We are getting are finally at the final stage of our practice for metacognitive reading awareness. Once you have graduated from Level 3, you will be able to look through all Mixed Practice Programs that will take you through poems using everything that you have learned.
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At this stage, we are now going to emphasize evaluation. When we evaluate, we are revisiting our goals, making sure that we are staying on track, and revising predictions we may have made prior to our understanding of a text (Malone, 2020). In addition, now that we have a deeper understanding of a text, we can now evaluate that understand and the poem itself. This is where we truly engage our critical thinking. ​
The cognitive reading strategies we will be self-evaluation, self-regulation, and critical thinking.
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Terms to Know
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Evaluation: Evaluation, in a cognitive sense, is the ability to assess your responses, cognitive abilities, and reflect on what you can differently in the future (Malone, 2020).
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Self-regulation and Calibration: In metacognitive reading awareness, self-regulation is your ability to control your responses, reasoning, and thoughts in the pursuit of a goal (Malone, 2020). Calibration is the degree to which you can match your perception of you performance with their actual level of performance (Bol & Hacker, 2012).
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To monitor calibration, you will be asked to measure your confidence level on a scale of 1-10 after each question you answer. ​
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Critical Thinking: Skills that require critical thinking are: Identifying unstated assumptions; detecting bias; recognizing logical inconsistencies in a line of reasoning; determining the strength of an argument or claim; distinguishing between verifiable facts and value claims; distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant information, claims, or reasons; determining when a claim is objective or subject; and determining the effectiveness of a main idea.
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Conditional Knowledge: Conditional knowledge is knowing when and why to use a specific cognitive strategy (The Psychology Notes Headquarters, 2020). After you graduate from Level 3, and continue to move through this program in the Mixed Practice, you will given more freedom to determine which strategy to use for a certain text. Therefore, it is critical that you continue study the cognitive strategies introduced to you through this course.​
Bias:
A bias is a cause to feel or show favoritism or prejudice for or against an idea. Biases often appear when an author is inclined to believe a certain way based on the experiences they've had or observations they have made. However, we need to be careful to recognize that humans do not share the same experiences and observations, and therefore come away with different opinions in regards to the way things work.
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Claim:
A claim is an assertion of the truth of something, typically one that is disputed or in doubt. In poetry, the poem's main idea is often a claim. The poet makes a statement that can be agreed or disagreed upon through an observation they make or an experience they've undergone.
Unstated Assumption:
These are assumptions that are not stated outright by the poet or author. Similar to a bias, the author or poet may believe that what they are presuming is commonly accepted as truth and thus doesn't need to be explained. Though some unstated assumptions may be justified, we still need to be aware of them as at times they are founded on a authorial bias that comes without proper evidence or support.
Tutorial for Level 3
Step 1: Evaluation and Critical Thinking
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How do we evaluate a poem and think critically about it? Poems contain a theme or a central message that can be interpreted as an argument. Remember, our goal is not only to extract that argument/idea from the poem, but evaluate whether or not the poet did a good job conveying that idea and whether or not we agree with that idea. The ability to evaluate a poem and form our own opinions about that poem can be transmissible to any text you read. This is part of the critical thinking process.
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Again, we will be looking at "The Road Not Taken" for this example.
Level 3 "Prep Phase" will ask you questions such as:
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How confidently could you teach or articulate this poem 1-10?
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What did I find memorable about the poem?
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Where my original predications about the poem's main idea mostly accurate or inaccurate?
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After the "Prep Phase," you will be asked critical thinking questions that revolve around the poet's stylistic intentions, unstated assumption, objective and subjectivity, etc. :
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What decides a person’s future according to this poem?
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How confident are you in your response (1-10)​
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Which of the following are most likely reasons the poet chose to use a thoughtful tone of voice for this poem?
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Which of the following are most likely reasons the poet chose the image of two diverging roads to convey for his main idea?
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Which of the following statements reveals the the poet's bias?
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To which of these scenarios could the main idea of this poem BEST be applied?
