The Mega Task Demand: Metacognition...Oh, We are Thinking About Thinking, I Think…

 By Heather Pfrunder, M.A.Ed.   SDC Teacher and Education Specialist

September 20, 2021

It’s a mantra in my SDC classroom where I am verbally redirecting students on how to work attentively: “looking eyes, listening ears, eyes on paper, moving pencil on paper, thinking about your work,...no, try first then I can help you”...and repeat. And repeat.  I should auto-record myself, make a playlist, and hit the numbered response.  Ew, that last thought was not so stellar. But hey, in my humanness, it snuck in there.  And if you have ever taught students with metacognition challenges maybe you, too, have winced over such a thought.  So, I must ask myself: Am I really teaching thinking about thinking?  When I started this article, I was pretty sure the answer was, “Yes!  Graphic organizers and I are friends!” I can do amazing things with BoardMaker!” [For my Gen Ed teacher friends, this is a program where you create learning tools with picture icons matched with words for visual learners]. But here’s the thing about writing, you really have to research and self-reflect.  So, I’ve come face-to-face with this large mental image of a K-W-L chart.  So let’s break it down:

What we know is that metacognition in its simplest form is simply an “awareness or analysis of one's own learning or thinking processes”  (thank you Merriam-Webster).  For students with sensory processing issues, I find that often they want to focus on their own little inner worlds to find that slice of happiness, bringing them back to the uncomfortable reality of learning challenges can feel like stopping a tsunami from the shoreline.  

What we want to know is how to make this relevant for our a-typical students. 

What I learned is:

 1.) “Assign explicit instruction that addresses not just what you are learning, but how you are learning.” 

However, applying it to a lesson for an a-typical learner, often this means a visual model, a check-list of expectations, and repeat practice. Which is great (and essential for many of our visual learners with cognitive delays), but it may not be self-reflective. Instead what we often find is cognitively passive behaviors: “I counted the dots (TouchMath) and wrote the answer, I earned my tokens (my class reward system), got my i-Pad time (SDC earned time with a favorite item - the i-Pad)…”  So often it feels like a compliance check -- not actual thinking about thinking.  Learning this way is gradual, but for our non-verbal learners visual checklists of looking between the cue and the task is not merely to complete the task, but to “regulate performance and verify accuracy” through “self-monitoring” and to “signal task completion.” (Richie, G. 2005). So to be effective metacognition tools our lists cannot just be generalities, but more specific with careful thought about the actual thought process required to learn a task.

This is one of my more general in-task directions for functional skills.  

Relevant, but not specific to meta-cognition.

2.) “They must be taught the concept and its language explicitly.”

This, I believe, is the golden ticket.  If it is connected to previous skills and taught over time

we can get students thinking about what they understood or didn’t.  Not just a simple exit ticket,

but “What did I understand?” and “What doesn’t make sense?”  

Examples of this:

• “I answered the question by finding the key words in the question and underlining my text evidence”

• “I decoded while reading”

• “I recognized story sequence”

• “I counted all”

• “I regrouped”

Yup, those “I Can…” statements attached to those state standards.  However, we explicitly reflect “I did” or “I did NOT” understand.  Now we have active participants in the meta-cognition process.

When I go back into my previous check lists, they are still pretty relevant for functional skills.  However, I am looking forward to continuing on looking at objectives and having my students exit by answering self-reflection learning questions (for that last token on their token boards).  And rather than reinvent the wheel, I am going to initially have my students reference the anchor charts at my centers to reflect on their learning. 

This is a how-to process visual, but not totally self-reflective. 

I will have to add a process to this.

This is great for setting expectations, but not specific meta-cognition.

This is much better for explicitly teaching the learning process!

This anchor chart has the thinking process and the self-reflection embedded into it.

 I am looking to really celebrate learning!  And just maybe, it will be my students saying,  “looking eyes, listening ears, eyes on paper, moving pencil on paper, thinking about my work, try it first…”

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Join me in upcoming blog posts where I put these strategies into place and share resources!

References:

Chick, N. (2013). Metacognition. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved 9/20/2021 from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/metacognition/.

Richie, G. (2005). Two Interventions that enhance the metacognition of students with disabilities: Cognitive Cue Cards and Correspondence Training.  Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ914572.pdf

Let's Talk About... Math Standards!

Let’s Talk About Math Standards!

You have your Eureka TE, your district pacing guide, and your boxes of student materials- you’re ready to teach math!  But, are you ready to meet your students where they are at mathematically? 

Unless you’ve taught consecutive grade levels in the last few years since we adopted the Common Core Standards, or really studied the mathematics progressions, you may not know exactly what your students are supposed to be coming to you with.  We assume that our curriculum starts where the previous grade levels’ curriculum left off, and it does.  But can we say the same of our students’ learning?

Each year I feel like I start teaching a math concept, and when students are staring at me with blank faces, I start questioning.  “Remember last year when you learned…”  “Wait, did you learn this last year?”  (To myself, “Were they supposed to learn this last year or am I thinking of what I taught last year?”)  How do you know what they were supposed to be taught?  Enter, Achieve the Core written by Student Achievement Partners.  They are a nonprofit group whose mission it is to help teachers implement college- and career-ready standards, including the Common Core.  They have all kinds of curriculum resources for ELA and Math, but the Coherence Map is AMAZING!

First, watch

THIS VIDEO where I will walk you through some of the great things about it!  Then visit the Achieve the Core Coherence Map HERE and explore your grade level.  Remember to bookmark it, you’ll come back again and again!

The standards boxes are helpful in many ways, but I'd like to highlight two of them.  The first is that I can see what exactly my students are supposed to learn this year, and how critical that standard is to my overall year.  Secondly, if my students are struggling with a standard, I can use my Nancy Drew sleuthing skills to trace it back and see what the underlying concepts are, and where exactly the breakdown is happening. Mystery solved!

I hope you get a chance to really explore this resource, and I hope you fall as deeply in love with it as I am!  Please check it out and leave a comment below with your thoughts.  Need help?  My email is below.  Want to see math in person? Come in for a Spotlight Visit!  I’d love to meet you. 

Mathematically yours,

Sabrina Blake