Metacognition
Tanny McGregor defines meta cognition is “thinking about thinking.” This is a great opening lesson, not just to reading workshop but to the instructional work we are setting out to accomplish during the entire year.
Reading Salad
For this lesson, I tell students they get to be the teachers and I will be the only student. I tell them I will read a page from one of my books for them, and then they get to give me a grade and tell me how good or bad of a reader I am. I choose a thick chapter book and read just one page.
At the end, students all chime in with their comments:
I tell them while I was reading, even though it sounded really good, I wasn't really thinking about what I was reading. I was actually thinking about what time lunch started, what time my favorite TV show will come on tonight, and how I can’t wait for Christmas. I admit to them I was actually doing fake reading. The words were coming out of my mouth, but my mind was not focused on the story. I ask the students if any have been guilty of this fake reading before and most kids raises their hands.
Then I tell them about real reading.
Real reading is when the reader thinks about what he or she is reading. It’s like a salad – a mixture of thinking and reading. I model real reading with a book – this year I read The Lemonade Club by Patricia Polacco. This is one of my favorite books by Polacco – it is about a young girl with cancer and her charming relationship with her teacher.
Reading Salad
For this lesson, I tell students they get to be the teachers and I will be the only student. I tell them I will read a page from one of my books for them, and then they get to give me a grade and tell me how good or bad of a reader I am. I choose a thick chapter book and read just one page.
At the end, students all chime in with their comments:
- I am a great reader.
- I can read very fast.
- I read really long words.
- I didn't mess up.
I tell them while I was reading, even though it sounded really good, I wasn't really thinking about what I was reading. I was actually thinking about what time lunch started, what time my favorite TV show will come on tonight, and how I can’t wait for Christmas. I admit to them I was actually doing fake reading. The words were coming out of my mouth, but my mind was not focused on the story. I ask the students if any have been guilty of this fake reading before and most kids raises their hands.
Then I tell them about real reading.
Real reading is when the reader thinks about what he or she is reading. It’s like a salad – a mixture of thinking and reading. I model real reading with a book – this year I read The Lemonade Club by Patricia Polacco. This is one of my favorite books by Polacco – it is about a young girl with cancer and her charming relationship with her teacher.
![Picture](/uploads/2/0/1/8/20185581/6317735.gif?170)
Each time I read a page, I put a text card into the salad bowl. Each time I thought about what I read (I thought aloud), I put a thinking card into the salad bowl.
After reading 3-4 pages, we counted the number of text and thinking cards in the bowl. Of course, there were more thinking cards in the bowl. I asked students why they thought this happened – more thinking cards than text. I was happy to hear some of them saying when you do real reading, you think way more than you read or for every page you read you should have a lot of thoughts to go with it.
The next day, the students made their own salads. We use green bits of paper for thinking and red bits of paper for text. I read another five or six pages in The Lemonade Club and students glued in text and thinking cards as I read and thought aloud. I also had students offer their own thoughts.
The next day, the students made their own salads. We use green bits of paper for thinking and red bits of paper for text. I read another five or six pages in The Lemonade Club and students glued in text and thinking cards as I read and thought aloud. I also had students offer their own thoughts.
![Picture](/uploads/2/0/1/8/20185581/6288673.jpg?374)
In the end, the reading salad should be mostly green with some red. Look for students to realize that during real reading, we should be thinking way more than just reading the words on the page.
Thought Bubble
I finish the rest of The Lemonade Club by allowing students to get into my brain. I made a giant thinking cloud students can wear. As I read from the text, I stop and students think for me.
Graphic Organizer
We made a graphic organizer modeled after McGregor’s poster. I added a formula to the sheet. I also have students color the graphic organizer so the text side and the thinking side blend together in the middle to make a color (yellow, blue, green in the middle or red, blue, purple in the middle).
We label the parts of the graphic organizer with “in the book,” “in my head,” and “real reading.”
Paint Chips
McGregor is a big fan of wordless books and she recommends many of Barbara Lehman’s books. For this lesson I “read” from the wordless book The Red Book by Barbara Lehman. I show the pictures and students thought about what was happening.
Thought Bubble
I finish the rest of The Lemonade Club by allowing students to get into my brain. I made a giant thinking cloud students can wear. As I read from the text, I stop and students think for me.
Graphic Organizer
We made a graphic organizer modeled after McGregor’s poster. I added a formula to the sheet. I also have students color the graphic organizer so the text side and the thinking side blend together in the middle to make a color (yellow, blue, green in the middle or red, blue, purple in the middle).
We label the parts of the graphic organizer with “in the book,” “in my head,” and “real reading.”
Paint Chips
McGregor is a big fan of wordless books and she recommends many of Barbara Lehman’s books. For this lesson I “read” from the wordless book The Red Book by Barbara Lehman. I show the pictures and students thought about what was happening.
To indicate their degree of understanding, students used paint chips. Free from Home Depot, the three color chips were perfect for three varying levels of thought:
- crystal clear
- hazy
- in a fog
- in the dark
Barbara Lehman’s other books Trainstop and Rainstorm are also great for an extra day of practice with the thought bubble or the paint chips.
![Picture](/uploads/2/0/1/8/20185581/107100_orig.jpg)
Magic 8 Ball
Another strategy I like to touch on during this unit is making predictions. Predicting is using the limited clues from the title, cover, and prologue to make a smart guess about what will happen. Predicting is also using the clues revealed as you read a text to make a smart guess about what will happen.
A good anchor for the concept of predicting is a magic 8 ball. I allow students to play around with the ball to see how it “predicts” when you ask it a question.
Lay out 10-12 books on desks and table tops. With a partner, students are to gallery walk and whisper chat about what each text will be about.
Lucky Book Orders
To start this lesson, walk students through the Making Predictions PowerPoint.
Another great activity is to have students use the paper Scholastic book orders to cut out their favorite 3-5 books. They can glue them down and then write a prediction about what may happen in the text. An extension could be to have them list the clues that led them to that prediction.
Detective’s Notebook
Play the Detective’s Notebook game @ Blue Ribbon Readers
Make and Confirm Predictions
Making predictions can lend itself to making inferences or drawing conclusions, which comes much later in the year. This is a much harder, higher order concept. At this point, the goal is to have students practice thinking about a text before reading it.
Confirming predictions is just the process of deciding whether your initial prediction was correct or not and adjusting your prediction as you read.
A great text to practice making and then confirming predictions is Enemy Pie by Derek Munson.
Another strategy I like to touch on during this unit is making predictions. Predicting is using the limited clues from the title, cover, and prologue to make a smart guess about what will happen. Predicting is also using the clues revealed as you read a text to make a smart guess about what will happen.
A good anchor for the concept of predicting is a magic 8 ball. I allow students to play around with the ball to see how it “predicts” when you ask it a question.
Lay out 10-12 books on desks and table tops. With a partner, students are to gallery walk and whisper chat about what each text will be about.
Lucky Book Orders
To start this lesson, walk students through the Making Predictions PowerPoint.
Another great activity is to have students use the paper Scholastic book orders to cut out their favorite 3-5 books. They can glue them down and then write a prediction about what may happen in the text. An extension could be to have them list the clues that led them to that prediction.
Detective’s Notebook
Play the Detective’s Notebook game @ Blue Ribbon Readers
Make and Confirm Predictions
Making predictions can lend itself to making inferences or drawing conclusions, which comes much later in the year. This is a much harder, higher order concept. At this point, the goal is to have students practice thinking about a text before reading it.
Confirming predictions is just the process of deciding whether your initial prediction was correct or not and adjusting your prediction as you read.
A great text to practice making and then confirming predictions is Enemy Pie by Derek Munson.
![Picture](/uploads/2/0/1/8/20185581/7042004.jpg?250)
Students complete a graphic organizer which has them make predictions and then write what actually happens in the text.