Imagine that you are caring for a three year old – let’s say
a three year old girl who loves puzzles. She wants to do a puzzle with you. OK,
she shows you the shelf where the puzzles are, you bring one down, and then the
two of you sit down to work on the puzzle. What happens next?
Do you evaluate the pieces, figure out the picture, and then
put all the pieces together yourself? No! (or at least I hope not) Most likely,
you will pick up a piece, turn it this way and that, place it against other
pieces, trying, and failing to put it together. You might even say something,
like, “No, this doesn’t fit here. It’s too big. Hmm, this looks like a dog’s
nose – can I see any other pieces that look like a dog’s nose?”.
What did you just do?
What did you just model for the girl? What were you trying to show her?
Maybe that problem solving doesn’t happen easily and
automatically. That you have some tricks up your sleeve for figuring out the
puzzle. That you make mistakes, that you ask yourself questions, that you keep
trying. Maybe your next step is to ask the girl if she can see anything that
might fit with your piece – you invite collaboration.
For me, traditional approaches to reading comprehension,
wherein instructors explain difficult texts to students, are akin to doing the
whole puzzle on your own. The Reading Apprenticeship Framework gives structure
to practices that I believe we instinctively use when interacting with novices.
Moreover, it legitimizes those socio-cultural practices that we use to support
learning in out of school environments by inviting them into our disciplinary
classrooms.
I truly believe that the above scenario – modelling our
thinking for a young child that is working on a puzzle – is probably familiar
to many of us. But somehow that same instructional strategy oftentimes doesn’t
find its way into classrooms. Somehow, our teachers have kept their inner
thinking voice, well, inner. Maybe by the time that we are adults, we’ve heard
it so much that we don’t even realize we’re hearing it. I know that I sure was
tracking my inner voice, my reading guide, while working on these articles, and
sometimes it seemed pretty quiet…
So what is metacognitive conversation? Let’s find out:
Ok, maybe not exactly, but I loved Shoenbach, Greenleaf,
& Murphy’s suggestion to use an everyday activity (such as the pipe cleaner
figure) to help students (and teachers!) notice the existing metacognitive conversations that infiltrate their daily existence. This is an excellent extension of
inviting students’ out of school knowledge and abilities into the classroom.
This framework elaborates on activities that I currently
utilize in my classroom – though frankly it is a struggle. It is fascinating
that my students somehow seem to think that learning strategies that they have
developed in other classes must not be appropriate in a foreign language
classroom. When I ask them what their English teacher said about how to
effectively read – they almost all come up with ANNOTATE… (long pause)…. Oh, we
should annotate these readings?!
I am anxious to continue reading on – I am thinking about
ways to adapt this framework for use in my classroom. Reminding students to
annotate obviously isn’t the end of the conversation. I was inspired by some of
the sentence starters in the metacognitive bookmark – I think that I can translate
those in Italian to help students keep their bookclub discussions in Italian –
I also really appreciated the idea of providing more structure and specific
roles to students, particularly while they are still getting adjusted to
metacognitive discussions about readings.
Any one else have ideas on how they can envision these
activities unfolding in their classrooms? Especially taking into account the
needs of our emerging bilingual students who may find think alouds anxiety
inducing and beyond their linguistic reach?
Ciao,
Elizabeth
Hello Elizabeth.
ReplyDeleteI think it is really cool how you are teaching Italian, and I believe it is important to note that Shoenbach, Greenleaf, and Murphy (2012) state that "Routine metacognitive conversation supports students, including English learners and students with learning differences, to develop greater proficiency in all four of the language domains: reading, writing, speaking, and listening" (26). I think that with metacognitive conversation, comes self refelection, and this is important in language development, moreso when speaking the language, as certain words may throw the language learner off. In this case, the speaker/learner has failed to pronounce a word, and the way I see the classroom and student participation is that failure is inevitable no matter the magnitude, but rather than feeling sorry for oneself, one should reflect on the experience. Think about what went wrong, and see how one can improve. Learning a language requires immense brain power, and so creating that safe environment is pretty vital as well. I do not know what you do in your own classroom, but I have been in a Spanish course where only talking Spanish is permitted. If you speak any English, you have to give a one minute presentation on a topic the teacher and students agree upon on Friday. I think this was very effective because despite the levels everyone was in, it created that safe, "no judging" environment, and supported the effort in speaking Spanish.
Now, to implement this in my classroom, I would say is rather easy, and perhaps even universal among all classrooms. So, with me aspiring to be a math teacher, again, failure is inevitable because math is just difficult. If there is a problem or a set of problems that a bunch of students got wrong on a homework assignment, quiz, or exam, then it is worth going over. In that case, I would go over the problem and describe by thinking process while I solve the problem. Putting up a key or solutions seems less effective to me because of the flaws it may have; unclear writing, unclear explanation in a step, student may have lingering questions outside of the classroom, etc. It is best to be present in students's state of confusion so the problem can be resolved more effeciently, and the students can compare their thinking to my thinking, and see where they went wrong.
I was going to use this quote from the text! Anyways, I think what you are saying is extremely important, but as I stated on the last post it is important to not take it too far, especially in a math class. In my MTHT 400 class, we discuss how helpful activities like that are, but it is important that as a teacher we do not go too far over students head.-Kiley
DeleteHi Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the puzzle metaphor. It really helped cement some ideas from the reading. For anyone who hasn't spent a lot of time caring for babies: you're supposed to be constantly talking out loud about every little thing that you're doing. I had always thought the benefit of this was just to socialize them to your voice and language, but now I realize that it's a form of modeling! In one of the readings, a teacher was describing how difficult it was for her to get in the mindset of modeling her reading aloud. Maybe a good place for us to start practicing that is in our everyday lives, not just when reading. In the next few days, I'll try to have a conversation in my head with an imaginary student, describing every thing that I'm doing and why. It might be a fun experiment!
Thanks for the comment Robin. I like your experiment idea - keep us posted!
DeleteHey Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI think you puzzle metaphor is spot-on and something that we need to keep in mind as teachers when presenting students a reading and facilitating its comprehension. We are (or will be) teachers. We know the content. Our students might not, and it is our job, in its most basic sense, to teach students! So, while comprehending a reading might be second-nature to us, we cannot assume this to be the case for our students. For instance, I plan on becoming a history teacher. If I were to present my students with an article describing the Algerian War for Independence, it would be easy for me to understand the article because, not only did I choose and read the article already, I'd have already known the context of the Algerian War because of my prior knowledge. I know the article relates to the French paratrooper and the FLN in Algeria, all within the context of post-WWII colonialism. Students might not know this context and bigger-picture ideas, so it would be beneficial to preface the reading with this information and perhaps even read the article with the students and thinking out-loud while I read it, and writing these thoughts down on the board. I think this practice would be helpful in breaking down complex texts into more manageable units of information, and also help students who might struggle to comprehend the reading on their own. It can also help students who identify as auditory or visual learners. In any case, this practice is far better than just giving the students the reading and expecting them to comprehend it or, sticking with your analogy, throwing the puzzle at them and making them do all the work by themselves. Sure, some students might be able to comprehend the text individually, but not all students will. It's our job as teachers to present material in a way that gives all students a fair and appropriate chance to learn, not just students who can "play the game" or are already academically successful.
I think that you make a great point about using metacognitive strategy teaching as a way to level the playing field a bit. Maybe our "struggling" readers have not had the opportunity to witness metacognitive modelling (even when working on puzzles, for instance...) in out of school settings. Our students shouldn't have to guess at the best way to approach learning!
DeleteHey Elizabeth, thank you for your sharing. I like your puzzle metaphor. It sounds really interesting. I agree with your idea, when educators teach just like play puzzle games with students. We guide them to think, to learn, to try, and give them questions to think then they find out how to solve these kind of problems. They have a concept map in their mind and then they try their best to let these small pieces into a large one. Finally , a map has been build up and they learned how to do it. I also appreciated Shoenbach, Greenleaf, & Murphy’s suggestion to use an everyday activity such as the pipe cleaner figure to help students learn and to help teachers teach. I think when this come into practice it will be interesting and workable in education.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your puzzle metaphor,Elizabeth.Actually I was a little confused before saw your metaphor.I really understand the reading now.And through your analyzing,I start to think what should I do as a teacher.I remembered that my math teacher in high school always tell us his inner thinking and let the inner thinking to help us to do the same thing.I really love math when I was in high school and I was good at it.I think I understand why now.As a future English teacher that I want to be.Your thought really inspired me to talk about my inner thinking with students and help them to do the same thing so that they can knowledge more by themselves even without my help.I think that the student have more potential than I thought before.Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Na, and for sharing your experience with your math teacher. It is really cool that these readings helped you identify what it was about your math teacher that made him such an effective teacher.
DeleteThat was an amazing analogy to begin with! Thanks so much for sharing that with us!
ReplyDeleteLooking back at the teachers I've had over the years, it's funny how a majority of them all taught in that teacher-centered fashion. I think that instead of getting to know your students and understand where they're at individually, some teachers may generalize the students and assume they don't know much so they then have to spoon-feed it to the students. I think this is one of the places where that "I show you how to do the puzzle" fits just right. But allowing for open-ended questions, inquiry, discussions, group work, giving the students the tools they need to find the answers themselves and helping them out when they're stuck is a ton better. It builds their critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, and lets them take charge of their learning. If we constantly share our inner thinking with our students, it would help them better understand our train of thoughts and can help them once they do it on their own. Making this a habit as a teacher will not only help your understanding of what you're doing, but it'll help them too, and that's what it's all about, isn't it?
Thank you for your comment Belinda - I really like that you point out that our goal should be to create independent learners - it's like the proverb of giving a man a fish, or teaching a man to fish
DeleteHi Elizabeth, I am teaching an ESL class for adult Spanish speakers and hav'nt yet translated any of the strategies into classroom practice besides the social dimension i.e. developing a safe space.
ReplyDeleteI find the notion of reading as problem solving particularly apt. Scheonbach et.al (2014) refer to the process of reading comprehension as an active process which is mediated by past experiences "populated by a rich mix of voices and views" as well as colored by experiences associated with language usage and words. The process of meaning making (semiotics) for all language learners is a unique one where each learner brings their personal (micro) and social (macro) interactions with the language to the classroom (Horberger, 2013). "Recognition of context as an important factor in all aspects of language use dates back at least to the 1960s and the beginnings of sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and the ethnography of communication" (Horberger, 2013, p. 152). So the social dimension of developing a reading apprenticeship classroom seems particularly important. My struggle is that I don't speak Spanish and so developing language mediation in a classroom full of beginning Spanish speakers presents a challenge that I am constantly thinking about. However there was one article that I read that was a really informative on strategies on what not to do in dual language classrooms, which I thought might be helpful to you, since it focused on a case study and highlighted many of the practices that are encapsulated by the notion of 'translanguaging' but demonstrated how the same practices could be successful or not depending on the contexts within which they were applied (Allard, 2017).
Allard, E. C. (2017). Reexamining teacher translanguaging: An ecological perspective. Bilingual Research Journal, 40(2), 116-130. 13.5
Hornberger, N. H. (2013). Biliteracy continua Framing language and literacies: Socially situted views and perspectives (pp. 149-168). New York: Routledge. (14.5)
Thanks for the comment Subul, and for the article - I will check it out. It is constantly a struggle trying to support students that are attempting to express complex ideas in a new language - i'm eager to see what Allard found
DeleteI really liked your example of the puzzle. I think it perfectly exemplifies the situations we often put students in. I have felt like that child in some of my classes, especially those that I typically struggle in, as teachers did not provide the proper context for much of the readings. When doing readings for science specifically, I would often get confused at the terms I knew little about. They usually did not have a huge impact on the actual meaning of the text, but in this lack of understanding it made further misunderstandings occur on a larger scale. In my classroom, I would be sure to provide this context before students read. Students must understand certain topics before learning others but this learning can not occur if students do not understand and have prior knowledge.
ReplyDeleteMaking your own thinking available to others seems like a powerful tool to help students along. I have to admit that I don't do that as often as I should with my own child (he is 2), but your analogy of the puzzle really hit home since I put a puzzle together with him today. While I still helped him, trying to scaffold his efforts, I didn't connect the metacognition writings of explaining how I figure out a puzzle piece. I definitely will try to incorporate that approach with my own students and now with my own children as well.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Joseph - I'm happy that this resonated with you!
ReplyDeleteIt's so awesome that you are teaching Italian, and that you are going to be implementing the sentence starters in your classroom. I think it is important for students to see our thinking precess as teachers. So they know that, we mess up too, maybe that'll help with confidence. But to implement this in my classroom I would go over answers to worksheets/homework step by step on the board in front of the students, to make sure they really understand. I think just giving them the answer does not help or it just makes the students more confused.
ReplyDeleteThe example of puzzles as an example of reading comprehension which kinda went a little over my head but it makes a great summary to the complex measurement of understanding that is described in the reading. The personal observation and planning to put into practice the tactics to engage students is an admirable trait. Knowing that a good portion of the reading to my perspective seemed to encourage more curiosity of thought and connection. It seems hands on practice would be more ideal but I be curious if a well structured lecture can be as effective.
ReplyDeleteHi Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI loved your puzzle metaphor! It is a reminder that as educators we should always do a thought process, and it is important that we keep that in mind. I also appreciated Greenleaf suggestion about the piper cleaner strategy to help not only the students but the educatiors to help enrich the learning. One way I would implement this learning in my classroom is by going over my thought process and how to get to the answer instead of just giving them the answers. Worksheets that have follow up questions, can help with their thought process too!