Saturday, March 5, 2011

Demonstration of Metacognitive Thinking Strategies...by 2nd Graders!

I've learned through the BrainSMART program that one of the most powerful tools you can give your students is thinking skills. When you or I read (or do math, science, and even everyday life situations), we automatically make predictions, inferences, questions, schema, etc to help us understand and make decisions. Most of us weren’t explicitly taught these skills…we simply figured them out over time. Just imagine the advantage we would have had if we learned these skills early in life! Thinking skills are remarkably easy to teach and learn. My second graders can prove it!  We created a video discussing and demonstrating their favorite thinking skills. (While watching the video, keep in mind that students wrote all their own introductions.)  If second graders can do it…all grades can (and should) do it! 



Even Better
To make things even more wonderful, I received this email from a parent:
"My daughter assigned the family reading groups this evening. She is putting your lessons into practice at home. :)"
Mom also sent along this picture of her daughter with a poster  the daughter made for her family.  Notice the thinking skills she wrote on her poster. What a great student!  She has internalized the thinking skills and can teach them to others.

Finally
In our next video we will demonstrate how we learned each skill. Stay tuned, and remember...if second graders can learn and use these skills, so can upper grades!

If you would like a copy of the "Good Readers" poster seen in the background of the video, click the 'products' tab at the top of this page.


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9 comments:

  1. I love your energy. I wish more teachers had it.

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  2. I've a bit of blog-trotting, and I came across your blog! It is just lovely, and so motivating. I feel so small all of a sudden. You are truly inspirational with great ideas! You have a follower :)

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  3. I absolutely LOVE this post, and the video is incredible! I've shared it with the rest of the staff too. I think that you and your students are teaching all of us a lot.

    Many thanks!
    Aviva

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  4. Diane,

    I love how you teach metacognitive skills- they are needed across grade levels and subject areas. With the push to incorporate higher order thinking skills, our students need to be able to justify their responses to content and be able to reflect on how they learned that content. Great job! I look forward to your future posts.

    Elvira

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  5. Well, it certainly is inspiring to see these children and to admire their capacities for expressing themselves in such an articulate fashion. Kudos to their teacher.

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  6. Edward had it right, didn't he?
    “…Thinking is a skill that must be learned.” - Edward de Bono

    We highlight critical thinking skills in the book, On Building Better Students. We found it amazingly simple to teach, and then use liberally throughout or curriculum.

    Your energy IS amazing.

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  7. I love your efforts. This post is very helpful for the students. I’ve shared it with the rest of the staff too.

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  8. This is exceptional! There is no excuse for NOT integrating thinking into the curriculum, except that it demands effort and people do not want to change.

    Thanks for your great work and belief in our kids!

    Your energy and efforts

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