This article was very informative. It definitely served as an “Aha! Moment” for me! This article discusses the importance of modeling reading for students in order to increase their metacognition. Many times, I think teachers forget the necessity of teaching students to interact with the text. This process of interacting with text is usually an unconscious process for teachers, so we often forget that it does not come as easily for students.
An important way of helping students to increase their metacognition is to model critical reading strategies for your students. It is essential that students can see the text. They should be following along as the teacher is reading. The teacher should read at an appropriate pace so that students CAN follow along. The teacher should point out elements in the text such as the various text features, vocabulary, text structures, etc. As the teacher comes upon these elements, he/she should think aloud and expose the students to his/her way of making sense of the text. This allows students to begin to grasp how to appropriately use the various elements in the text to extract meaning.
I think a common mistake that teachers often make is asking students too many questions during shared reading. This may occur because teachers want students to figure things out on their own instead of simply being given the answers. Sharing reading to increase metacognition, however, is a different type of situation. Students have to learn how to interact with text in this manner, and they do not innately know how to use many of these strategies. This is why it is important for teachers to think aloud and model this type of reasoning. After many exposures to this modeling, students will begin to incorporate these strategies into their own reading.
This is a powerful article. I feel that shared reading will be a key to helping students to become better readers in my classroom!
