| Though much is known about quality literacy instruction, many upper elementary students continue to struggle with reading comprehension. There is growing consensus in literacy research that students require explicit instruction in metacognition in order to improve their reading comprehension. Yet, studies show that teachers do not consistently teach metacognitive strategies as part of the reading curriculum. Teachers may have received limited professional training in the metacognitive aspects of reading comprehension, and may have difficulty modeling their own thinking processes for students.;This study fused together research on metacognition with best practices from the literature on professional development in order to determine the process by which teachers learned to integrate metacognition into their reading comprehension instruction.;The project involved a nine-week intervention with seven 3rd grade teachers in one suburban school district. During the course of the study, teachers collaborated to create a framework for metacognitive instruction labeled Open-and Closed-door Thinking. Data from pre/post classroom observations, student and teacher interviews, a focus group, written reflections, and a reading comprehension assessment were used to measure the impact the intervention had on both student and teacher learning.;Findings from this study indicated that teachers' increased metacognitive awareness transformed their lesson planning and classroom instruction. Teachers changed their practice and became more metacognitive in three key areas: strategy explanation and modeling, asking questions and responding to students, and classroom talk. These changes were reported across multiple data sources and observed in teachers' classroom practice.;Furthermore, results from a pre/post reading comprehension assessment indicated that teachers' metacognitive strategy instruction led to a measurable increase in students' reading achievement after nine weeks of instruction. Students whose teachers participated in the study showed statistically significant gains on a district reading assessment as compared to their grade-level peers whose teachers did not participate in the study. In addition, students of participating teachers demonstrated statistically significant gains as compared to these same teachers' students from the previous year. |
