The Final Blog -The Metacognitive Process - the gift that keeps on giving

The blog assignment was an interesting insight into my meta-cognitive skills and processes. Reading has always been a major part and necessity of my life. Whether for comprehension, knowledge, communicating or pleasure my meta-cognitive process has become fined tuned and subconscious over time. This exercise actually allowed me to slow down and re-analyze how I read text. It was like going back and retracing the first time I rode a bike or learned to drive. It was refreshing to peel back the onion and watch my mind at work. I always knew when I was reading I was executing a strategy for reading text, but didn’t realize the strategy was universal or had a methodology attached to it or was something to share. 

Examining the five meta-cognitive processes (predicting, picturing, making connection, identifying a problem and fixups), I have become aware of how I choose and emphasize which process I engage based on the type of text I am reading. Watching my mind at work I realized my meta-cognitive processes are in parallel with reading text. For instance, the first blog assignment required me to read text from my content area of math. I used the text “Aspects of Children’s Math Anxiety” for this blog assignment. I noticed with this type of text emphasized the meta-cognitive processes of making connections, identifying problems and “fixups”. When reading the text from my blog partner which was a fictional short story (Welcome to the Monkey House – Who Am I This Time) I noticed I emphasized the meta-cognitive processes of picturing, predicting and making connections.  

Reading text of nonfiction (math or science) makes me use lots of “fixup” skills. When I could not understand how a mathematical process called “orthogonal matrix” was performed, I immediately went to google to find out about it. At the same time I did a little flashback and asked myself what did I do before the internet? I use to lookup stuff in the home encyclopedia, or stayed after class and ask the teacher. The meta-cognitive skill of “fixup” reminded me a lot of how as young students in high school and college we would go to our teachers or professors or ask our fellow students for help. Help was an interpersonal skill and a lot more bonding of knowledge and friendships was going on back then. I am also more critical and I am more aware of contradictions in text when reading nonfiction. I use the meta-cognitive process identifying a problem. For instance, when the math text stated “two items were excluded form the study; “doing math and sums in general” and “division with big numbers”, I found this problematic. It was confusing and contradictory? It raises the question then what aspects of mathematics were used as part of the study?    

Reading nonfiction (the second blog) is different. It is the type of read where picturing and making connections creates imagination for me. Thoughts of characters, situations and experiences are all pulled from the mind and come into play. I become one with the text. I try to put myself in the text wherever I can. It is where I have fun. I like making connections with characters with people I know or even aspects of my own life. For instance when the description of Harry Nash as “huge, handsome, conceited and cruel”. He reminds me of so many people I have known or met in my life. I am able to put a face to him right away. Or, the beautiful girl behind the counter of the phone company. It is rich with detail; “her blue eyes, comparing her to a machine, numb, wondering if she was interested in anything at all”. How many times have I seen that girl behind the proverbial counter of life and have imaged her as a bit player in the “play” of life. I was able to put a face on her immediately. I think I knew her once. The only time I may use fixups in nonfiction is for “who done its” or science fiction. That is the only time I want to get the facts? straight.    

As I acknowledged my meta-cognitive process I realized I had introduced  a 6^th process over the years which I like to refer to as my 3D meta-cognitive process. This is the process where after reading text I compliment the text with a physical experience to bring the text to life. For instance, in the “auto bio post”, I blogged about reading to my children “The Night Before Christmas” from the Golden Book series. The way I made this a 3D meta-cognitive process was to take my children to “Fairy Tale Forest” in New Jersey at Christmas time to actually see Christmas storybook villages set up to the Night Before Christmas. Another 3D meta-cognitive experience I had was after reading novels by Ernest Hemingway, I took a trip to Key West Florida to actually visit his home which is a tourist attraction and view the artifacts and walk in his footsteps to envision his story telling. One last 3D experience I connected with was visiting the Mexican Aztec ruins at Chichen Itza. This 3D experience came about from my interest in the Mayan culture after reading text about the Mayan prediction of the end of the world on December 21, 2012.  

But of all the meta-cognitive skills, processes and methodologies I have re-learned and recalled from this class, the one meta-cognitive process that I remember and always surfaces in my thoughts whenever I read is the vision of when I was a small boy and my mom would read to me. I just didn’t know back then the ground work was being laid for what I have now learned are meta-cognitive processes. I believe well developed meta-cognitive processes are a well balanced combination of mind (knowledge), body (communication)and soul (nurturing).     

Welcome to The Monkey House – Who am I This Time – a race to the finish line

I finished the text. I have to admit I ran through the words as fast as I could to get to the end. I didn’t think too much about the final text. The words just flew by. I was in anticipation of the ending. When I read fiction I love to go in fast forward towards the end of the story. I try to get a “readers” adrenaline rush. I’ll save all my metacognitive processes for later, after the end. Too anxious to get to the ending. It exhilarates. I get to block out everything going around me. I can’t wait to get to the ending. The “who done it” is the best part. I can’t wait to get to the punch line. Exactly why was this short story called “Who Am I This Time” Well know I know!

The story was about actors being actors and living both their acting lives and real lives as actors. Don’t we all do that? How many different rolls do we play in life and have a wide range of acting leeway. I’m not saying we live our lives as phonies or are deceitful but we have a lot of opportunity to play many parts and many roles in life to many people. 

Now, at the end is when all my metacognitive processes kick in. Lets see, I’ll start with predicting. Of course I knew the two lead characters of the play (Helen and Harry) were getting caught between their acting world and their real world attraction for each other. They couldn’t separate the two.  I make connections with my own personal relationships driven by drama and emotion and real life settings. I got visions of the “Graduate” when in the last scene of the movie we see Benjamin and Elaine sitting in the back of the bus with those smiles on their faces. What were those smiles about?

It’s like they just got something they wanted but don’t know what to do with it, just like Helen and Harry. I can’t help to think be careful for what you wish for. I had no time for fixups, unless I didn’t understand the ending. I had no problems. I flew over the words so fast it didn’t matter if the words were my words or the words from the book. This is when I become the story and the story becomes me. I didn’t have to think that hard. Isn’t reading fun, when it doesn’t require a test. Maybe that’s why students don’t like to read. Maybe some where along the way we invaded and infringed on their imagination. We are always telling them how to read.

Welcome to the monkey house – who am I this time – installment 2 personalizing the text.

This is the second 1/3 of the text. I am more comfortable reading than the first 1/3. I took my parochial metacognitive analysis and threw it into the wind and instead I am using my self-defined metacognitive skills.  I am gong to have some fun with this text tonight.

The first metacognitive skill I like to use is what I call “bringing the text down to my level”. This is a unique technique I use to personalize the text and helps me to sink it in to my mind. For instance on p 19 of the text, it talks abut how Helen Shaw had “come out for the tryouts and couldn’t act for sour apples”. I like to personalize the text and will whimsically read the text as “couldn’t act for s#*t”. It makes a small connection in mind and personalizes the scene, the quote and the character. Not quite sure what this metacognitive skill is (or if it is a real one at all), maybe it is a form of “fixup”.

Another of my other unique metacognitive skill I like to use is the “the universal moment”. These are the lines I take special notice of to anchor the text to a defining moment or sync point. For instance on p20 the text is talking about trying to find another Stella character (Street Car Named Desire) as auditions for the part continues. The line talks about love and goes something like this, “that’s life I guess, 20 Blanches to one Stella. And when you find Stella she doesn’t know what love is.” The line speaks volumes. How universal. The text continues into unrequited love. Something we have all witnessed in life. This is what fiction is all about. Twisting what we have experienced into a universal experience. Something we can all relate to. Ok that sounds like the metacognitive skill “making connections”.

How about the metacognitive skill of “the arrival or the ah ah moment”. On p 23 the text talks about how Helen Shaw “wasn’t in a bottle anymore. There wasn’t any bottle to hold her up and keep her safe and clean”. This is an “arrival moment” that started on page 21 when Helen talks about living her life in a big bottle, not being able to touch. C’mon when we started reading the text on p 21 we all knew that Helen was going to come out of her “bottle”. Ok that sounds like the metacognitive skill “predicting”.  

Hmmm, so maybe I have been using metacognitive skills all along. I just have been calling them something else.