Different Ways to teach Cognitive Strategies:



1. Discovery and Guided Discovery (Learner discovers on his own or with a little guidance)


2. Observation (Observing an expert model)



3. Guided Participation (Mentor guides learner)



4. Strategy Instruction (Pre-packaged lessons)



5. Direct Explanation (Instructor presents)



6. Dyadic Instruction (One-to-one demonstration and practice)



7. Self-Instructional Training (Self-instruction with teacher interaction)

Sample Lesson:

7th and 8th Grade



Narrowing the Topic for a Research Paper

Goal: When presented with the assignment of writing a research paper, 7th and 8th grade students will reproduce the "topic limiting graphic organizer" cognitive-learning strategy with 80% accuracy.

Cognitive Learning Strategy Lesson

I. Introduction

A. Deploy Attention: Give learners a task

Librarian tells the 7th and 8th graders they will be writing a research paper on History. She tells them to pick a topic and observes how they approach the task.

B. Establish Instructional Purpose: Tell learners the strategy and when it can apply.

Librarian discusses with the students their various approaches to the task, commenting on the efficiency, speed, and success of their approaches. She then relates they will learn a strategy to narrow or choose a topic that can be used for any research paper.

C. Arouse Interest and Motivate: Strategy is discussed as a form of metacognition...learning to learn

Librarian tells the students this strategy will help them learn faster and better, and help them write good research papers.

D. Preview Lesson: Model strategy, video, think-aloud, demonstration.

The librarian draws an abbreviated graphic organizer of the model on the chalk board:
History---Who, what, where, when, how, why

II. Body

A. Review Prior Knowledge: Review similar strategies, contrast and compare

Librarian reminds students of their use of mnemonic devices and cues to help them remember facts, such as the hand gestures in the Dewey Decimal lesson. Relates that these strategies help the learner become more efficient and do better.

B. Process Information: Present situations when strategy can be used, give examples when strategy should not be used, discuss why.

Librarian tells students this graphic organizer can be used when students are given a topic that is so large it must be made smaller,such as Science. But they can not use it when they are asked to write about a specific topic such as a book, magazine article, or an already narrowed topic, such as the music of Elvis Presley in 1960.

C. Focus Attention: Provided feedback about examples.

Librarian allows students to offer other appropriate examples and inappropriate examples, commenting on choices.

D. Employ Learning Strategies: Compare to other strategies for success.

Librarian and students discuss problems with previous ways of selecting a topic.

E. Practice: Present and practice the strategy, provide more examples of how to use, break into smaller components if necessary, provide additional practice, feedback, and instruction as necessary.

Librarian draws a large circle on the board with the word "history" in it. From that circle she draws 6 smaller circles connected to the large one with one of these words in each circle: who, what, where, when, how, why. Students then brainstorm different people in history and put them in the "who" circle, different places in history and put them in the "where" circle, different times in history and put them in the "when" circle and so on. When all the circles are complete, each student takes a turn picking a word from each of the circles and combining them to form a topic. For example, Indians, 1900, America, death, disease, poverty. These choices can lead to a narrow topic for research. If it is too narrow, some of the words can be eliminated.

Librarian then demonstrates another broad topic, Science, Music, or Art and repeats the procedure. Students then give examples of when the strategy should not be used and when it could be used. They are encouraged to draw on their prior experience of research assignments.


III. Conclusion

A. Summarize and review: Think about usefulness

Librarian tells students to think about other strategies they have used to select a topic, and if this strategy is better or not.

B. Transfer Knowledge: Produce checklist, flowchart

Students produce a graphic organizer of a broad topic on their own.


IV. Assessment

A. Feedback: Is the strategy applied to appropriate learning tasks? Is the strategy applied correctly? Is the strategy successful? Are proper accomodations made?

Student produces a graphic organizer of the strategy in poster form for a topic area not previously presented.

B. Remediation: More information processing, practice, and feedback as necessary.