After convincing three of my more muscular co-workers and
my dad to lug the large instrument up the stairs in my apartment, I am happy to
say that I am now the proud owner of a piano. I had wanted my own from the time
I moved out of my parent’s house five years ago. It still needs to be tuned,
however, nothing compares to being able to leisurely play my very own piano.
While contemplating the topic of metacomprehension, I was drawn to my
experiences in learning how to play the piano as a child and preparing for the
ever dreaded recitals once a year. My teacher would pick the music, place it in
front of me and the fun would begin. It was never easy to learn a new piece of
music and it is still challenging. In the same way we approach and monitor our
learning, there is a process one must go through to perfect the timing, notes
and expression to perform in a recital. In a way, reading music and getting the
rhythm is similar to reading words and comprehending. With this in mind, I hope
to explain my analogy for metacomprehension – the pianist and the recital.
Activities such as
planning how to approach a given learning task, monitoring comprehension, and evaluating
progress toward the completion of a task are metacognitive in nature (Livingston, 1997).When learning a piece of music,
the pianist goes through several steps. First, the pianist must determine the
appropriate level of music to play. The music cannot be too difficult for the
pianist’s level of skill mastery. Another aspect to consider is the amount of
time to learn the music. If the recital is in a few weeks, a simpler piece
should be tackled. Students go through similar steps in approaching reading.
He/she must choose a book appropriate to his/her level. It should also be of
interest to the child. He/she must then think about what he/she already knows
about the topic and what he/she hopes to learn.
When beginning to play the instrument, the pianist has to
relate to his/her prior knowledge and have a plan of action. The pianist looks
at the time signature and key. He/she may have played a different song in the
same key and the same time signature before. This is very helpful when learning
a new piece of music. The pianist must also be able to read the notes. Of
course, it is not realistic to look up every note to remember which key to
press, just as a reader cannot look up every word. The reader must also access
his/her prior knowledge. He/she will first look at the title to see if it
sparks interest. The young student will flip to the first page of the book to
make sure he/she can read the majority of the words. A young reader will also recognize
sight words he/she already knows. The reader may also find similarities in one
book with another he/she has already read. The reader may also think about
his/her own experiences with the topic. Both the pianist and reader put
something of themselves into the tasks. The pianist feels the music and uses
expression to enhance the performance. The reader brings his/her experiences
into the story to compare and contrast these experiences while reading. Both
tasks are very personal.
Another activity of metacognition is monitoring
comprehension. Thinking about thinking, is often used to describe metacognition
(
As a pianist practices, it is very obvious which areas
need work – the ones where the mistakes are occurring. You can definitely hear
a wrong note and notice bad timing. It is not as easy for the reader. I cannot
count the times a student has approached me, ready for an Accelerated Reader
test over a story, and has failed the test. The student believed that they knew
the story well enough to be tested on it. Obviously the student is failing to
monitor his/her comprehension. Some students skip over words they do not know
and do not find out what the words are. A few unknown words can easily change
the meaning of the story. As with playing the piano, the song would be ruined
if the pianist skipped over the parts he/she did not know.
Yet another activity in metacognition is evaluating
progress of the task at hand. How well did the recital go? Did the audience
clap? Did the audience notice the wrong note I played? What can I do better? These may all be
questions the pianist asks herself. In the same way, the reader may wonder what
he/she could have done to understand the story better. When the student
receives the graded test, he/she could look up the questions missed. The
student and teacher could come up with strategies to help the student prevent
missing those types of questions in the future.
While the pianist and the recital can illustrate the
concept of metacomprehension, it does fail in areas. For example, playing the
piano requires much manual dexterity. It is very easy to press the wrong key
even though the pianist knows the note. A finger might slip on the key from
sweaty hands. Reading success does not depend upon being able to move your
fingers to play notes. The pianist may also be able to play the piece perfectly
at home with no one watching. However, when the big day comes, the pianist may
make mistakes that he/she would not have normally made under different
circumstances. In a way, this could be similar to the reader and taking a test
over the story. He/she may have known every review question at home but may
have test anxiety on that day and cannot perform. The comfort level for the
pianist is also an issue. Using a different piano to perform than the one used
to practice can be difficult. For example, if the bench is too low or too high,
that can affect the performance. Finally, student metacomprehension is not put
on display for an audience. Teachers can work with the student to improve skills
one-on-one. If a student stumbles, new strategies can be worked on to help make
sense of the problem.
References:
Livingston, Jennifer (1997)
Metacognition: An Overview. Retrieved
Mayer, R.E. (2003). Learning
and Instruction.