Metacognition and Problem Solving for Fourth-Grade ELA

Introduction to Metacognition and ELA Preparation

Metacognition describes the manner in which people learn by becoming conscious of how they think about problems and their proposed solutions. To demonstrate the utilization of metacognition, one must first learn patterns and problem-solving strategies that lead toward learning — particularly on novice topics, or topics in which one has not yet become an expert learner. This paper addresses a group of novice fourth graders facing the need to demonstrate competency on the New York English Language Arts (ELA) competency exam. Facing this exam need not be an occasion for fear and uncertainty, as metacognitive skills developed through the learning of problem-solving strategies can assist students in their ability to demonstrate competency in any subject.

With regard to the ELA, the New York district provides an outline of preparation that can guide instructors through ways they might better prepare novice students for the exam (New York ELA Resource Guide to Core Curriculum). Within this document there are clear examples of how instructors can guide children through the process of metacognition — moving students from novice to expert learners capable of demonstrating ELA competency (CBASSE, 2000, pp. 31–50).

Each grade group from second through fourth grade is given a set of curriculum skills to address this transition, as each group is guided through the skills they will need in order to problem-solve ELA questions. Reading, writing, listening, and speaking are all given particular emphasis as demonstrations of the ways in which metacognition can be utilized.

Building Problem-Solving Strategies for Novice Learners

The instructor can guide the novice learner through a set of steps involved in each task. For example, the instructor can lead the novice through the process of library research, beginning with knowledge maps and graphic organizers that detail the metacognitive processes of formulating a description of the kind of information they want and need, and then following a step-by-step process to locate that information. The expert learner would walk into the library with purpose — if interested in science articles, for instance, seeking out the database where science information can be found. The novice learner, by contrast, might wander among the stacks, randomly pulling books off shelves and looking at covers hoping to find one dealing with the science of volcanoes. Similarly, the novice learner might be overwhelmed by the breadth and depth of a large research text, while the expert learner knows the steps for extracting specific information — directly seeking the index to look up information more specific than a general table of contents or chapter headings (CBASSE, 2000, p. 32).

The first step for any instructor developing curriculum strategies is to create ways of imparting systems that allow learners to meet novel problems. As Mayer (1998, pp. 49–51) notes, the instructor must address poor transference to novice problems by showing students how similar systems work, through structured principles. The student may then take such learning and apply it to a novel problem — such as how to write a sentence with two adverbs and only one verb. This creates a sense of competence that the learner can carry into the ELA competency exam. In doing so, the instructor must begin by showing students the patterns of sentence formation through reading, writing, and grammatical structure lessons rooted in how a thought is formed and then expressed in written form. The instructor might accomplish this by giving students example sentences that share the same components but convey different messages, thus incorporating skills for both comprehension and metacognitive awareness of sentence formation.

Using Madlibs to Teach Sentence Formation

To convey the importance of monitoring one's own learning, students are then offered a madlib-style sentence formation exercise in which they are asked to convey two different meanings using the same components but varying the content. As Mayer states, "A focus solely on teaching problem-solving skill and metaskill is incomplete, because it ignores the problem solver's feelings and interest in the problem" (1998, p. 50). The difficulty in creating a desire to learn is compounded when the skill set is not formatted in a way that the child finds interesting — hence the use of madlibs, a favorite fourth-grade pastime, as the instructional format. Students are learning while simultaneously having fun altering structures and systems that might otherwise seem mysterious, rigid, and uninteresting to the novice learner.

In the madlib format, styled to look like a popular mind quiz in a magazine, students can discover that the manner in which sentences are formed is both a repeatable system of structure and something that the writer can manipulate to demonstrate skill in formation and comprehension. Structures that once seemed fixed and intimidating become playful and accessible, encouraging students to engage more deeply with the underlying grammatical principles.

Conclusion

Within this work is a group of suggested plans that could be adapted and reproduced by instructors to help novice fourth graders become expert learners — and therefore demonstrate such learning on the New York ELA exam. The skills required to demonstrate learning are necessary for success, and the practical, real-world activities described here offer concrete pathways toward that goal.

References

Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (CBASSE). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school (Expanded ed.), Chapter 2 (pp. 31–50).

Mayer, R. E. (1998). Cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational aspects of problem solving. Instructional Science, 26, 49–63.

New York ELA Resource Guide to Core Curriculum. Retrieved from http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/ela/pub/ccela.pdf