Module 4- Reading and Learning Together

Chapter nine speaks of metacognition. This was a new term for me. The book says that "metacognition literally means cognition about cognition--or thinking about thinking" (318). It involves three different kinds of knowledge and involves action. It can often be confused with a routine or habit, but it is not that. There are different ways that students can involve metacognition when approaching a learning task. The best way is to "set goals, organize their activities, select among various approaches to learning, and change strategies if needed." (319 This was something new that I learned about when reading chapter nine, and it led into learning strategies, problem solving, and critical thinking.

In the tenth chapter, it talks about a broad range of things, but the section that stuck out to me was on problem-based learning. "The goals of problem-based learning are to help students develop knowledge that is useful and flexible, not inert." (367) Students are able to work on finding motivation and skills that involve collaboration and decision making. This type of learning is giving the students room to work on a problem through evaluating, investigating, sharing, and engaging. I think that this type of learning is essential and something that I plan to have in my future classroom. Students need to be presented with issues, find facts, ask questions, explore, and share. This is extremely beneficial and give the students room to solve their own problems and share their ideas. I plan to use this type of learning in my classroom someday.

Chapter eleven talks about social cognitive theory, modeling, self-efficacy, self-regulated learning, and other theories of learning. I related specifically to the section on modeling. Modeling is learning by observing others and is a key element of the social cognitive theory. There are many influences that cause students to model and act or behave in a certain way. Some of these things are the developmental level of the observer, the status of the model, and similar behaviors and people affect how someone would also behave. (400) There are several elements of observational learning such as attention, retention, production, motivation, and reinforcement. (401-402) I just started nannying for the summer, and I decided to read my kids a novel. I took Children's Literature this past semester and learned how important reading is for learning. I also learned that is is good to read books that are above a child's reading level to them, so that they can learn what a good reader sounds like. This helps them model this behavior later on in their reading. This is a little different than classroom behaviors, yet I related this to the reading when coming across modeling.

I look forward to spending more time reading to Seth and Emmarie (the kids I nanny) this summer and working on math facts. So far, it is a success! The first day they grumbled when I told them we were going to read together, but just today they asked if we could read more at the end of the day. I am having a lot of fun applying some things I learned and am learning with them. It is always fun when you can play teacher during the summer too!