1.  A good place to start is by asking students what they know about learning.  Here are 3 questions you might start with:

What does it mean to learn?

What was your best learning experience (in class or outside of class)?

What do you  know about your own learning?

You might have kids take a few minutes to jot down some notes and then share their answers either in small groups or as a whole class discussion.

2.  Teach students the vocabulary of "learning how to learn".  Beck's approach is a good one.

Beck’s Rich Vocabulary Instruction: The Nature of Vocabulary Instruction, Margaret C. McKeown and Mary E. Curtis, Lawrence Erlbaum Publisher, 1987

^Provide opportunities for maximal deep processing of words

^Have students manipulate words in varied and rich ways

^Words should be encountered with great frequency…over time and in multiple contexts

^Students should be encouraged to use the words outside of the vocabulary lesson

Sequence (repeated with subsequent groups of words)

1. Present words in semantic groups of 6-10 words (Mood: jovial, indignant, enthusiastic)

Friendship: ally, buddy, adversary, acquaintance, kindred soul

Celebration: occasion, honor, party,

2. Work over at least a weeks time, with daily lessons, including 8-10 exposures to the words
3. Have the kids make their thinking about what they are doing/learning explicit (why? How?))
4. Develop a sequence wherein each day requires increasingly deeper processing of the words

Day l: Associate words with their meanings

What does jovial make you think of? What other words come to mind?

Day 2: Associate words with contexts that do not contain the definitions

Think of consequences, examples, actions related to the word (He really love football.

He’d take a day’s worth of food, a horn to blow, and wear his team’s sweatshirt to

Every game. {enthusiastic}

Day 3: Create (describe/make)contexts where the words could be appropriately used

Draw a picture where jovial is appropriate

Imagine and describe what an indignant teenager would say to a parent who

Wanted her to wear “baby” clothes to a party

Day 4: Develop activities that show relationships among the words in the group

Create a contest to see who can include two target words in a sentence; then 3…

Write a poem with at least three of the words

Play Jeopardy using at least two words in the answer or questions

Day 5: Find ways to help kids extend their interaction with the words outside of the lesson

Introduce Word Wizard…a contest with points for outside class encounters with the

Target words….giving context and use of the word

Check out Thinking Operations for a helpful word list.

Futures Lab

3.  Create a Lesson Plan format and share it with students at the beginning of a unit.  See an example

Help students see the role they play in the learning partnership.

One Example of a Meta Lesson Plan Format

4.  Introduce the P.O.R.T.A.L.S. Meta Lesson Plan format

Portals Lesson Plan Part A

5.  Introduce a General Metacognition Interview/Questionnaire and have students complete it several times during the year.

See: General Self Management Interview Page