A Reflection on Metacognitive Thinking

After writing this blog and going over the entries from mine as well as Teressa's blog, I think I've learned quite a bit about my thought processes and how I can help my future students become better readers by tapping into their own thought processes.

The first thing that I enjoyed about this project was the fact that both Teressa and I found difficulty in the dialogue of our books.  I think this helped us relate to each other better because we found solace in the fact that we were both having trouble with the languages of the characters.  I think about us as students; what if we were high schoolers in a classroom reading one of these books?  The fact that we were able to talk to each other about our difficulties could be very beneficial.  Students should participate in a social reading of literature.  It may help them talk about their frustrations and find insight into the books through their friends and peers.

As I continue with this thought, I think about when Teressa and I both approached a part of Their Eyes Were Watching God with different perspectives, mine from an English major and hers from a history major.  We were both able to see the book in a new way through the words and thoughts of each other.  Students will be able to find new ways to look at literature if they communicate their ideas with their other students in their class.  Peer work with literature should definitely be incorporated more into classrooms and I will make sure I do this when I am a teacher.

The one thing that I think I learned from this blog is my "Think Aloud" process.  I guess I always did a Think Aloud (in my head) but I never realized its benefit until I realized I was actually doing it.  This process helped me out especially in Their Eyes Were Watching God when I was trying to decipher Hurston's writing.  By talking out my thoughts, I was able to put the pieces of the writing together to figure out exactly what was going on in that part of the story.

Overall, I enjoyed writing about my thoughts on literature and responding to Teressa's blog.  I think it helped me to become a better critical reader and I will be sure to incorporate some of the strategies that I learned into my future classroom.