Metacognitive Model of Strategic Learning,

Chamot 1999http://www.nclrc.org/teaching_materials/assessment/nclrc_assessment_tools.html

Metacognitive Model of Strategic Learning, Chamot 1999

The MMSL organizes learning strategies in such a way that they become manageable and helpful to students and teachers.

It describes ways to transfer strategy use to other subject areas, as well as to real life situations.

Students can use these strategies for all the modalities- reading, listening, writing and speaking-as well as therelation of vocabulary and content information.

The model consists of four metacognitive processes:

Monitoring Problem solving

Planning

Evaluating

Planning Strategies

It is similar to how people plan, organize and schedule events in their lives.

It helps people develop and use forethought.

It encourages thinking and reflection.

It helps people to set goals.

Students focus their attention on the task and ignore distractions.

Planning Strategies

1) Set Goals

2) Directed Attention

3) Activate Background Knowledge

4) Predict

5) Organizational Planning

6) Self-management

Monitoring Strategies

They are used to measure their effectiveness while working on the task.

Students monitor how they are doing as they work.

Students monitor by making adjustments to how they are working as necessary.

Students monitor their comprehension and production

Students regulate their learning.

Monitoring Strategies

1) Ask If It Makes Sense

2) Selectively Attend

3) Deduction/Induction

4) Personalize/Contextualize

5) Take Notes

6) Use Imagery

7) Manipulate /Act Out

8) Talk Yourself Through It

Problem-Solving Strategies

They are used when the students have difficulty at any time during the task.

Students use any resource available to them to solve the problem.

Students that use them appropriately are more successful at learning tasks.

Problem-Solving Strategies

1) Inference

2) Substitute

3) Ask Questions to Clarify

4) Use Resources

Evaluating Strategies

Evaluating Strategies allow the students to see if they carried out their plans

And to check how well strategies helped.

The students evaluate the appropriateness of their predictions and guesses.

Students can verify if they met their goals or not.

Evaluating Strategies

1) Verify Predictions and Guesses

2) Summarize

3) Check Goals

4) Evaluate Yourself

5) Evaluate Your Strategies

Workshop 5

• Work in pairs. Read about the Metacognitive Model of Strategic Learning. (from page 11 to page 33)

• Prepare an activity based on any of the strategies described in the Model. Think about the type of students you have and the level of their English.

• Show the activity to the class.

Framework for Strategy Instruction

Framework for Strategies Instruction

Preparation Activate background knowledge

Presentation Explain Attend Model Participate ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Practice Prompt strategies Apply strategies Give feedback with guidance ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Evaluation Assess strategies Assess strategies Expansion Support Use strategies independently Transfer

Transfer strategies to new tasks

Teacher Responsibility

Student Responsibility

Framework for Strategies Instruction Features

Strategies instruction starts out as more teacher-directed.

Students take more responsibility over time.

The teacher presents the idea that good learners plan, monitor, problem-solve and evaluate during language tasks.

Instruction that makes the strategies explicit helps students think about their strategies so they can develop conscious control of their learning and language use.

Independent learning happens when students practice strategies and try strategic thinking themselves.

Students need the support of remainders to use the strategies they have learnt.

Teachers can ask students to explain how they figured outthey responses they gave in class.

Teachers can provide feedback by praising effective thinking and by pointing out the strategies that students are using.

The teacher should ask students to evaluate how well the strategy is working and which strategies might be best for a given task or problem.

After students have internalized the use of the strategies, the teacher can encourage them to expand their use by transferring it to other situations.

Phase 1: Preparation1) Creating the Learner-Centered Classroom

a) Set learning responsibilities, that is the teacher and thestudents share responsibility in the learning process.

Teacher model, facilitator

Students active participants

Create a Classroom Contract, that is an arrangement between teacher and students about how each will contributeto and behave in the classroom.

Sample Student-Teacher Classroom Contract

Characteristics of a good teacher

Characteristics of a good learner

InterestingIntelligentUnderstandingPatientFriendlyOrganizedGood listener

Pays attentionDoes homeworkCooperatesAsks questionsIndependentListens to teacher

and classmatesActive in class

Use analogies with students to explain the roles of teacherand students in the learning process.

Example: Learning a language is like playing on a soccer team.The teacher is the coach who presents different kinds of plays,gives advice and opportunities for practice, and provides feedback and support when it comes time to play a game.

Students are the team players who actually play and mustmake decisions and evaluate themselves during the game.

b) Learning Reflections: The learner-center classroom requires students’ awareness of their learning process.

Ask students to think about the different types of learningactivities they find useful when studying a language.

Ask students to reflect on how learning a language is similar to and different from learning in other subjects.

Self-Reflections on Language Learning (page 56)

How do you learn a language?1) How do you like to learn a language? What is successfulfor you?

___Reading with a dictionary ___Translating___Reading a textbook ___Studying with friends ___ Making vocabulary lists ___Watching TV ___Speaking with native speakers ___Writing stories___Listening to the radio ___Speaking with classmates___Listening to tapes and repeating ___Learning songs___Studying grammar ___Studying by yourself___Writing letters ___Focusing on pronunciation and intonation

c) Setting Personal Language GoalsGet students involved in learning by having them set

language goals for themselves. Long –term goals are usually a result of students’

motivation for choosing the language of study. They may be originated from these areas:

Professional (I need to know the language for a career)Educational (I want to be able to use the language on a college level)Social (I want to participate in conversations with friends that speak this language)Personal (My family heritage is related to this language)

Short –term goals, which are set more often, are used as

enabling steps toward long-term goals.

They are more immediately reachable than long-term goals.

Example:

Long-term goal read detective stories in the target language

Short-term goal read short detective stories focus on vocabulary to law and crime

d) Self-Assessment of Language Abilities

To evaluate one’s own strengths and weaknesses is a critical step toward learning how to regulate learning.

It increases students’ motivation by increasing involvement in language learning.

Students think about what worked and did not work and why one learning approach was more or less successful than another.

Personal Language Goals and Self-Assessment (page 17)

Short-term goalsPlease rate your current ability in English (0=no ability, 5= excellent ability)

Reading: 0 1 2 3 4 5Listening: 0 1 2 3 4 5Speaking: 0 1 2 3 4 5Writing: 0 1 2 3 4 5

Realistically, What are your goals for this term?

Reading: 0 1 2 3 4 5Listening: 0 1 2 3 4 5Speaking: 0 1 2 3 4 5Writing: 0 1 2 3 4 5

Long-term goalsHow do you want to be able to use English in your life?

What ability level do you need for your goal?

Reading: 0 1 2 3 4 5Listening: 0 1 2 3 4 5Speaking: 0 1 2 3 4 5Writing: 0 1 2 3 4 5

2) Identifying Students’ Existing Learning Strategies

Find out what strategies students already use.

It helps students to become aware of their existing strategies use.

It helps the teacher decide which strategies to focus on in the instruction.

a) Class discussion about learning strategiesb) Group discussion and structured interviews (page 18)c) Think-Alouds (page 19)d) Diariese) Questionnaires (pages 19-20)

Phase 2: Presentation

1) General Guidelines for Presenting Learning Strategies

a) Teacher Modeling: demonstrate how the strategy is used by modeling it on a similar task.

b) Naming the Strategy: The strategy name should bewritten out for students on a board, a poster, or a strip of cardboard that the teacher can raise every time the strategy name is mentioned.

c) Explaining the Importance of the Strategy: Students maynot realize the value of strategic learning for themselvesuntil they have practiced it over time.

d) Telling When to Use the Strategy: describe typical situations in which the focus strategy may be helpful.

e) Asking Students to Describe Their Use of the Strategy:

teachers should give students an opportunity to share

ways in which they have already used the strategy.

2) Suggested Activities for Presenting Learning Strategies

Learning strategies can be presented:

Introduction of a new topic.When the teacher perceives students are experiencing difficulties with a task.

1) Sample Lesson for Introducing a Strategy (pages 20-21)

2) Teacher Think-Alouds to Present Strategies (page 21)

3) Follow-up Strategy Instruction Based on the Think-Aloud

(page 22)

4) Telling a Story (pages 23-24)

Workshop 6

• Choose one of the activities for presenting learning strategies and adapt it to one of your classes.

Phase 3: Practice

Students should practice strategies while working on authentic, meaningful language tasks that are part of the language class.

b) Select Appropriate Challenging Tasks

The task should be :

AuthenticModerately challengingBased on real communicative needs

a) Integrate Strategies Practice into Regular Course Work

1) General Guidelines for Practicing Learning Strategies

c) Encourage Students to Practice the Strategies Introduced

Teachers need to explicitly guide students to practice

strategies during language learning tasks. (page 25)

Add instructions to the task that remind students to

use the strategy. (page 25)

Model strategies by thinking aloud.

d) Encourage Students to Choose Their Own Strategies and toDevelop a Repertoire of Strategies

Students need opportunities to practice choosing strategies for themselves.

As students become more independent in using strategies, cues should be less frequent and less explicit.

2) Suggested Activities for Practicing Learning Strategies

a) Cooperative Learning and Group or pair Work

b) Reciprocal Teaching (page 26)

c) Role-playing Activities (page 27)

d) Problem-Solving Activities

Phase 4: Evaluation

Suggested Activities for Evaluating Learning Strategies

Expanding through discussions Class Discussions Learning Strategies Checklists (page 28) Charts and Graphic Organizers (page 29) Learning Logs (pages 29-30) Journals and Diaries (page 30) Questionnaires (page 31) Interviews (page 32) Portfolio Assessment

Phase 5: Expansion

Suggested Activities for Expanding the Application ofLearning Strategies

Expanding through discussions (page 33) Expanding through other Language

Activities (page 32-33) Expanding to Other Academic Subjects

(page 34) Expanding to Nonacademic Situations

(page 34) Expansion Through Positive Feedback Expansion Through Learning Logs (page

35)

Workshop 7

• Use the 5 phases of the Chamot Metacognitive Model of Strategic Learning to teach one of the units you teach in your classes.