Cognitive Activity: Metacognition Carol Nichols, Metropolitan State College of Denver, nicholscmscd'

1
Cognitive Activity Metacognition Carol Nichols,
Metropolitan State College of Denver,
nicholsc_at_mscd.edu

• Metacognition is the conscious control of your
  own thinking about the task you are performing
  and the monitoring of the effectiveness of your
  performance of the task.

2
Metacognition and Reading

• Effective readers have metacognitive skills.

3
Metacognition and Reading

• Ineffective readers many times are weak in one or
  more metacognitive areas. One of the best
  reasons to teach metacognitive strategies was
  brought out in a study done by Lee Swanson. In
  this study . . . Swanson found that children who
  had high metacognitive abilities performed better
  than those with low metacognitive abilities.

4
Swanson Study Results Continued

• More importantly, this difference was not
  dependent on general intelligence. Students with
  low aptitude but high metacognition performed as
  well as those with high aptitude and high
  metacognition. This means metacognition offers
  teachers a potentially powerful tool for helping
  poor readers.
• From article by Barbara S. Abromitis, Reading
  TODAY.

5
Roles of the Teacher

• Be knowledgeable about the metacognitive skills
  students should have.
• Determine weak metacognitive areas.
• Have the ability to strengthen any weak
  metacognitive areas.

6
From an article by Barbara S. Abromitis,
Metacognition-based Strategies Can Help Middle
School Readers, in Reading TODAY, International
Reading Association, 93, p. 27

• Effective teachers help their students help
  themselves, and middle-schoolers can
  significantly improve their performances in the
  language arts and the content areas when teachers
  teach them to think about their learningthat is,
  to think metacognitively.

7
What are the metacognitive areas?
8
Metacognition in reading means the reader has the
following

• Self knowledge
• Task Knowledge
• Ability to self monitor

9
Self Knowledge

• The effective reader asks
• What are my strengths as a reader?
• What are my weaknesses as a reader?
• What do I already know about this topic?
• How can I prepare my mind to receive new
  information?

10
Task Knowledge

• Before beginning the task effective readers
  determine the purpose of the task and
• determine how to best go about doing the task.
• Effective readers possess reading strategies that
  allow them to control the task.

11
Self Monitor

• Effective readers have the ability to self
  monitor.
• Effective readers have awareness of when they
  have comprehended and
• knowledge of what to do if they havent
  comprehended.
• Effective readers monitor for understanding of
  the text as they read.