Four Levels of Metacognition

  1. Tacit learners/readers

lack awareness of how they think when they read.

  1. Aware learners/readers

realize when meaning has broken down or confusion has set in, but

may not have sufficient strategies for fixing the strategy.

  1. Strategic learners/readers

use thinking and comprehension strategies to enhance understanding and acquire knowledge, and

monitor and repair meaning when it is disrupted.

  1. Reflective learners/readers

are strategic about their thinking,

are able to apply strategies flexibly depending on their goals or purposes for reading, and

"reflect on their thinking and ponder and revise their use of strategies." (Perkins and Swartz 1992)

Strategies Used by Proficient Readers

Making connections between prior knowledge and the text

Readers pay more attention when they relate to the text. Readers naturally bring their prior knowledge and experience to reading, but they comprehend better when they think about the connections they make between the text, their lives, and the larger world.

Asking Questions

Questioning is the strategy that keeps readers engaged. When readers ask questions, they clarify understanding and forge ahead to make meaning. Asking questions is at the heart of thoughtful reading.

Visualizing

Active readers create visual images in their minds based on the words they read in text. The pictures they create enhance understanding.

Drawing inferences

Inferring is at the intersection of taking what is known, garnering clues from the text, and thinking ahead to make a judgment, discern a theme, or speculate about what is to come.

Determining important ideas

Thoughtful readers grasp essential ideas and important information when reading. Readers must differentiate between less important ideas and key ideas that are central to the meaning of text.

Synthesizing information

Synthesizing involves combining new information with existing knowledge to form an original idea or interpretation. Reviewing, sorting and sifting important information can lead to new insights that change the way readers think.

Repairing understanding

If confusion disrupts meaning, readers need to stop and clarify their understanding. Readers may use a variety of strategies to "fix up" comprehension when meaning goes awry.

3 Types of Connections

  1. Text-to-Self

Connections that readers make between the text and their own past experiences or background knowledge

  1. Text-to-Text

Connections that readers make between the text they are reading and another text, including books, poems, scripts, songs, essays, or articles – anything that is written

  1. Text-to-World

Connections that readers make between the text and the bigger issues, events, or concerns of society and the world at large

Gradual Release of Responsibility

TEACHER MODELINGI do it.

The teacher explains the strategy.

The teacher demonstrates how to apply the strategy successfully.

The teacher thinks aloud to model the mental processes and strategies she uses when she reads.

GUIDED PRACTICEWe do it.

After explicitly modeling the strategy, the teacher gradually gives the student more responsibility for task completion.

The teacher and students practice the strategy together.

The teacher scaffolds the students' attempts and supports student thinking, giving feedback during individual conferences and during classroom discussions.

Students share their thinking processes with each other during paired reading and small- and large-group discussions.

INDEPENDENT PRACTICEYou do it.

After working with the teacher and with other students, the students try to apply the strategy on their own.

The students receive regular feedback from the teacher and other students.

APPLICATION OF THE STRATEGY IN REAL READING SITUATIONS

Students apply a clearly understood strategy to a new genre or format.

Students demonstrate the effective use of a strategy in more difficult text.

Based on research by Fielding and Pearson (1994 "Reading Comprehension: What Works" Educational Leadership 51,5: 62-67.

from Strategies that Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis

© ge 1 of 6

5 Key Strategies for Proficient Readers

Strategy and Characteristics / CARS Pages
  1. Readers ask QUESTIONSto
construct meaning,
enhance understanding,
find answers,
solve problems,
find specific information,
acquire a body of information,
discover new information,
propel research efforts, and
clarify confusion. / p. 13-39 – Vocabulary Strategies
p. 51-52 – RAPT Notes
p. 62-64 – Homework Partners
p. 99-100 – SQ3R and HEART
p. 102 – FIRES
p. 151-156 – Questioning Strategies
  1. Visualizing
allows readers to create mental images from words in the text,
enhances meaning with mental imagery,
links past experience to the words and ideas in the text,
enables readers to place themselves in the story,
strengthens a reader's relationship to text,
stimulates imaginative thinking,
heightens engagement with text, and
brings joy to reading. / p. 11-14 – KWL
p. 55 – HUG
p. 56-58 – Mapping
p. 69-97 – Graphic Organizers
  1. When readers MAKE INFERENCES, they
draw conclusions based on clues in the text,
make predictions before and during reading,
discover underlying themes,
use implicit information from the text to create meaning during and after reading, and
use the picture and other graphics to help gain meaning. / p. 51-52 – RAPT Notes
p. 69-97 – Graphic Organizers
p. 215 – Exit Slip Questionnaire
Strategy and Characteristics / CARS pages
  1. Determining Importance depends on whether the purpose is to
remember important information,
learn new information and build background knowledge,
distinguish what's important from what's interesting,
discern a theme, opinion, or perspective,
answer a specific question, or
determine whether the author's message is intended to inform, persuade, or entertain. / p. 39-40 – Establishing Purpose
p. 68 – Topic Sentence Pyramid
p. 101-109 – Patterns of Organization
p. 69-97 – Task Specific Graphic Organizers
  1. When readers SYNTHESIZE INFORMATION, they
stop and collect their thoughts before reading on,
sift important ideas from less important ideas,
summarize the information by briefly identifying the main points,
combine the main points into a larger concept or bigger idea,
make generalizations about the information they read,
make judgments about the information they read, and
personalize their reading by integrating new information with existing knowledge to form a new idea, opinion, or perspective. / p. 51-52 – RAPT Notes
p. 46-49 – SKRAWL Notes
p. 65-67 – Writing Summaries
p. 144-45 – Graded Discussion
p. 158 – PAL BEG Questions
p. 192-93 – PAL BEG Graphic Organizer
p. 211-214 – RAFT Writing

from Strategies that Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis

© ge 1 of 6