Joshua Clarke – Hele’s School
@mrclarkeenglish
To achieve reliable replication of a skill, that
skill must be internalised.
It is possible that sometimes we accept product
as evidence of process.
But - how replicable is that product?
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Thinking about our own thinking.
Making ourselves aware of our own cognitive
processes.
Generates awareness of difficulties and
makes improvements possible.
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For instruction:
Show examples prepared ‘live’ – think aloud. Make
difficulties apparent to students – as well as the
strategies you are using to overcome them.
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For assessment:
‘Why did you use this particular word?’
‘What did you find most challenging about this
task? What did you do to overcome this?’
‘In my poem I felt restrained by sylable counts and rhyme. It restricted
my options greatly and teared apart the atmosphere I was trying to
create. I have always thought of rythym as a tool for building an
atmosphere, and keeping it the same gave my poem a bland feel, as
well as restricting my word options. To improve I would get rid of both
of these restrictions.’
Student 1
‘I have chosen to make my poem rhyme because I like it when poems flow
and also I think if a poem doesn’t rhyme it’s more like a story, however I
have chosen not to let one or two lines rhyme because I also want the
reader to sense that the poem is telling some sort of story (which it is).
Annother reason is that I feel not making one or two lines rhyme creates a
sense of suspense in the story, to break up the rhyme I feel is a nice way
to creat that suspense.’
Student 2
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Students struggle to make inferences from
texts
Reasons for weaknesses might include
deficient background knowledge and not
being sufficiently well prepared regarding
how to think
New GCSE English Language questions
require evaluative comprehension skills (‘To
what extent do you agree…?’)
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‘the ultimate goal of reading’, Keenan et al.
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[Inferences consist of] ‘unstated premises and
unexplained allusions’, Hirsch (2003: 19, 20)
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Relies upon knowledge of ‘words and the
world’
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Is taught using strategies such as visualising,
predicting, summarising, questioning etc.
(2008: 282)
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‘Exploring the Impact of a Metacognitive Approach to
Comprehension Strategies on Text Comprehension’
Aimed to establish whether similar anecdotal improvements in
writing might be found in reading comprehension
Two groups (one control, one intervention) sat a diagnostic test,
undertook a scheme of learning, sat a post-intervention test
Both classes were explicitly taught the strategies of visualising,
summarising, and inferring.
The intervention group experienced metacognitive ‘Thinking
About Our Thinking’ plenaries which stimulated explicit
reflection and active engagement with the reading
comprehension strategies they had encountered in the lesson
Discuss with a partner what we learnt last
lesson.
This image might jog your memory…
We practised ‘visualising’ the images that
Shakespeare had written in Hamlet.
How do you think the ghost was presented in
those scenes? Which words would you use to
describe him?
Can you support your idea with evidence from
the text?
Does this clip of Act I Scene IV agree with your
interpretation?
How about this from Act I Scene V?
… that he has a frightening, shocking tale to tell that would do the
following to Hamlet:
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‘make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres’
make ‘each particular hair to stand an end like quills upon the fretful
porpentine [porcupine]’
He reveals that Claudius was the one that killed him. He describes
Claudius like this:
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‘ the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown’
Choose ONE of these quotations, write it out and draw a picture which
represents it.
Using the discussions we have had, and your
picture of one quotation, now explain in writing
how you feel Shakespeare has presented the
character of the ghost.
Need help getting started?
I think that Shakespeare has presented the
ghost as a __________________ character. It
seems as though ________________________.
Finally…
Please write a few sentences to explain, in as much
detail as possible, precisely how the image you
drew earlier represents the quotation you chose
from the ghost’s speech.
Useful phrases:
- I chose to draw…
- The part of my drawing which…
- I noticed that Shakespeare used the word…
The pictures have proven
that you are already
effective at making
inferences!
Just like pictures, writers
sometimes use their words
to create images.
Just like the pictures, we
have to use our own
knowledge to work out, or
infer, what the writer
might really mean.
‘Mary’s guests went back for second helpings of
dessert.’
What do we know for certain?
What inferences might we make?
‘Mary’s guests went back for second helpings of
dessert.’
Perhaps…
- Mary’s guests found the dessert delicious
- Mary’s guests hadn’t enjoyed the main course
- Mary’s guests didn’t know when they would next eat
The most suitable inference would depend on our
understanding of the rest of the text
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You have been practising making
inferences from other people’s writing.
Now try to write a description of a very
frightened person.
You should make sure that you do not tell
me explicitly that the person is scared – I
should be able to infer it from how the
person is described…
The control group and the intervention
group recorded positive gain scores
after the post-intervention test.
The intervention group recorded an
average gain score of 1.41 marks,
compared with 0.46 marks for the
control group.
The intervention group showed
improvements across literal, inferential
and evaluative comprehension.
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Study suggests that metacognitive plenaries,
attached to explicit teaching of reading
comprehension, can improve outcomes
More investigation needed regarding which
metacognitive strategies might be most
effective
Comprehension of texts in all subjects might
be enhanced by means of metacognitive
strategies
‘I think summarising helps because you are
simplifying text.’
‘The process has helped me understand
more about Macbeth because it made me
choose key bits of information.’
‘I feel like putting the text into my own
words helped me understand.’
‘[I find difficult] trying to explain and link the
evidence well. [To help I could] picture the
main parts of the picture and then infer
them.’
When we read, sometimes we imagine
ourselves in the position of the people we read
about.
We can call this using our ‘mind’s eye’.
Using our ‘mind’s eye’ can help us to
understand how people in history might have
felt.
MIND’S EYE
M
MIND’S EYE
Africans being
forced below deck.
How would you feel if
you were this man?
M
MIND’S EYE
It is difficult to calculate the numbers of Africans that were transported; estimates
have ranged from five million to 30 million. Further millions died during capture and
on the journey across the Atlantic.
View of the Deck of
the Slave Ship
Alabanoz by
Lieutenant Francis
Meynell, 1846
M MIND’S EYE
How would you feel if
you were here?
"A woman was dejected from the moment she came on board, and refused
both food and medicine; being asked by the interpreter what she wanted, she
replied ‘nothing but to die’, and she did die".
Alexander Falconbridge
"a man sold with his family for witchcraft", testified Dr Trotter at the parliamentary select
committee, "refused all sustenance after he came on board. Early the next morning it was
found that he had attempted to cut his own throat. [Dr Trotter] sewed up the wound, but
the following night the man had not only torn out the sutures, but had made a similar
attempt on the other side. He declared that he would never go with white men…he died
of hunger in eight or ten days".
M
MIND’S EYE
How would you feel if
you were these men?
Revolt aboard a
slave ship
"The stench of the hold…was so intolerably
loathsome that it was dangerous to remain there for
any time…but now that the whole ship’s cargo were
confined together, it became absolutely pestilential.
The closeness of the place and the heat of the
climate, added to the number in the ship which was
so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn
himself, almost suffocated us"
Olaudah
Equiano
Imagine you are in the hold of the ship
described above. Tell your partner:
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What you can smell
What you can see
What you can hear
How you feel
Then swap!
M
MIND’S EYE
Metacognition – by giving
precedence to process, the product
should take care of itself!
@mrclarkeenglish
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Hirsch Jr., E. D. (2003) ‘Reading
Comprehension Requires Knowledge of
Words and the World’, American Educator,
Spring, pp. 10-29.
Keenan, Janice M.;Betjemann, Rebecca S.
& Olson, Richard K. (2008) ‘Reading
Comprehension Tests Vary in the Skills They
Assess: Differential Dependence on Decoding
and Oral Comprehension’, Scientific Studies
of Reading, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 281-300.