Current Teacher Behaviors

Current Teacher Behaviors


The teacher I observed asked her students (who had previously read a speech) to identify themes within the speech. She then asked the students to find a claim in the text and then she walked the class through how to identify evidence the speaker used to substantiate his claims. She then had the students choose a claim made by the speaker and write whether or not they agreed and then they were to explain how much they agreed or disagreed (looking at the agreement as on a continuum) and why. In this assignment, she stressed that there was no right or wrong answer, that they were to look within themselves and decide what they thought about the claim. This seems like an assignment that encouraged metacognition as the students thought about and examined their own thinking and reasoning. 

Student Needs


This teacher seemed to be tapped into her student's way of learning. She accessed prior knowledge. She had lots of participation from a variety of students and they didn't seem to hesitate in participating in the discussion as they dug deeper in the text and their own thoughts. She really did a good job encouraging metacognition. Perhaps she could have done more by asking the students to examine deeper how they come to the conclusions they have drawn. Are there biases at play or moral dilemma?


Plans for your Lesson

As I plan my mini-lesson, I will address the needs of metacognition first by asking what the students already know about the topic--accessing prior knowledge. I will then ask the students about an issue pertaining to the subject being taught. What opinions do they have? I would like the students to examine where their opinions and beliefs may come from. If they look deeper, are their beliefs founded in reason or bias?