WEBVTT

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[Music] Welcome to Using
Metacognitive Logs in Science.

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My name is Heather Howlett, and
I teach eighth-grade science

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at Three Fires Middle
School in Howell, Michigan.

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Text discussions are
probably the best practice

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that I have done in
my teaching career.

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I've seen the most growth,
the best results from it.

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I've seen students-especially
those at-risk kids

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that don't receive any
special needs services,

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that tend to fall through the
crack, that really struggle

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with getting their work in,
with just understanding,

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and usually they're
not the best readers

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for whatever reason-I've seen
the most growth with those kids.

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My goals for this
lesson are for students

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to see another person's
perspective

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of what the important
information is

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from our science text and how
someone else's connections

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or questions or visualizations
can help them

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to make sense of it all.

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Students of all ages are very
social, and so to channel

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that energy into a
text-related activity

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or discussion has really been
a useful way to meet that need,

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that social need that they have.

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They really enjoy explaining

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and exploring each other's
misconceptions as well,

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especially in science.

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There's so many misconceptions
kids have

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about different topics.

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And so for them to be able
to, first of all, read,

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pull out what they think
is important, and then talk

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about what that reminds them
of, what they aren't sure of,

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what they have questions of,

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etc. has really been a
powerful thing for them.

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One of the things that we do
all the time are metacognitive

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logs-the two-column system

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of the left side being the
information from the text

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that they thought was important

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and then the right side
being their thoughts,

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or questions, connections.

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In this lesson, students
paired up and were asked

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to compare their
partner's metacognitive log

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with the information
in the book.

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And then I had a
self-evaluation rubric

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but actually had the
students evaluate each other's

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and then also looking
at that right hand side,

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that metacognitive
side of the log

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where they can see how
the other person-what kind

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of questions did they
ask about the text,

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what kind of connections
did they make, any pictures

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that they drew as far

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as visualizing what the
text was discussing.

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I had the students, again in
pairs, talk this out and share

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with each other: "Why
did you write that?"

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"What reminded you of this
thing that we did last year?"

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"What made you think of
that picture in your brain?"

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And then after, we came
back as a whole group

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and shared some highlights
and insights

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from their conversations.

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I often like to use the Socratic
method of questioning just

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to lead the group to
what their next steps

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of comprehension should be.

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So, if they kind of
just offer, "Well,

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I didn't put anything there

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because I didn't
know what to put.

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I didn't get it."

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"Well, what didn't
you get about it?

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Can you explain?"

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And then just keep questioning
them to slowly lead them

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to where they figure
it out for themselves.

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I assess students' understanding
of our text or of any lesson

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by conferencing with them
individually on a regular basis

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to see what's their progression
through the material.

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But also, in this
particular lesson,

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I review their metacognitive
logs that they've been filling

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out for this chapter, the
self-evaluation rubrics

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that they completed actually
regarding their partner

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in this particular instance.

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Also, the pair-share
worksheets that they completed,

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which is a summary of the
discussion that they had

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with their partner about
what did they get stuck

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on in this chapter and then
how did they reconcile that

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and also what they think
their next steps could be.

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At the beginning of the year,

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a lot of students
didn't understand,

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"Why are we doing all this
reading stuff in science?

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I don't get it.

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It's science.

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It's not reading."

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And I tried to explain
to them, "Well,

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reading is the most
important thing you can do,

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no matter what subject
area it is.

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If you can't read
and understand,

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you're going to struggle.

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So, we're going to take a
lot of time here to help you

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to understand and to
be a better reader."

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And then I also like to tie it
into high school and to explain

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to them that you can use
these techniques next year

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and in the high school to really
improve your comprehension

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of what you are reading and just
make your work so much easier.

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They really appreciate that.

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[Music] To learn more about
using metacognitive logs

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in science, please explore
the additional resources

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on the Doing What Works website.