Recently, I was in conversation with the lead psychologist of a group of schools who wanted to know how Clicker could help with metacognition.
“Put simply, metacognition is ‘thinking about thinking’. Some teachers also define it as ‘learning to learn’.”1
I thought it was an interesting concept to cover, so I’ll be taking you through how Clicker offers students lots of opportunities to work through their thought processes and “learn about learning” – by planning, analysing, organizing, and reflecting.
Clicker Board
Clicker Board is a great tool for organizing and planning ideas – students can share their thought processes and engage in critical feedback from their peers or teacher. Students can use ready-made storyboards to plan out a story or a recount of an experience or event, either with written notes or verbally with Voice Notes. Even better – get them to collaborate on these kinds of planning tasks so they are experiencing and benefitting from peer-to-peer learning.
K-W-L charts
K-W-L charts help to engage learners in a new topic, activate their prior knowledge, and support them in monitoring their learning. Use the Clicker K-W-L template to support research on any topic, in any curriculum area. It could also be used when starting a new book or chapter to encourage more engagement with the reading. Or how about using it before and after going on a field trip to ensure that students are focused and make the most out of the educational visit?
We also have a great selection of social and emotional learning sets to support the areas of self-awareness, self-management, and decision-making. Use the Daily Reflection Talk Set to record an achievement and challenging event for each day.
Our Rose, Thorn, Bud activities help students to identify and reflect on positive moments (roses), areas they found challenging (thorns), and new ideas (buds). Introduce our Decisions – Pros and Cons and Decision-Making Planner to help learners organize their thoughts and resolve difficult issues. And of course, it’s easy to edit these resources or even create your own metacognition activities.
If there’s a specific topic or skillset you’d like some support with, click here for a free demo with one of our education consultants and find out how Clicker can help.
