Narrative of Metacognitive Map Project
Lyn Megow. Eastern Washington University
SUMMARY of Project: This project was completed in two English 201 classes at Eastern Washington University during Winter Quarter 2017. There were 25 students in each class. In an effort to see if students’ writing and independence improved through direct instruction in metacognition and growth mindset, I designed a quarter-long assignment for students to develop a “Theory of Writing.” Students first wrote a diagnostic essay, then wrote three updates to their developing Theory at different times in the quarter, then viewed and discussed Carol Dweck’s “Growth Mindset” TedTalk, and finally wrote an essay at the end of the quarter where they explained their theory of writing and reflected back on their own writing practices.
SUMMARY of Findings: Analyzing the final essays qualitatively reveals that students are able to articulate the benefits of metacognition and growth mindset through direct instruction. The reflecting back on their own processes, paired with the reading, viewing, and discussing they did during the quarter, provided rich content for them to pull from. Final grades for this quarter were higher than for the 201 classes I taught Fall Quarter, but it is too soon to conclude that this project was responsible for the higher final grades. I plan to continue testing the project in my Spring Quarter English 201 classes to see if I find similar benefit
ASSIGNMENTS: There are five assignments associated with this project, all of which are included on the website:
Student Examples: Below are some sample paragraphs from student essays, with some commentary. These comments are representative of most of the 50 students who wrote the assignment. You’ll see in these comments that students became much more aware of their own processes, and they become more willing to work through tough situations.
Student 1:
Throughout this quarter for all of my essays I started my brainstorming with a list different options of what I could do for the topic at hand. Toward the end of the quarter I started to brainstorm by just writing any and everything that came to my head. My brainstorming process was much more intense than in previous classes. I now realize that if I spend more time on early drafts, I will end up with a better final draft. I used to try to write as complete of a draft as I possibly could, but all that did is confuse me since I was trying to compose and edit at the same time. Now when revising I try to get two different people to revise my paper so I can get everyone’s view on my paper. The best thing that I learned throughout this quarter is that a rough draft is just words on a page. I have always struggled with rough drafts trying to make them as complete as possible. Doing that prevented me from getting all my thoughts down. Now it is easier for me to complete my essays on time and they end up being a lot better than they used to be. I recommend this to anyone trying to write a long research paper.
Student 2:
Throughout the quarter there was an emphasis on revising based on peer-reviewed feedback, as I had experienced in other writing classes. I never used to take the peer-review comments as seriously as I should have. I have progressed as a writer throughout this class, and I have found that feedback from a fresh set of eyes was extremely important in the revising process. As I compare my self-assessment writing theory answers from the beginning of the quarter to now I see little difference in the rough draft stages but huge improvements in how I revise my work. I tend to seek more feedback from outside sources instead of self-assessment. With this in mind, I have most definitely grown as a writer and have gained a further understating of genre usage. I would recommend doing peer review of some kind for all work that is written for an audience. You will be surprised at how much it helps with editing and revising.
Student 3:
The research process I had was very long and stressful. What I mean by stressful is that I had a hard time finding sources for my topic. I figured out after a couple of hours that it was because I had not defined my topic clearly enough; I needed to revise my research question and come up with a list of synonyms for key words for searching databases. In the past, I probably would have just chosen an easier topic to work with. I decided that I could try the “growth mindset” ideas that we learned from the video. I took on the attitude that I didn’t want to give up. I’m glad I tried it, because I ended up researching and writing about a topic that was very interesting to me. It is possible to do that if you don’t give up too soon (plus you have to learn how to ask your teacher and the librarians for help).
Student 4:
The process of being a composer was difficult but doing my annotated bibliography first helped do the rest of the pieces. The most difficult part was finding sources that were reliable and that would support my project. To brainstorm I wrote nonstop timing myslef and later revised what I had written to make it make sense. Something that I learned about being a writer in a college course is that it takes a lot of time, and that you learn a lot through the process. I did not think I was capable of writing all the pieces I wrote but I was successful thanks to my interest in the topic.
SUMMARY of Project: This project was completed in two English 201 classes at Eastern Washington University during Winter Quarter 2017. There were 25 students in each class. In an effort to see if students’ writing and independence improved through direct instruction in metacognition and growth mindset, I designed a quarter-long assignment for students to develop a “Theory of Writing.” Students first wrote a diagnostic essay, then wrote three updates to their developing Theory at different times in the quarter, then viewed and discussed Carol Dweck’s “Growth Mindset” TedTalk, and finally wrote an essay at the end of the quarter where they explained their theory of writing and reflected back on their own writing practices.
SUMMARY of Findings: Analyzing the final essays qualitatively reveals that students are able to articulate the benefits of metacognition and growth mindset through direct instruction. The reflecting back on their own processes, paired with the reading, viewing, and discussing they did during the quarter, provided rich content for them to pull from. Final grades for this quarter were higher than for the 201 classes I taught Fall Quarter, but it is too soon to conclude that this project was responsible for the higher final grades. I plan to continue testing the project in my Spring Quarter English 201 classes to see if I find similar benefit
ASSIGNMENTS: There are five assignments associated with this project, all of which are included on the website:
- Writing Theory Diagnostic
- Writing Theory Update #1
- Writing Theory Update #2
- Writing Theory Update #3
- Final Essay Assignment: Theory of Writing
Student Examples: Below are some sample paragraphs from student essays, with some commentary. These comments are representative of most of the 50 students who wrote the assignment. You’ll see in these comments that students became much more aware of their own processes, and they become more willing to work through tough situations.
Student 1:
Throughout this quarter for all of my essays I started my brainstorming with a list different options of what I could do for the topic at hand. Toward the end of the quarter I started to brainstorm by just writing any and everything that came to my head. My brainstorming process was much more intense than in previous classes. I now realize that if I spend more time on early drafts, I will end up with a better final draft. I used to try to write as complete of a draft as I possibly could, but all that did is confuse me since I was trying to compose and edit at the same time. Now when revising I try to get two different people to revise my paper so I can get everyone’s view on my paper. The best thing that I learned throughout this quarter is that a rough draft is just words on a page. I have always struggled with rough drafts trying to make them as complete as possible. Doing that prevented me from getting all my thoughts down. Now it is easier for me to complete my essays on time and they end up being a lot better than they used to be. I recommend this to anyone trying to write a long research paper.
Student 2:
Throughout the quarter there was an emphasis on revising based on peer-reviewed feedback, as I had experienced in other writing classes. I never used to take the peer-review comments as seriously as I should have. I have progressed as a writer throughout this class, and I have found that feedback from a fresh set of eyes was extremely important in the revising process. As I compare my self-assessment writing theory answers from the beginning of the quarter to now I see little difference in the rough draft stages but huge improvements in how I revise my work. I tend to seek more feedback from outside sources instead of self-assessment. With this in mind, I have most definitely grown as a writer and have gained a further understating of genre usage. I would recommend doing peer review of some kind for all work that is written for an audience. You will be surprised at how much it helps with editing and revising.
Student 3:
The research process I had was very long and stressful. What I mean by stressful is that I had a hard time finding sources for my topic. I figured out after a couple of hours that it was because I had not defined my topic clearly enough; I needed to revise my research question and come up with a list of synonyms for key words for searching databases. In the past, I probably would have just chosen an easier topic to work with. I decided that I could try the “growth mindset” ideas that we learned from the video. I took on the attitude that I didn’t want to give up. I’m glad I tried it, because I ended up researching and writing about a topic that was very interesting to me. It is possible to do that if you don’t give up too soon (plus you have to learn how to ask your teacher and the librarians for help).
Student 4:
The process of being a composer was difficult but doing my annotated bibliography first helped do the rest of the pieces. The most difficult part was finding sources that were reliable and that would support my project. To brainstorm I wrote nonstop timing myslef and later revised what I had written to make it make sense. Something that I learned about being a writer in a college course is that it takes a lot of time, and that you learn a lot through the process. I did not think I was capable of writing all the pieces I wrote but I was successful thanks to my interest in the topic.