Making Thinking Visible: A Journey Into Metacognition, Part 2

Greetings friends!  Yesterday I wrote my "Ten on the 10th" post because I've committed to doing so.  Today, I'm writing about my passion...my new learning on metacognition.  As I discussed in previous blog posts (see http://mossyoakmusings.blogspot.com/2015/08/i-think-therefore-i-am.html and
http://mossyoakmusings.blogspot.com/2015/08/half-way-there.html), I've been studying metacognition for the past five years, but it has only been in the last two years that I've really "buckled down" and gotten busy. 

Last year, after hearing chapter and verse about my professional goal, my administrator gave me a copy of this book:

I've read it, attended a short professional development on it, and watched the videos on its cd attached to the back cover. This week, I rolled up my sleeves and got down to business.

Let me set the scene...

It's the beginning of the day- math workshop, and my students were gathered on the carpet for a number corner lesson.  After we discussed slides, flips, and turns on the calendar, we turned our attention to the "Number of the Day" discussion which is focused on angle measurements this month. 

But this day was different because we were trying a new thinking move from Making Thinking Visible called "3-2-1."  I gave each student three colored post-its.  On the first post-it, I asked students to think about the word/concept of angle and to write down three words that popped into their brains.  After doing this, students placed their post-its on the chart paper.

Next, I asked students to write two questions that came to mind when they thought of the word or concept of angle.  They used their second post-it for this, placing it on the chart paper.

Finally, I asked students to take the their third post-it and write one simile (or metaphor) about the word angle.

The final product looked like this:

The results were interesting.  Most of my students wrote the words acute, obtuse, and right. However, there were three outliers that didn't.  They wrote these words: Vertices, protractor, degrees, measurement, intersection, and rays.  Those students talked a great deal about their thinking and why they chose those words.  This was a great snapshot for me as to where my students are in their math vocabulary development.  For some students, new words were explored during this part of the session. 

The two question part of this thinking exercise reminded us of the "W" on a K-W-L chart.  Students asked question like, "Are there only three types of angles or are there more?" and "Why do we measure angles in degrees?"  After sharing their questions with each other, they made the decision to use some of their independent reading time to research some of the questions on the internet and report back.  Some of their questions they will explore in math workshop lessons.

Finally, we shared our similes.  Did you know that an angle is like the corner of a book? Did you know that an angle is like the arms of a clock?  I LOVED this part of the strategy because it demanded that students look around their environment and compare!  Compare and contrast...our brains learn best when we make connections, don't they? 

This was an excellent first attempt at utilizing a thinking move from Making Thinking Visible.  This week, I used this at the beginning of our geometry unit.  I want to try using this as a review at the end of a unit, too. 

My next thinking move with  my students is to use a strategy called CSI!  We'll be using it to discuss THEMES in our novels...stay tuned and teach on my friends!







 If you're interested in the monthly Number of the Day activities we discuss each morning to "get our metacognition on" check these out below.

To see other great book recommendations, click this picture!