Teaching Adults to Read

Engaging Students in Metacognitive Conversation

Personal Reading History

Think, Pair, Share

• How did you feel about reading when you were young?

• How would you describe yourself as a reader?

• What kinds of things do you like to read?

• What kinds of things do you have to read in life? How do you get through it?

Why are we talking about reading?

• Reading is a major part of the GED test--even for the math part, you need to be a strong reader!

Activity

Read the "What is Reading?" section of The Reading Apprenticeship Framework.

Reflecting on our own reading prepares us to help students.

When we are aware of our own reader identities, we can engage students in metacognitive conversation.

What does this mean?!

Metacognitive Conversation

Part of metacognitive conversation is making one’s thinking visible by making it audible.

Making our Thinking Visible

We are all here to help students. All of our students need to improve their reading.

Some of the secrets to being a good reader lie in our thinking. As experienced readers, we have acquired strategies that we use almost unconsciously. Our job is to unlock the secret and make our thinking visible so our students can learn new strategies to improve their own reading.

Two practices to help facilitate metacognitive conversation

1. Think Aloud

2. Talking to the Text

Four Dimensions of Classroom Life

These 4 dimensions are necessary to support reading development.

1. Social

2. Personal

3. Cognitive

4. Knowledge-Building

Social Dimension

Community building in the classroom

Recognizing the resources brought by each member

Developing a safe environment for students to be open about their learning challenges

Personal Dimension

Developing a reader identity and self awareness

Defining purposes for reading and goals for improvement

Cognitive Dimension

Developing mental processes, including problem-solving strategies

Knowledge-Building Dimension

Identifying and expanding the kinds of knowledge that readers bring to a text

Further developing knowledge by interacting with the text

Think Aloud and Talking to

the Text engage all four dimensions of classroom life.

Think-Aloud

A reader literally speaks out thoughts as they occur in interaction with a text.

Instructors strategically model Think-Aloud to help students see, hear, and practice the mental activities engaged in by good readers.

Think-AloudMichele Lesmeister, Basic Studies Faculty at Renton Tech, writes...

"I identify my own inquiries and thoughts from the text, grammatical structures, genre, the graphics, and style of writing. My thinking aloud appears as questions or observations: 'How do I understand that from the text? Where do I find out about that in the reading? ...This looks like foreshadowing; I need to see where it is going. That colon tells me a list or definition or example is coming. When I model, I methodically work my way through the passage noting everything from specialized terms, punctuation, sentence structure, any any clues like transition words to show the interplay between words and ideas."

Think-Aloud - WHY?

• Helps students focus on comprehension

• Provides practice in putting names to mental activities that help students figure out what they are thinking

• Encourages students to notice when they are confused and use others to brainstorm meanings

• Helps students notice text structures and how to navigate various genres, which builds confidence and stamina.

Talking to the Text

A problem solving approach to reading that is similar to Think Aloud.

The difference?

Talking to the Text invites readers to record their thoughts in writing and "mark up" the text.

Let's try this together...

I will do it.

We'll identify the reading strategies I use.

Then you will do it.

We'll debrief the experience.

Why is Metacognitive Conversation valuable?

Tell me your thoughts....

For Hopelink teachers and volunteers....

We can help guide students on the path to becoming stronger readers by engaging them in metacognitive conversation.

When a student gets stuck and calls one of us over for help, what can we do?