Tag: classroom

Learning Control Centers: An Inside Out approach to metacognition

Opening your brain to see what is going on in there is a real thing, its called Metacognition, and it should be the number one thing we are doing in classrooms this year.

Somewhere, I saw a quote that said, “The most attractive quality in a person, is that they know who they are.”

Now, its one thing to know who you are, and not anyone else. That’s not what I’m talking about today. Knowing who you are involves some serious study and reflection. You want to get to know the real you, the you that loves quiet jazz music in the fall. The you that just decided to start watching Gilmore Girls, about 20 years later than everyone else. The you that seeks out a challenge because you know its going to make you better.

In order to get to know ourselves, we will have to have an open mind, like literally. This is not a closed door romance. Opening your brain to see what is going on in there is a real thing, its called Metacognition, and it should be the number one thing we are doing in classrooms this year.

Listening to the voices in your head

This is not a blog post about math, but to illustrate my point, I want to share an experience I had recently that made me a bit more aware of myself, a little more metacognitive. I was asked to try a strategy to subtract two numbers.

Think for a moment, how you would normally subtract two numbers, mentally. Mentally, meaning you are doing this in your head. Aha! Look at you being metacognitive. I’ll bet you just pulled out two numbers like 7 and 5, and you ended up with 2. Wow.

How, how did you end up with the 2? Now what if you had bigger numbers?

The strategy we were asked to try is called the Count Up strategy, counting up from the smaller number to the larger number.

This is how I generally do subtraction, mentally, something I already knew about myself thank you very much. At least I thought I did, but then I was asked to try a timed test, doing this strategy with two digit numbers. I was given one minute to solve as many problems as I could, mentally, using this strategy.

Want to guess how many I completed correctly? Five. Five two digit subtraction problems in 1 minute. I am an instructional coach people. I was in 2nd grade a very long time ago.

But here was the best part of this whole thing. After the minute was up, we were asked to reflect on our work. The first question was: How does this strategy help me subtract whole numbers? And the second question was: How confident am I in this strategy?

Right away, my brain said, quite loudly inside my head, “I just need more practice.” That right there friends, is metacognition. I knew I understood the strategy, and I also knew I wanted to use it because it made sense. Most importantly, I listened to that voice in my head.

Building a control center

Metacognition is rising to the top of every educators list of buzz words these days.

We all think, some of us a little too much, so what we really need to do is understand how we currently think. Its always better to know where you are, before you can know where you are going. The place we are going in metacognition land is not just observing our thoughts, but controlling them.

In Pixar’s Inside Out, we get a peek inside 11-year-old Riley’s mind, where five emotions – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust – work from “Headquarters,” a control center that looks like a high-tech command room. These emotions operate a console that influences Riley’s reactions and decisions throughout her day. The genius of the movie is showing how these emotional characters literally watch Riley’s life unfold on screens while deciding how she should respond to different situations – they’re essentially metacognitive observers of her experience.

Here’s what hit me about Riley’s control room: those emotions aren’t just reacting – they’re watching Riley navigate her world and making conscious decisions about how to help her respond. That’s exactly what happened to me during that subtraction exercise. When I said ‘I just need more practice,’ there was a little mathematician in my control room taking notes, watching my performance, and making plans for improvement.

Most of our students are doing math with their control room lights off. They’re solving problems, but nobody’s up there watching HOW they’re solving them or noting what they need to get better. When we help students flip that switch and get their own little mathematician observer online, they stop just ‘doing math’ and start becoming mathematicians who understand their own thinking.”

So how do we help students build their own learning control rooms? The good news is you don’t need to overhaul your entire teaching practice. You just need to start asking the right questions at the right moments – the kind that wake up that little observer upstairs.

Managing an effective control room

Think of it this way: every time students solve a problem, there are actually two things happening. There’s the math they’re doing, and there’s the thinking about the math they’re doing. Most of the time, we only pay attention to the first part. But when we start shining a spotlight on the second part – that’s when the magic happens.

Control Room Check-ins: After students finish a problem, ask: “What did your brain just do there?” or “If you had to teach your method to someone else, what would you say?”

Mathematician Observer Questions:

  • “What part felt easy? What part made you slow down?”
  • “If you did this problem again, what would you do the same? What would you change?”
  • “When did you know you were on the right track?”

Console Conversations: Have students share not just their answers, but their thinking process: “Walk us through what was happening in your control room while you solved this.”

Control Room Predictions: Before diving into problems, ask: “Based on what you know about yourself as a math learner, how do you think this will go?“

Preparing for expanded control centers
https://news.disney.com/pixar-video-backgrounds-available

Just like Riley, your student’s control rooms will become more and more complicated as new and harder problems arrive.

What if in addition to teaching math (or reading, or science, or whatever your subject), you made it your mission to help every student build their own learning control room?

The world we live in demands that students know when they are stuck, how they got there, and find a way through it. Kids who can say ‘I’m good at this type of problem but I need more practice with that type.’ Learners who know their own thinking well enough to make plans for getting better.

Remember that quote I started with? ‘The most attractive quality in a person is that they know who they are.’ Imagine a classroom full of students who truly know themselves as learners. Who understand not just WHAT they’re learning, but HOW they learn best.

That’s not just better math instruction – that’s helping kids fall in love with the person they’re becoming.

So this year, flip on those control room lights. Ask the questions that wake up the little observer in each student’s mind. Help them build the habit of watching their own thinking.

Because when students know themselves as learners, everything changes. And honestly? When YOU start paying attention to their thinking about their thinking, your teaching changes too.

Your students’ control rooms are waiting. Time to power them up.”

Teaching Writing is a Problatunity.

I’d like to use a word I just read in a book, used by an actual doctor, which makes it a real word. The word is problatunity. My Grammarly app just put a big red line under that word telling me I better fix it. I’ll use it in a sentence: Teaching writing is a problatunity.

Don’t you just love when people take two words and smoosh them together and make a new word? Why not? Its two things we know, problem and opportunity, and creating something new and more delicious. Like the first person who decided to put peanut butter and jelly into the same sandwich. Problatunity.

Yes, it’s a problem and an opportunity. In order to turn that frown upside down, let’s focus on the bright spots, build on the strengths, and look for what’s working.

Here’s some opportunities:

Writing is connection. A writer uses craft and structure to reach out into the world, searching for another heart and mind to create a spark. A spark, which if tended and encouraged can become a fire, giving warmth and comfort.

Writing is expression. It’s art. We have this desire to be seen and loved for who we really are. Writing is a mirror for ourselves and others. It shows us the way, or reminds us of what is important.

Writing is a conversation, happening regardless of time and space. If there were no one to read the writing, would it still be writing? If a tree falls in the woods…

Here’s some problems:

Writing is a privilege. There are many who might like the freedom to raise their voice without persecution. Most of the time the persecution comes from the very same pen that did the writing in the first place.

Writing is translation. It is essentially trying to express abstract thoughts into organized concrete symbols on a page in a way that conveys meaning. Think of all the processes those thoughts have to go through, all the decisions that have to be made. Ug, it’s exhausting. I’m exhausted right now.

Writing is hard. Words on a page are tangible, real. Words you write have the potential to stay. Anything you write can and will be used against you. Yes, we have freedom of speech in this country, but a verbal contract just isn’t what it used to be. I’m just sayin’, seems like writing matters a bit more.

Writing is rules. Every good writer knows the rules. All of them? And how do you use a semicolon again? Don’t get me started on spelling.

Here’s the problatunity:

Lampposts on a dark and dreary night

According to something called the Standford Study of Writing, we are in a writing revolution folks. Hallelujah. More people are writing now than ever before: social media, emails, reports, books, posters, blog posts, etc. Writing is actually working. As in, it’s doing some work in the world. Writing is creating change. And as things change, rules change.

However, the rules may not be changing, we are. This writer calls rules lampposts in an ash-ridden apocalypse. Boy do I love me some lampposts on a dark and dreary night.

Maybe this means we actually like rules, just not when they hold us back. We want to get out there and create new rules, rules that keep us safe but also allow us to explore and discover and create our own rules.

Its kinda hilarious that the problem is almost always the solution. Life, this funny thing. Rules are the way, know them, break them. I’m sure some yoda-like character said that in some movie, somewhere.

Here’s the application:

How can we take what is working in the world and recognize it in our students? That’s really what we should be doing every day right? Seeing ability in our kids, naming it for and with them, and guiding them through how to use it in powerful ways.

Students are learning the rules. All the time. Rules for this classroom are different than the rules in that classroom. Rules for the cafeteria, rules for the playground. Rules for friendships, rules for safety, and on and on we go.

To be honest. I love rules. I almost dare say I can’t function without them. When I walk into a room, I immediately try to figure out the rules. Knowing the rules helps me understand how to behave, because I also like to have fun. Having fun usually includes breaking the little rules. The really tiny rules. The ones no one really cares about. Ya, I’m that crazy party animal breaking all the tiny invisible rules. Back it up everyone.

The point is, how can we teach our kids the rules, but also how to break them?

Let’s remember that the rules for writing are lampposts. They are guidelines. Practice. Write every single day. Play. We learn the rules and we decide if they apply today. Writing, people, I’m talking about writing.

Here’s the Practice:

When teaching writing in our classrooms, we want our students to see more of the opportunities and less of the problems. It is time to lower the stakes. Low-stakes writing is defined by where the value is placed. As teacher’s we often place all the value in writing on the rules, otherwise known as grammar and conventions.

What if we emphasized the value of the student thought, expression, and ideas? Students have learned to keep quiet. Specifically, “be quiet” is generally a rule in education. Let’s break it.

What if we develop a practice of writing where none of the rules matter? What matters is that they stop editing and revising their thinking before it ever even gets to the page. You can bet they have a lot to say. I dare you to sit down with an eleven year old and ask them about anything.

Here’s the Magic:

Set a timer. Set it for 2 minutes. Stop. Count your words. Set a goal for more words tomorrow. Share your writing if you want.

That’s it folks. The magic is in the time limit. Its the only rule.

Ah, and rules are meant to be broken.

Read my 6 Big Reasons to Love a Writer’s Notebook post for additional classroom structures that will have your students loving writing and you reading their minds!

What Do You Do With A Problem by Kobi Yamada speaks to everything I have mentioned above and is a powerful read for humans.

“When the child finally musters up the courage to face it, the problem turns out to be something quite different than it appeared.”

Ish by Peter H. Reynolds is one of my favorite mentor texts for supporting students as they learn to let go and write a first draft.

A creative spirit learns that thinking “ish-ly” is far more wonderful than “getting it right.
“

6 Big Reasons to Love a Writer’s Notebook

Using a writer’s notebook is a simple way to recognize yourself first as a writer, then as an author. Teaching kids to recognize themselves as writers and authors is one of the best things you can do for them. Here are my six biggest reasons to love a writer’s notebook.

P.S. The following ideas have evolved from some of my favorite resources, but mostly from this book, which was a critical guide for helping me get my students started, and this article which is sooo worth your read.

1. A Writer’s Notebook as a Classroom Structure

A writer’s notebook can be whatever you want it to be. If you are like me, you have a spiral-bound, lined notebook you can get pretty much anywhere for around a dollar. I also keep a digital writer’s notebook in my drive. This is to encourage the use of my daily writing for publishing. The format doesn’t matter, the purpose does. Whatever you choose, it should be something so accessible you practically trip over it daily, reminding you to write something.

The writer’s notebook is not only something you should have and be writing in on a very regular basis, but your students need it as well. For students, I suggest a non-digital format for their notebooks.

Notebooks will become a personal item for students to collect their own thoughts and ideas, and a place to notice the world around them. A writer’s notebook can be a classroom structure that is used as a consistent tool to organize student and classroom thinking all in one place, over an entire year!

2. Making Thinking Visible: Reading Their Minds!

What I love most about writer’s notebooks is that I can look into them and it’s a peek into my student’s brains. I tell my students that their thinking matters so much, that they need to write it down. The writer’s notebook is where we keep and hold onto thinking. It’s also how I know how I can do my best work as their teacher, for them.

By reading their thoughts, I can better understand their thinking. Maybe I will find places to push their thinking, fill in some gaps, or discover something to share with others. What teacher doesn’t want to be able to read their students’ minds? We are literally becoming mind readers here! This website has some great tips and visuals for getting kids started.

3. A Place for Building Relationships

In the back of their notebooks, students have a section called Lit Logs. This is where we practice the skill of writing letters back and forth to each other and connect on a more individual level.

Essentially, it is a conferring tool! Students know they can write to me anytime in the Lit Log and submit it to me, like sending a text message.  I will also use this section to ask them to respond to a prompt, or a problem we may be having in our community. Check out my previous post for ideas about how I’ve used the writer’s notebook to give students some mindfulness time.

I collect these and respond with a short, personal message. This really helps them feel heard and seen and is so important for building relationships throughout the year. When you have a strong relationship with your students, they are more likely to engage in the content you are delivering.

4. A Place for Building Learning Communities

The writer’s notebook is also where we store our class thinking, such as copies of anchor charts, mini-lesson notes, and discussion protocols and norms.  Students know that they will be held accountable for their engagement in our collaborative learning community. They will also be asked to share some of their thinking with other class members, and it is easier for them to do that if they already have it written down and are prepared in advance.

5. A Place to Experiment

A notebook is by nature a processing tool. Its a place to capture thinking, jot down notes, sketch ideas, experiment and play with language.  Students understand that it is their notebook, but that I will be using it to formatively assess where they are in the processing of content. 

When they have a place to try things out, they will discover their own thoughts and even be able to see the learning taking place over time. The process is critical to their ability to create a product that can be used for summative assessments later. 

6. A Place to Live the Writing Life

Finally, the reason I love writer’s notebooks is because I use them in my own life. People are thinkers, if you can think, you can write. If students can get into the habit of writing down their thoughts, they will pay attention to them more, they can become more metacognitive. 

Writer’s notice the world around them, and pay attention to their place within it. Authors know they must practice writing on a regular basis, and that what they have to say is important. They intend to publish their writing for other people to read.  By keeping a writer’s notebook over the last several years, I have been able to have articles published in magazines and online.