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Reading and Literature Studies · Reading Like a Grade 10 Critic: Literature, Information and Shakespeare

Reflecting on Reading: Metacognition and Interconnected Skills

4.1 4.2About 60 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can describe the strategies I used before, during and after reading.
  • I can explain which strategies helped me most, with evidence.
  • I can set detailed, checkable steps to improve as a reader.
  • I can explain how listening, speaking, writing, viewing and representing help me read.

Words to know

metacognition
Thinking about your own thinking and learning.
strategy
A deliberate method a reader uses to understand a text.
reflection
Looking back on what you did in order to learn from it.
double-entry journal
A two-column journal: text on the left, your thinking on the right.
viewing
Making meaning from images, film and other visual texts.
representing
Showing ideas visually, for example with diagrams, maps or tableaux.
goal
A specific, checkable target for improvement.

Hook: the coach's video

Athletes watch video of their own games. Musicians record their practice. Why? Because you can't improve what you don't notice. Readers are the same. Metacognition means thinking about your own thinking: noticing what you did as a reader, what worked, and what to try next.

Remember from Grade 9

In Grade 9 you reflected on your reading strategies and critical thinking and set goals. Grade 10 asks for more detail: explain which strategies helped most and why, identify detailed steps to improve, and explain how your skills in listening, speaking, writing, viewing and representing make you a better reader.

4.1 Metacognition: three questions

After a reading task, answer:

  1. What strategies did I use before, during and after reading? Be specific: not I read it, but I previewed the scene summary, read aloud to the punctuation and paraphrased hard lines.
  2. Which ones helped most, and why? Give evidence: Paraphrasing helped because I understood 'vaulting ambition' only after I rewrote it.
  3. What detailed steps will I take to improve? A useful step is specific, doable and checkable: not read more, but for the next three chapters, I'll write a one-sentence summary at the end of each one before closing the book.

Some strategies belong to one stage; others are useful at more than one stage, or at all of them.

BEFOREDURINGAFTERset a purposepreviewanticipationguideannotatemonitor andrereadpredict(then revise)summarizeevaluatecheck theguideanswer myquestionsaskquestions;connect
Strategies sorted by the stage where they help. Overlaps show strategies used at more than one stage; the centre holds strategies useful throughout reading.
Worked example

Let's write a detailed reflection

Write a metacognitive reflection on reading Macbeth Act 1, answering the three questions.

  1. Strategies used: Before each scene I read a short summary. During reading, I read aloud with my brother, paraphrased hard lines in the margin, and kept a character list with motivations. After, I watched a filmed version of 1.3 and 1.7.
  2. Most helpful, and why: Reading the summary first helped most: I stopped worrying about what was happening and noticed how things were said, like Macbeth echoing 'fair' and 'foul'. Paraphrasing was second; I understood 'vaulting ambition' only after I rewrote it as 'ambition that jumps too high'.
  3. Least helpful: Looking up every single word slowed me down so much I lost the thread. Reading beyond the word usually worked better.
  4. Detailed next steps: 1. For Acts 2 to 5, I'll paraphrase only the lines I mark with a ? after my first reading. 2. I'll add one motif quotation to my tracker after each scene. 3. I'll check my understanding by explaining each scene to my brother in under one minute.

A strong reflection names specific strategies, ranks them with evidence, admits what didn't work, and sets specific, checkable next steps.

4.2 Interconnected skills

Reading doesn't happen alone. Your other language skills feed it:

  • Listening: hearing a play performed or a poem read aloud reveals rhythm, tone and meaning you might miss on the page.
  • Speaking: explaining a text to someone, or arguing about it in a discussion, forces you to clarify your understanding.
  • Writing: paraphrasing, summarizing and journaling turn vague impressions into clear ideas.
  • Viewing: pictures, maps and films of a time and place help you visualize a text set there, for example photographs of the Scottish Highlands or historical images of the period a novel is set in.
  • Representing: drawing a character map, a plot diagram or a tableau makes relationships and structure visible.

A double-entry journal is a simple way to track this: on the left, a quotation or detail from the text; on the right, your thinking, and which skill helped you understand it.

Double-entry journal: Macbeth, Act 1FROM THE TEXTMY THINKING (and which skill helped)“So foul and fair a day I havenot seen.” (1.3)Echoes the witches' chant. LISTENING toa recording made the echo jump out.the heath, the castle atInverness (1.3 to 1.6)VIEWING photos of Scottish moors andcastles helped me picture the bleak setting.“vaulting ambition” (1.7)WRITING a paraphrase made the horseimage finally make sense.
A double-entry journal. The left column records the text; the right column records the reader's thinking and which skill (listening, viewing, writing...) helped.
Worked example

Let's explain how other skills help reading

A student read a novel set in Toronto in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. Explain how viewing and speaking could help their understanding.

  1. Viewing: looking at historical photographs from 1930s Toronto (for example from a library or city archive website) shows clothing, streets, line-ups and housing. When the novel describes a family's worn coats or a crowded rooming house, the reader can picture it accurately.
  2. Speaking: asking a grandparent or older relative what they heard about the 1930s, or discussing the novel with a classmate, can raise questions and connections the student hadn't thought of.
  3. Why it matters: the novel assumes readers know a world very different from today's. Viewing and speaking supply background knowledge, which improves comprehension and inference.
  4. Record it: in a double-entry journal: Text: 'Dad left before dawn to stand in the work line.' / My thinking: Archive photos of men lining up for work helped me see how many people competed for each job (VIEWING).

Viewing builds accurate mental pictures of the setting; speaking adds questions and connections. Both supply background knowledge that improves comprehension.

Just for fun

Metacognition is thinking about your thinking. Thinking about thinking about your thinking is called... a sign it's time for a snack.

Hands-on activity

Reading reflection portfolio page

You need: your notes from this unit, a notebook, and about 30 minutes.

  1. Draw your own three-circle Venn of reading strategies (before, during, after). Place at least ten strategies you actually used this unit.
  2. Star the two strategies that helped most. Next to each, write one piece of evidence (a moment when it worked).
  3. Write three detailed next steps, each specific and checkable (what, when, how you'll know).
  4. Make a mini double-entry journal with three rows for any text you're reading now. In each right-hand box, name the skill that helped (listening, speaking, writing, viewing or representing).
  5. Share your page with a family member and explain one change you'll make.

What to look for: strategies placed sensibly (some in overlaps), evidence for the starred ones, and next steps that are concrete, not try harder.

Your turn

1

What is metacognition?

2

Name the three questions of a metacognitive reflection.

3

Give one strategy useful at all stages of reading.

4

Rewrite I'll read more carefully as a detailed, checkable step.

5

How can listening help you read Shakespeare?

6

What goes in each column of a double-entry journal?

More practice: warm-up

1

Name the five language skills besides reading.

2

Is preview the headings a before, during or after strategy?

3

Is summarize a before, during or after strategy?

4

Which skill is used when you draw a character map?

5

Why should a reflection mention a strategy that did not help?

More practice: on your own

1

Explain why predicting belongs in the overlap of before and during.

2

A student writes: Annotating helped. Improve this reflection.

3

How could writing a summary after each scene improve comprehension of the whole play?

4

Explain how viewing a film adaptation could both help and mislead a reader.

5

Write a goal for improving vocabulary that is specific and checkable.

Challenge

1

Write a full reflection (6 to 8 sentences) on how you read one text in this unit, using all three metacognitive questions and naming at least one interconnected skill.

2

Argue which one strategy from this unit would help most on the reading section of a literacy test such as the OSSLT. Justify with reasons about the task.

3

Design a Venn diagram (in words) for viewing strategies (for a film or image): before, during and after, with at least one item in an overlap.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Metacognition means...

2.

Which is the most detailed next step?

3.

Which strategy is useful at all stages of reading?

4.

Looking at historical photos to understand a novel set in the 1930s uses which skill?

5.

In a double-entry journal, the right column holds...

6.

Why should readers reflect on strategies that didn't work?

For parents and teachers

What this lesson teaches: ENG2D Reading 4.1 (describing strategies used before, during and after reading, explaining which helped most, and identifying detailed steps to improve) and 4.2 (explaining how listening, speaking, writing, viewing and representing help them read more effectively), using the curriculum's examples of a Venn diagram of strategies and a double-entry journal.

How to help at home:

  • Ask "What helped you understand that?" instead of "Did you understand it?"
  • Share how you read hard things (a lease, a manual, a medical form).
  • Help find photographs, maps or recordings that bring a text's setting to life.

Common difficulties:

  • Vague reflections (it helped). Ask when and how.
  • Goals that can't be checked (read better). Ask how will you know?
  • Seeing reflection as extra work. It's what makes the next reading faster and easier.

Facts used: the Great Depression affected Canada through the 1930s. The 1930s Toronto novel and the double-entry journal entries are examples created for this website.