How many of you have inherited those Speech-Language Impairment (SLI) students who are really “language only” students? They may be in a Mild/Mod or RSP program, or perhaps they’re just a lower-performing general education student. In elementary and middle school, their therapists probably drilled grammar, gave them opportunities to practice using more complex expressive language, and hammered story grammar structure.
Then, they reach high school, and you watch the real-life consequences as they receive Fs in their ELA, history, science and math classes. You call them in for their weekly sessions (because you haven’t yet had an IEP to reduce their hours!) and you wonder what on earth you’re going to target. Maybe they have a main idea goal, maybe they have an expressive grammar goal, who knows. What you do know is that this student has no study skills and is going to flunk all of 9th grade if you don't so something. What can you do to target their academic skills while still operating within a language framework?
Metacognitive Processes! What? Why?
In my opinion, one of the best ways we can help students who fit this profile is by being a teacher of “how to think about your thinking” (or in technical terms, “metacognitive skills,”). There are lots of reasons to teach metacognitive skills - the biggest one in my book being that our students don’t naturally learn these skills in the way neurotypical students naturally pick up on them. But our higher-level students certainly have the ability to use metacognitive skills when explicitly taught. And who else will teach them these skills but us? It’s certainly not something I’ve seen tackled in my school’s freshman curriculum.
But did you notice something? Were any of those questions “closed questions?” As in, could they be answered with a short, factual statement? No, good learners with high language skills tend to ask themselves “open questions” - questions that require a decent amount of thinking and language in order to answer correctly. And in asking open questions, our comprehension of the material is confirmed, our misunderstandings are brought to light, and new interpretations of the material takes place.
When we teach students the difference between open and closed questions, they are learning the cognitive skill of thinking about their own thinking. They are forced to think, “Am I asking comprehension questions?,” (Probably not). “If I am, am I asking basic closed questions or am I stretching myself and asking open questions that require me to come up with a more complex, deep answer?” We want them to go through this process in order to better engage with the material they are reading or listening to!!
When all is said and done, I wish every student at my entire high school could be given this lesson. The importance of understanding your own thinking cannot be understated at this age in development!
So… How do I Teach The Open/Closed Question Strategy?
I was first introduced to this metacognitive skill when I read Claudia Dunaway’s fabulous book “Think and Speak Successfully.” Sometime in the future, I’ll write a blog post on my favorite mass-produced products (hint: there aren’t many) and Claudia’s book will be at the top of my list. It’s a must-have for any SLPs that work with adolescents with higher-level language processing deficits. I won’t go into the specifics of her strategy here, but I did create a tool to augment the teaching of this concept.
This tool functions like a flowchart. At the top, it helps students identify what kinds of question they’re asking based on the language they’re using. As the flow chart moves down, it helps remind them why practicing each type of question is most effective in a certain situation (e.g. answering a multiple-choice test or a free response).
Over several sessions, we then practice applying this flowchart and the principles to real life examples in several situations. I typically provide the students with a short article and we discuss how we would approach one of the following scenarios in regards to what we’ve just read:
- Preparing for a multiple-choice exam (i.e. practice asking closed questions to double-check that you know the answers!)
- Preparing for free response essay questions (i.e. practice asking open questions to make sure that you can interpret the material correctly)
- Preparing to complete book reports, essays, and other writing assignments (i.e. practice asking open questions to make sure that you can interpret the material correctly)
- Participating in classroom-based academic conversations where students are expected to ask each other questions about a topic
You can download this tool here at my TPT Store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Metacognitive-Language-Strategy-OpenClosed-Question-Flowchart-2544952
What About Carryover?
Carryover with metacognitive strategies is tough. You can’t follow the student around to all their classes to ensure that in class they are engaging in asking themselves open questions, after all! I have distributed copies of this flowchart to some of my general education ELA teachers in order for them to make copies available to students when they are engaging in academic conversations. It would also be possible to shrink down the flowchart in order to make a small copy that could be affixed to a student’s planner, journal, binder, etc. In the end, what we want is for our students to use this strategy as often as possible so it becomes like second nature!
If you have any ideas on how to ensure that your students actually use this strategy in the “real world,” I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
As always, it doesn't have to be fancy, just keep it fun and functional!
- Jillian, the No-Frills SLP
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