Definition:
Metacognitive
strategies assist students in concentrating their attention, understanding
content, integrating new information with existing knowledge and encoding and
storing this information in a way that will facilitate memory and retrieval.
Metacognitive skills are taught through direct instruction and teacher modeling
of the strategies. Students must also have ample opportunities to practice the
strategies in order to internalize them.
Strategies may include the students’ use of mnemonics, self-questioning,
and self-monitoring.
When:
Metacognitive
strategies can be directly taught and modeled by the teacher at any time
Resources:
http://mdk12.org/practices/good_instruction/projectbetter/thinkingskills/ts-48-52.html
http://snow.utoronto.ca/Learn2/resources/metalinks.html
http://calvin.stemnet.nf.cal~dfurey/metacog/table3.html
http://gwis.circ.gwu.edul~tip/strategy.html
Borkowski, J. G. (1992). Metacognitive
theory: A framework for teaching literacy, writing, and math skills. Journal
of Learning Disabilities, 25, 253-257.
Examples:
Two types of Metacognitive strategies are most commonly taught: mnemonics and self-questioning/self-monitoring strategies.
“thirty
days hath September”…
HOMES
to help recall the Great Lakes
Self-Questioning/Self-Monitoring:
Self-questioning
strategies are used by students to: engage their prior knowledge of the topic;
ensure that students are actively processing the information they read;
increase awareness of their thinking processes and their level of
understanding; and, to help students monitor their progress in the reading and
writing task. For example, to engage prior knowledge, the student might ask
himself/herself: “Have I previously read about this topic?”