Reading Summary Two Lauren Glasser

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The first reading by Amy Mulnix focused on the importance of metacognition in helping

students to learn, and the excitement that comes with it. She focuses on the importance of having

student engagement in the classroom versus lecturing. Students reflecting and discussing in class

is where deep learning happens and through this engagement metacognition grows. Mulnix

addressed the idea of metacognition and the importance of understanding yourself through a

story about her as a dog trainer. She thought she was a very knowledgeable dog trainer and that it

was not her method but other external factors that were causing her failures. She later realized

that she was not approaching the situation correctly. She needed to trust her dog and the training

process, which later extended to her work as a professor. She needed to give the students the

tools then “let them go to work” and they would figure out the details themselves. Eventually,

they would get to the answer on their own — this is how this deeper learning happens. The

journey Amy goes through from being the learner to the novice to the teacher really resonated

with me because I feel I am also on that journey. Every day I feel like I am learning new things

about myself especially in the classroom as a new mentor. I find myself wanting to be in control

at every moment and forcing my students to the answer, like Amy did in the beginning with

Digby, instead of letting them prove they could do it themselves. Amy’s journey perfectly

reflects the process of my UNIV class and what inquiry based, self-directed learning aims to

accomplish. I feel like I am learning to ‘guide on the side’ more and prompt questions that help

students to get to the answer themselves. Sometimes, I still find myself giving them the answer
too easily when they don’t grasp the concept. I really want to take Amy’s story and learn from

her mistakes rather than waiting till I make them on my own. Therefore, moving forward this

week I really want to challenge the students to think more for themselves by asking open ended

questions, and working 1 on 1 with them during group projects to promote autonomous learning.

Their whole semester is based around their ability to critically analyze information as well as

their ability to consider anyone/thing that is impacted by their proposals. This is why I think it is

imperative to work on letting go and letting them figure out the problem on their own, with only

little hints from me along the way.

The second reading is a more practical article focusing on activities to produce active

learning in the classroom. It begins with different questioning techniques, remembering,

application and evaluation, each subsequently testing higher levels of cognition. As a peer

mentor I think this resonated most with me because it is the easiest way I can improve my

mentoring to foster the two higher cognition levels. When I ask my students questions on their

readings they are stuck in the remembering level where they just spit facts back at me, but they

don’t understand what they’re telling me. I want to work on asking more open-ended questions

or phrasing my questions in different ways when it becomes apparent students are lacking an

understanding on these topics. In doing this, I will help them to better understand the material

and will elevate their understanding of each concept to the next cognitive level. The article also

focuses on small group activities such as pair-share, buzz groups and the three step interview.

For my class I think the most effective activities is pair-share or buzz groups because it allows

students to work in smaller groups where they all have a chance to participate and gain a better

understanding of the topics. On the other hand, the three-step interview is a long process of
questioning each other and then sharing the results, which is time limiting in our short class. The

third part of the article focuses on whole class involvement. First, the professor gives a short

lecture check. If too many students get the lecture check wrong they discuss the topic in small

groups. Next, if too many students still fail to understand the concept, the professor knows it is

probably valuable to revisit these concepts. Secondly, whole class debates are an activity where

groups are assigned a side and they must find compelling arguments for their side. Finally, in

role-play debates students are cast different roles in a real-life situation to help demonstrate how

concepts work. The UNIV class does not include lectures or debates because every concept is

abstract. Thus, each students’ process, project and journey in the class are different, so whole

class activities are ineffective compared to small group work. Finally, the article speaks about

two different writing activities: closed reading — where students learn how to properly interpret

passages; and classroom assessment technique -— where students are given small paragraphs to

write which prepares them for the topic and to be active listeners, this process allows more

permanent learning to occur. In the UNIV class I would like to implement a combination of these

techniques into a ‘think-ink-share-pair-ink-gallery walk’. The idea is to allow students to take a

moment to privately gather their thoughts and ideas, then in their groups to share these ideas

jotting them down on the board. Lastly, students do a gallery walk to allow their peers to see

what each group has come up with, which will hopefully stem different ideas for them in their

own work. This should help students to take the ideas of others and make relevant connections in

their own proposal, which should lead them down new paths where they can collect more pieces

of their puzzle.

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