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Narratives for Teaching Metacognition
by Jill Robbins, Ph.D.
The instructional sequence designed for CALLA provides a five-stage cycle for introducing, teaching, practicing, evaluating, and applying content, language, and learning strategies. The cycle repeats as new content, language, and strategies are introduced. We will just look at the first two stages of the cycle, Preparation and Presentation, because they are the points in instruction at which strategies are introduced.
Preparation: Find out what strategies students are already using. In discussions with students, present a challenge and ask how they would solve it, and point out the actions they take as learning strategies that can be applied to similar tasks.
Here's an example of the Preparation phase for instruction in speaking strategies:
Kat's class of ELLs needs to develop confidence in speaking English. She begins with a question, "When you are speaking English, and you can't say the word you want to, what do you do?" One student answers, "use my hands." Another says, "I say it in Spanish" and a third says, "I ask someone." Kat writes the ideas on the board and tells her class, "These are some of the strategies you use when you speak in English. Today I'm going to talk about some new strategies that will help you."
Presentation: This stage involves explaining the task to be done and modeling application of learning strategies. Choose a strategy to teach that's appropriate to the students' age and explicitly teach it. Explicit instruction in learning strategies requires that the teacher names the strategy and explains how and when to use it, and why it helps.
To learn how a narrative of the metacognitive model might be used, let's return to Kat's class, where she has displayed a picture of a parrot on the SmartBoard. She tells her class, "This is Lily, an African Grey Parrot. She wanted to learn to talk with people. Here's her story." Kat tells the story from her notes.
Narrative for the Metacognitive Model of Strategic Learning
Lily was a parrot who lived at Brad's Pet Food Shop. Every morning when Brad, the owner, opened the shop he said "Hello!" to her. Lily tried to answer but just made a squawk. Lily heard Brad talking with customers and wanted to be part of the conversation. She decided she would practice at night when the shop was closed, because she thought she'd be shy about making mistakes when people were watching. Her plan was to start with Hello. That night she tried again. The sound came out weakly. She thought about how Brad said it. She tried again, this time a little louder, and she heard herself saying "Hewo!" Not quite right, she thought. She let her tongue touch the tip of her beak the next time she tried.
The next morning, Brad came in and said "Hello, Lily!"
She surprised him with, "Hello!"
Brad came up and looked closely at Lily. "You're talking!" He smiled and said "Can you say it again? Hello, Lily?"
"Hello!" she responded happily, lifting her wings and puffing out her chest proudly. She liked it when Brad smiled and talked to her. Lily thought about the strategies she used to practice the night before, and knew she could learn more words now. She could hardly wait until a customer came in so she could talk to them, too.
Kat concluded by telling her class: "You can be like Lily today and make a plan to learn new words in English. Let's make a list of some words we'll be using in this week's lessons…"
Note: The story tells about a parrot who uses the metacognitive strategies to achieve her goal of learning to talk with humans. These can be pointed out in later lessons, once students have become familiar with the narrative. Lily planned when she decided to learn to talk, monitored when she listened to herself, problem-solved when she changed the way she formed the word, and evaluated when she found how happy it made her and Brad when she could speak.
Other narratives can be found here for ESL, and here for foreign langauge instruction.
Learning Strategies Through Play:
Toy Toolbox items:
Hammer = Summarize (build something up by yourself)
Saw = Problem-Solve (separate it into parts you can handle)
Screwdriver = Find/Apply Patterns (twist and turn to
see the patterns)
Flashlight = Use Selective Attention (visual imagery) (What do I see?/Hear)
Pliers = Manage your own learning (get a grip!)
Measuring Tape = Evaluate (how much did I learn/ how well did I learn?)
Magnifying Glass = Make Inferences (look closer)
Monocular/Binocular: Make Predictions (what’s ahead?)
Duct tape or electrical tape = Substitute (how can I make this work?)
Play wood & Nuts & Bolts = Use what you know (You build with what you
have)
Stuffed Animals:
METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES
Plan / Organize: PLANNING PANDA
Monitor / Identify Problems: MONITORING MONKEY
Evaluate (Check): CHECKING CHICK
TASK-BASED STRATEGIES
USE WHAT YOU KNOW
Use Background Knowledge: BACKGROUND BEAR
Transfer / Use Cognates: COGNATES CAMEL
USE YOUR SENSES
Use Images: PICTURING PENGUIN:
Use Sounds: SINGING SEAL
Use Your Kinesthetic Sense: HANDS-ON HIPPO
USE A VARIETY OF RESOURCES
Access Information Sources (Resources): RESEARCHING RACCOON 
Cooperate: COOPERATING COW
For more pictures of the animal mascots, go to http://calla.ws/animals.html
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