In an earlier post, I talked about how early reading skills are early writing skills, and I pointed to some studies of how reading practices were seen to directly correlate with better writing outcomes.
As I was reading through those studies, one thing that struck me was the skill that teachers put into reading at those very earliest stages that might be overlooked.
On the one hand, reading aloud to our kids is a fairly natural, easy, and relaxed part of “schooling.” It’s often enjoyable for everyone involved, and it doesn’t always feel like work.
At the same time, skilled teachers use these casual read-aloud activities to start building metacognitive skills (thinking about thinking) in even very young learners.
I thought I would take a moment to explore that in more detail.
Metacognition and Reading
To make sure we’re on the same page, let’s take a closer look at metacognition and reading.
Metacognition is the term for analyzing our own thinking processes, and it is a foundational element to knowledge acquisition and getting the most out of educational experiences. Without metacognitive skills, plenty of well-designed educational plans fall flat.
If learners can’t process that information and understand how to use it in their own thinking, it’s like the difference between water running over stones in a brook vs. water being soaked up by a sponge. Sure, over time, simple exposure to ideas is going to change the shape of the rocks, but the sponge is immediately prepared to interact with the water. Metacognition helps prepare our brains for taking in new information and actually using it.
Metacognitive skills are key to reading comprehension, in particular. As this post from Ohio State University puts it, “Proficient readers continually monitor their own thoughts, controlling their experience with the text and enhancing their understanding.”
They go on to identify some key skills involved in metacognitive reading:
- Predicting what will happen next
- Drawing connections between other texts and personal experiences
- Asking questions
- Identifying difficult moments in comprehension
- Explaining in their own words
- Reacting to the text
You’ll see these processes start to show up in even very young readers. That’s right. You may be frustrated by how often you have to stop reading to answer questions, but it’s a sign your learner is really doing the hard work of understanding what they read!
Supporting Metacognition During and After Read-Aloud
You can use your read-aloud time to take advantage of these metacognitive processes without a lot of extra work.
Ask Predictive Plot Questions
Pay attention to the cues from the book (and, if it’s a picture book, the images) for hints at what’s going to happen or how the author is shaping the plot. Then ask your learner questions around these:
Now why do you think that wolf is wearing a hard hat?
What do you thinks she’s going to do with that basket? What might be in it?
It only takes a few moments to add these into the read-aloud experience, but it goes a long way toward building metacognitive skills and normalizing them as part of reading.
Support Perspective-Taking
Another great way to make a read-aloud more engaging in important reading and writing skills is to ask questions that teach your young learners perspective-taking.
Perspective-taking is the term for being able to see the world through someone else’s eyes and recognize that we don’t all experience things the same way. It’s a key concept in building empathy and being able to critically think about the world around us. (Once we know that not everyone thinks and acts like us, we can be much more aware of how much we need to think about situations.)
How would you feel if that happened to you?
Why do you think they chose to do that?
What other options did he have?
Provide Opportunities for Summary and Exploration
Some of the best metacognitive skills can be explored after the read-aloud time is over. Letting your learner re-tell the story in their own words (often helped along with imaginative play like clay or with toys) puts key summary abilities into action.
Building foundational reading and writing skills doesn’t have to be a huge change to our current routines and fun experiences. By building in small moments of intentional attention to key elements, we give our learners the skills they’ll be drawing from for the rest of their lives.