Learning how to Learn.....?

One thing that stood out to me in these readings is that learning isn't just about whether a student gets the right answer. Students also need to understand how they are learning and what they can do when something becomes difficult. This is where metacognition becomes important. Martinez explains metacognition as being aware of your own thinking and being able to monitor and adjust it while you are learning. I think this is something we expect students to be able to do without really teaching them how.

I know there have been plenty of times when I have been working on something and thought, “I just don't get it.” But there is a big difference between knowing you are confused and actually knowing why. Are you missing background information? Did you misunderstand something earlier? Are you using a strategy that isn't working? I think being able to ask yourself those questions is a skill that can make someone a much more independent learner.

This connects really well with Greenleaf and Hinchman's discussion of adolescent readers. They explain how students who struggle with reading are often treated as if they are simply “bad readers.” Over time, students can start to see themselves that way too, which is also something I am learning how to approach in my Education 200 class. What I found especially interesting was Terrance's situation. Even though he was considered a struggling reader in school, he was actually reading all the time outside of school through the internet, newspapers, magazines, and other sources. He just didn't necessarily think of those activities as “reading” because they didn't match what school considered reading.

That made me think about how quickly students can develop an identity based on what they struggle with. If a student keeps hearing that they are a struggling reader, a bad writer, or someone who “just doesn't get it,” eventually they might stop seeing those things as skills they can improve and start seeing them as part of who they are.

I really liked that Terrance's teacher didn't respond to his struggles by simply giving him easier work. Instead, the class gave students challenging texts while also giving them the support and strategies they needed to work through them. Students were able to talk about their thinking, work together, and learn how to monitor their own reading. To me, that seems much more useful than constantly making work easier for a student who is struggling.

This also made me think about how teachers can sometimes focus so much on what a student can't do that they overlook what the student already can do. Terrance already had a lot of literacy experiences, but those experiences weren't necessarily being recognized in school. I think this applies to pretty much every subject and every type of learner. A student getting something wrong doesn't automatically mean they aren't capable of learning it. They might just not have figured out the right strategy yet. That is where metacognition seems especially important. Instead of a student thinking, “I'm bad at this,” they can start thinking, “Something about the way I'm approaching this isn't working. What can I change?”

How much of being a “good student” is actually knowing the material, and how much is knowing what to do when you don't know it, and trying to figure it all out.