Great quesitons!!! As I read your email I began wondering: 1. When does being metacognitive about strategies impede the actual comprehension/fluency of text? I know we want our students to monitor their comprehension and use strategies to gain meaning; but, do we want students to be so metacognitive that they focus more on what their brains are doing than the text? How do we balance that? I stop and ask myself, before strategy use was spotlighted and my awareness of it was underground, am I a better reader today because my brain stops me in the middle of thought and says, "Hey, you just made an inference." or "Wow, I just made a movie in my mind!" I think not. I'm just more aware of what my brain is doing. But, I often find it frustrating to read a piece of adult fiction and be interrupted with my brain telling me the strategies I am using. Sometimes I wish it was unconsious so my brain could use that mental energy to think deeper. What do you think? Knowing it is important for students to know how to help themselves as readers how do we get them to eventually become unconsious of them? Or do we?! Working with teachers I have listened to many conversations about students who were unable to use certain strategies to comprehend...especially visualization. I find this interesting. I personally believe that all reader visualize...perhaps, just at different levels of details. My thinking here is exposure...and the development/refinement of those that they do use. What do you think? Interesting thoughts, Joy! Joy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Teresa, I actually composed a reply earlier today, but my Internet service provider had it's fiber optic cable severed and we have had limited service.
Thanks for the link, I've begun reading it, and the accompanying links suggested by the author in an effort to grab hold of what you are talking about. I wonder how my class discussions would rate on this scale? One thing I've always thought I did well was have good discussions with my students. One thing I've always thought I needed improvement with was systematically presenting information to my students. I'm not always sure my students are using their metacognition to recognize the strategies they are using, although I can tell that they are inferring, visualizing, etc. through our discussions. So my question is: Is it so important for them to be able to DO the strategy, know that they are doing it, and be able to identify what they are doing? (Or be able to use a strategy on demand?) Is it ok if they can do the strategy, but not do the rest? I know if they can do all three they have a deeper understanding, but for some kids this might not be possible. For example, the kids in my class who are identified with learning disabilities in decoding seem to be better at using the strategies, but not at identifying them or being able to do it on demand; they do it automatically! I'm just posing these questions for discussion. I don't know what the answers are, but am hoping to learn more through further discussion on this list. Joy/NC/4 [EMAIL PROTECTED] How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and content go hand in hand. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
