Putting It All Together:
Integrating the Four Roles
SESSION
6
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Overview
A learning resource for educators with six sessions:
1. Thinking as a Habit of Mind
2. Meaning Maker: Interacting with Text
3. Code User: Breaking the Code
4. Text User: Understanding Purpose and Form
5. Text Analyzer: Critically Thinking about Text
6. Putting It All Together: Integrating the
Four Roles
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Key Messages
• Early primary students are capable of thinking about their
own thinking.
• The four roles of the literate learner model supports
higher-order thinking in K–2 classrooms.
• The Guides to Effective Literacy Instruction, Grades 4
to 6 support all teachers in planning effective literacy
instruction.
• Higher-order thinking is not about a series of events or
lessons, but rather about developing a habit of mind.
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Learning Goals for Session 6
This session is intended to:
• explore metacognition as it applies to
the four roles of the literate learner
• examine metacognitive strategies for
making thinking processes visible
• examine the independent application
of thinking processes, including peer
and self-assessment
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Evolving View: Four Roles of the Literate Learner
“Metacognition is the process of thinking about one’s own thought processes. Metacognitive skills
include the ability to monitor one’s own learning. Acquiring and using metacognitive skills has
emerged as a powerful approach for promoting a focus on thinking skills in literacy and across
all disciplines.”
Health and Physical Education, 2010, p.62
Adapted from page 9 of Literacy for Learning: The Report of the Expert Panel on Literacy in Grades 4 to 6 in
Ontario (2004). Based on Freebody and Luke’s “Four Resources Model” (1990). The Expert Panel elaborated
on the four resources model to suggest four roles of a developing junior learner. For discussion purposes
only based on the work of the Collaborative Inquiry in Literacy 2008–09 and 2009–10.
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Metacognition
Examine the metacognitive expectations
for each strand in the language curriculum.
• What are the implications for
Kindergarten teachers?
• What is the relationship between
metacognition and self-regulation?
• What is the relationship between
metacognition and moving to
independence?
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Effective Metacognitive
Strategies
• activating prior knowledge and
connecting it with new information
• intentionally selecting and applying
thinking strategies
• monitoring one’s own learning
• assessing one’s own learning
A Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction,
Volume One, 2006, p. 61
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Students talk about thinking
View a video on the web:
Thinking about Ourselves as
Readers (Grade 2)
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Student Self-Assessment
Read the “Introduction” and the
section titled “Terminology of
Assessment,” as well as the sidebars
on pages 2 and 3.
Discuss implications for
classroom practice in
teaching and assessing
metacognition.
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
List strategies you would
use to help develop
metacognition and
involve students in the
assessment of their own
thinking.
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Peer and Student Self Assessment
What opportunities do I provide for students to
practise peer and self-assessment strategies?
Gradual Release of Responsibility Model
Teacher Responsibility
Student Responsibility
Source: From "Productive Work Group: How to Engage Students, Build Teamwork, and
Promote Understanding" (p. 7), by Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher & Sandy Everlove,
Alexandria, VA: ASCS, © 2009 by ASCD, Reprinted and adapted with permission. Learn
more about ASCD at www.ascd.org .
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Inquiry Habit of Mind
• Where can I situate opportunities
for metacognition as I integrate the
four roles of the literate learner?
• What opportunities am I giving
students to build metacognitive skills
and assess their own learning?
• Where changes in my practice might
result from the ideas presented today
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Inquiry Habit of Mind
What is the impact of __________________ (teacher practice)
on ________________________ (change in student learning)?
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following staff members from
Bond Lake Public School, York Region District School
Board, for welcoming us into their school and classrooms
to share the thinking and learning of their students.
Kim Smith – principal
Joanne Babalis – Kindergarten teacher
Julie Ham – Kindergarten, Early Childhood Educator
Andria Greaves – Grade 1 teacher
Wendy Janes – Grade 1 teacher
Sarah Tulley – Grade 2 teacher
Aynsley Maxwell-Turanski – Grade 1/2 teacher
Chris Reeves – teacher librarian
Marguerite Gervan – special education resource teacher
A special thank you to the many students from Bond Lake
Public School whose thinking about their thinking
supports the learning of educators across Ontario
throughout this resource.
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Hand-outs and Reference Documents
All resource and curriculum documents used in Thinking
about Thinking sessions are available online in PDF. Please
visit the following web page to download them:
http://resources.curriculum.org/LNS/thinking/session6.html
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