reflected on after
lessons.
• I need to provide time for the students to process the question before
calling on them, and give them appropriate feedback once they have
answered.
• I need to provide more opportunities for my students to create their
own higher-level questions.
35. Thinking While Studying
Effective Learners
need to be able to
apply
metacognitive
strategies both
within and outside
of the classroom.
36. Study Strategies I Will Explicitly Teach
The Resources I found to be most useful from the text and plan to
implement immediately include:
•The study Environment Road Map - Many of my students are unaware
of how to study. They think that simply staring at their notes or textbook is
enough. By using the Study Environment Road Map, they will be able to
be cognizant of the best study environment for them.
• My Weekly Schedule - The most common thing I hear from students is
that they would have studied, but they were too busy. By using the weekly
schedule chart, students can better manage their time and prioritize
activities.
• Study Self-Evaluation – Students are able to reflect on their study
habits by completing this form. They can evaluate whether or not they
need to try a new study strategy, as well as set goals for the following
week.
37. My Personal Experience
Before reading Encouraging
Metacognition…
I thought students came to my class
already knowing strategies to be
successful learners.
If students didn’t learn the material, they
just weren’t paying enough attention.
My responsibility was to just teach
Spanish lessons.
After reading Encouraging
Metacognition…
I realize I need to teach specific
metacognitive strategies, model them
for the students, and use them on a
daily basis.
Often students don’t know how they
learn best, are unaware of study
strategies, and don’t yet possess the
skills to plan, monitor, evaluate, and
reflect their learning.
My task is to acknowledge, cultivate,
and enhance the metacognitive
capabilities of ALL learners.
38. Summary and Reflection of Encouraging
Metacognition
• It should never be assumed that students possess the metacognitive
strategies needed to be successful independent learners within and outside
of the school setting.
• Teachers must explicitly teach, model, and scaffold metacognitive
strategies on a regular basis. This can be done easily by modeling
examples with actual content material.
• Teachers need to be aware of the type of questions they ask, and whom
they are asking. Equitable learning needs to take place. The questions
should spark student interest and lead to higher-level thinking.
• Time management, organization skills, note-taking skills, and study
strategies also need to be taught and modeled by the teacher in all content
areas.
39. Works Cited
Kolencik, Patricia Liotta, and Shelia A. Hillwig. Encouraging
Metacognition. 12. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 2011.
Print.
