What are metacognitive strategies in reading?

Teachers help students struggling with reading by identifying areas of need, demonstrating strategies, and providing opportunities to practice new skills. But what if the key to helping students find the answers actually lies in teaching them to ask the right questions?

Metacognition, defined as “thinking about thinking,” engages students as active assessors of their own learning. According to the Center for Teaching (CFT) at Vanderbilt University, “Metacognition includes a critical awareness of a) one’s thinking and learning and b) oneself as a thinker and learner.” Rather than passively receiving assessment results and using teacher-driven strategies, students can use metacognitive approaches to think about what skills are difficult for them and how they can alter their approaches. For students struggling with reading, “thinking about thinking” may well be the key to improving the reading process.

To encourage metacognition, the CFT recommends explicitly teaching this skill during lessons and activities. Below are three ideas for teaching metacognition to students struggling with reading:   

1. “Think aloud” while reading

   Reading aloud is one of the first ways that educators introduce reading skills. Even the youngest students can learn how to hold a book, track print across a page, and associate printed words with their spoken counterparts by watching parents or caregivers read to them. In the same vein, older students benefit from watching educators think aloud while reading.

   For instance, an educator might read aloud, model stumbling across an unfamiliar word, and share their thought process: “I haven’t seen this word before. I can usually figure out the meaning of a word through context, so I’m going to read through the rest of the sentence. What definition of this word makes sense? After I come up with several possibilities, I’m going to take a minute to look up the definition before I keep reading.”  

2. Stop for reflection

   Rather than asking comprehension questions during a reading activity, try asking metacognitive questions. While comprehension questions help determine whether students understand the material, metacognitive questions help students recognize how they feel about the material.

   For example, instead of asking students “What is the main idea of this text?” teachers can pause during a group-read and ask, “How well do you understand the material right now?” or “How do you feel about this reading activity? Bored? Confident? Frustrated?” Then the teacher can guide students in using their answers to prompt next steps. If students are feeling confused or frustrated, ask them to reflect on the reading strategies they’ve been using. What other strategies could they use instead?  

3. Craft an inner monologue

   As students begin to read more independently, they’ll need to remember to use metacognitive skills on their own. Teachers can contribute by assisting students in crafting an inner monologue to guide them through the process of reading, and by creating a list of questions for students to ask themselves before, during, and after reading. For example, here is a list for secondary students who have been practicing using metacognition:

Before reading, students can reflect on what they expect to read and what areas of strength or weakness they anticipate as a reader:  

• “I know this material is about…”  

• “I feel confident that I can ______ while I read.”

• “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to…”

• “What strategies can I use to help me with my weaknesses?”

While reading, students can pause and reflect:

• “Do I understand what I just read? If not, why not?”

• “What strategies am I using? If they aren’t working, what can I do instead?”

After reading, students can ask themselves:

• “What else have I read that’s similar to this material?”

• “What questions do I still have about the subject matter?

• “Is there anything I need to reread or research?”

  Forming these inner monologues helps students engage the higher-level process of metacognition as they read.

  Metacognition, or thinking about one’s thinking, is the foundation for other reading comprehension strategies. Proficient readers continually monitor their own thoughts, controlling their experience with the text and enhancing their understanding. As Tanny McGregor explains in Comprehension Connections, “Text plus thinking equals real reading!” Teachers can help students develop this skill by modeling and providing concrete experiences to help students understand and apply the strategy to fiction or nonfiction text.

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  METACOGNITION IN ACTION

  What does this type of thinking look like? A reader uses metacognition when she:

  • Previews the text and makes predictions
  • Makes connections to personal experience or other texts
  • Asks clarifying questions
  • Identifies difficult sentences or passages
  • Restates in her own words
  • Reacts to the text

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  TEACHING METACOGNITION

  While some students naturally think about their own thinking, taking the time to formally name and practice metacognition is important for all types of instruction. Mini-lessons and opportunities for practice allow students to develop confidence and purposefully apply this type of reflective thinking to their reading practice.

  As with any comprehension strategy, it is important to name and model metacognitive thinking. Teachers should “think aloud” as they read aloud, demonstrating the interplay between the actual text and their own thoughts. Next, teachers should provide opportunities for guided practice, and finally, independent practice. This gradual release of responsibility ensures that students are confident and successful.

  In Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading, Tanny McGregor devotes an entire chapter to metacognition, explaining that she doesn’t “know how to teach thinking strategies unless [she begins] with metacognition…. In making kids aware of how they think about their own thinking, [she opens] a channel through which purposeful conversation can flow.” McGregor provides a “launching sequence” for metacognition that includes concrete experiences, wordless picture books, a graphic organizer, and easy-to-obtain tools (in this case, free paint chips from your local home improvement store) to help students become metacognitive about their reading. She also includes “thinking stems,” or sentence starters that can prompt reflective thinking such as “I’m thinking…”; “I’m wondering…”; or “I’m noticing.”

  When students are thoughtful, reflective readers, comprehension and motivation improve. By taking the time to name and explicitly teach metacognition, you are ensuring rich conversations around text throughout your school year!

  RESOURCES

  Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading. Tanny McGregor, Stephanie Harvey. Heinemann.
  This professional book provides creative, concrete experiences to help students master reading comprehension strategies.

  Best Practices in Metacognitive Strategies
  This site provides an overview of metacognitive strategies with respect to reading and includes steps for teaching, language prompts, and a sample lesson.

  A House of Snow and Ice
  Use this month’s Feature Story from Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears to practice metacognitive reading and thinking!

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  This article was written by Jessica Fries-Gaither. For more information, see the Contributors page. Email Kimberly Lightle, Principal Investigator, with any questions about the content of this site.

  Copyright October 2009 – The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0733024. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. This work is licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons license.

  What are some metacognitive strategies in reading?

  Below are three ideas for teaching metacognition to students struggling with reading:.

  “Think aloud” while reading. Reading aloud is one of the first ways that educators introduce reading skills. ... .

  Stop for reflection. ... .

  Craft an inner monologue..

  What are examples of metacognitive strategies?

  As part of everyday teaching, some of the most common strategies used to embed metacognitive strategies are:.

  Explicit teaching. ... .

  Supporting students to plan, monitor, and evaluate their work/learning. ... .

  Developing rubrics (and wherever possible co-designing them with students) ... .

  Modelling of thinking. ... .

  Questioning..

  What is metacognition for reading?

  When students use metacognition, they think about their thinking as they read. This ability to think about their thinking is critical for monitoring comprehension and fixing it when it breaks down.

  What are the metacognitive strategies for improving reading comprehension?

  There are several steps in metacognitive strategy which are used in teaching reading comprehension. According to Zhang and Sheepo (2013) metacognitive strategies are divided into three categories, they are: planning, monitoring, and evaluating.