Before we jump into the first stage of our framework, let's examine a little theory. What is thinking? In King Midas and the Golden Touch, published by Dominie Press, the character Dionysus disappears in a bolt of lightning. As we read the passage aloud, one of our third graders whispered, "POOF!" When we called her attention to it, she responded, "I did?!"
This particular student was not aware of the "brain-talk" going on inside her head. We cannot expect her to analyze text without understanding that she has to interact with the information authors provide.
Cognition and Metacognition
Research tells us that one of the most essential skills we can teach our English language learners is how to engage in metacognition. According to researcher, author, and professor Neil J. Anderson, "Understanding and controlling cognitive processes may be one of the most essential
skills that classroom teachers can help second language learners develop."
In order to understand and control cognitive processes, students need to first have an awareness that they are, in fact, thinking. Metacognitive processes paired with cognitive ones make this happen. By combining cognitive and metacognitive strategies that honor what language learnersalready know how to do, we can engage them immediately in grade-level reading activities. By doing so, we mayprevent their literacy development from lagging behind that of their peers.
Cognition is defined as the mental act or process by which knowledge is acquired. Readers can achieve cognition by utilizing comprehension strategies, such as making connections, questioning, visualizing, predicting, inferring, summarizing, determining importance, synthesizing and critiquing.
Metacognition is defined as the knowledge and regulation of cognition. Readers using metacognition choose which strategies to use and when to use them depending on what they are reading and for what purpose. Effective readers use the right strategies at the right time; moreover, they utilize them flexibly between reading events in order to boost cognition.
Fountas & Pinnell tell us that "Each reader builds a system for processing text, a network of strategic activities for reading increasingly challenging texts. This 'in the head' system is unique for each student."
In other words, it's personal. Readers with different levels of language acquisition, diverse background knowledge, and a range of literacy experiences approach and process texts differently. For this reason, a one size fits all approach -teaching a specific strategy and practicing that one strategy- may not be the most effective model. Where, then, do we start?
Listening to Brain-Talk
Teaching language learners to use metacognitive strategies, or to "think about their thinking", is a manageable way to start them on the path to becoming more active readers and thinkers. Whether he was meaning to or not, Terry Pratchett, the author of A Hat Full of Sky from the Discworld fantasy series, defined metacognition beautifully as Second and Third Thoughts:
The third grader reading King Midas was not, as Terry might say, listening to her Second Thoughts. Her Third Thoughts, however, were active without her knowledge. In many cases, we need to activate a schema for thinking, or an awareness of thinking. We activate schema across the content areas in order to prepare students for learning experiences. We do this by drawing on prior knowledge and providing necessary information to bridge familiar and unfamiliar knowledge. To encourage metacognition, we need to view thinking as a sort of content area as well. It also needs to be activated and developed. Our students come to us with valuable life experiences and understandings. Their brains are full of information. Helping students understand what is there is the first step in becoming an efficient reader. When we show students how to tune in to their Second and Third Thoughts, we can get a glimpse of the processes and understandings that each student brings to the table. Then we can provide the appropriate and unique scaffolds that will build language and literacy.
Building a foundational understanding of metacognition is crucial for comprehension and establishing or strengthening the relationship between the text, the author, and the reader. In our next post, Modeling: Thinking Aloud, we will explore how teachers can effectively scaffold this work.
When our children were little they'd lie next to us in their beds listening to story after story, fighting the urge to fall asleep. One of their favorite books was Good Night, Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann. In the book, the zookeeper says, "Good night" to each and every animal in the zoo before going home at the end of his workday. Little does he know that Gorilla had stolen his keys and unlocked each cage as he tiptoed behind him.
Although the text is simple and repetitive ("Good night, elephant...Good night, lion...") the zookeeper's kind words and the smiles on the animals' faces as they creep along behind him inspired plenty of discussion: "The gorilla is sneaky." "The animals are cold and do not like sleeping outside." And our favorite: "They love the zookeeper and want to go home with him." We don't know for sure what Rathmann intended, but in our warm safe place we made our own interpretations and taught our children how to analyze text. As teachers of language learners we believe we can create a similar environment in our classrooms through Close Reading, especially for those students who may not have had comparable reading experiences. Widely used in classrooms to support reading comprehension, Close Reading is a process that involves a critical analysis of the content and structure of a text. A close reader keeps one eye on the overall meaning of a text and the other on the vocabulary, syntax, text patterns and features used by authors to deliver their message to their audience.
Although Close Reading is a valuable tool to help students develop comprehension, it may be difficult for some language learners to utilize effectively. Comprehension resources (books such as Strategies That Work, by Harvey and Goudvis or Mosaic of Thought, by Keene and Zimmerman) provide us excellent frameworks with which to teach strategies to students. Many of our language learners, however, may have linguistic, vocabulary or cultural knowledge gaps that limit them from fully understanding how to put those strategies into play. A traditional literacy lesson might begin with teachers naming and modeling a comprehension strategy: "Today you will learn how to make connections between the characters and events in the story to events that have happened in your own lives." Following the demonstration, students would be tasked to read and search for connections between themselves and the text. As we know from experience, chances of performing with a high level of success on this assignment is out of reach for many learners. More importantly, by limiting comprehension to just one strategy, we may be stifling the thinking of these learners. We'd like to offer a framework that fosters deep thinking with even the lowest proficiency students through a scaffolded Close Reading approach. We do this by "flipping the script" for how we teach comprehension strategies to language learners. First, we identify the strategies our students already demonstrate. Then, we use explicit language to help them define and expand their understanding each and every time they read.
The framework consists of two stages of instruction blending whole group with small group/conferring settings. The first stage (seen below in purple) begins with building an awareness of thinking. We like to think of this stage as "lighting the fire" and "fanning the flame". We accomplish this through a series of very focused, interactive read aloud lessons. During these experiences, the teacher models her thinking while concurrently observing students' reactions to the text.These personal reactions to text, which are oftentimes facial expressions, gestures, or even sound effects, are celebrated and affirmed with student-friendly annotations. After this modeling, many students are ready to try this work independently in their own books. In the next stage of instruction (seen below in the green), we revisit annotations in a small group or one-on-one setting. We are essentially trying to answer the question, "What were you thinking here?" Through engaging talk, we get a glimpse of the processes that are occurring inside students' brains. At this point, we name and define the strategies at work using academic language. Finally, we create opportunities to refine and expand this thinking at deeper levels. These procedures and scaffolds are intended to enhance students’ comprehension by calling their attention to their personal reactions to text and the comprehension strategies they ALREADY use.
In this six part blog series, we will look more closely at each of these steps. We'll explore the theory, tools, and methods that develop deep thinkers and readers at EVERY language level. We'll outline instructional sequences that you can implement immediately, share real-life examples that have worked for us, and walk you through the scaffolding necessary to engage EVERY learner. Don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list to get these upcoming posts delivered right to your inbox! Part 2: Building an Awareness of Thinking Part 3: Modeling: Thinking Aloud for ELLs Part 4: Observing and Affirming Student Thinking Part 5: Naming and Defining Strategies Part 6: Assessing and Expanding Strategy Work
