PLE #7 Ch 8

To teach my students metacognition skills in the classroom, it is important to model effectively these skills. For instance, in Reading class, I can talk to my students about how it is impossible to remember every little detail in a story--our brains cannot hold on to that much information at once. Because of this, it is important to pick out the main ideas of passages. This is something that will take practice, so for the first time we do this, a student will read a page and we will stop as a class and discuss the main idea of that page. I will write on the board what the students think the main idea is. We will continue to do this until the passage is finished. The students will be able to learn the process of picking out of the main ideas and will see how it is easier to remember what you read when you pick out the key concepts.

It is also important for students to be able to stop when they are reading and ask themselves if they understood what they just read. It is so easy to read something and not know what you read. Students need to be able to realize that this can happen quite often, and that by stopping periodically and asking questions can help you stay on track. To teach this, I will model this practice while we read together as a class. I will stop after I read something and say out loud, "Let me check to make sure I understand what I just read." This way, students can see what a comprehension check looks like and will learn the importance of it.

Problem solving skills are especially important in the classroom. If students do not know how to go about solving a problem, they will not be able to succeed. An important problem solving skill is writing down important information needed to solve the problem and possible solutions/approaches to the problem. For example, if a student is solving a math word problem, he/she needs to write down all the elements of the problem that will be needed to solve it. If the problem says something like, "Molly has $1.00. A candy bar is $.20 and a tootsie roll pop is $.30. How many of each piece of candy can Molly buy? Is the more than one option?" The student needs to write down the total amount Molly has to spend, the amount of each piece of candy, and the options. In the beginning, I can give them fill in the blanks for this so they have some structure, but by the end of the unit the students should be able to do this on their own. This will teach them organization when dealing with problems with more than one answer and will let them see their thinking process.

These Problem Solving Skills can be beneficial to both you and to your students.