Metacognition Danielle Rolley

When I encounter material I'm reading, my thinking depends on what I am reading and then I organize my thinking depending on what I want to take away from the material. When I am reading something I am interested in my thoughts are normally consumed in what I am reading. When I am interested in what I am reading I am not only thinking about what I am reading but I am taking it in and learning from it. There is usually no reason for me to try and organize my thoughts when I am reading material that I am interested in. When I encounter reading material that I am not interested in or boring material I have to constantly fight to keep my thinking focused on what I am reading in order to gain anything from it. I usually organize my thoughts by making sure there are no other distractions around me and when I feel like my thinking is drifting away from what I am reading I concentrate harder and reread the part of the reading I drifted off on. If I do not organize my thoughts when reading difficult or boring material then I won't take anything away from the material and if the material is something school related then it's important for me to organize my thoughts. When I encounter material that is too difficult for me or over my head then I try to organize my thinking so that I relate the material to something I already know. I feel like this is really good advice that I will give my students when they come across difficult reading material.

When it comes to writing material it is harder to get my thoughts organized. I really enjoy writing about something I am interested in or that I am really familiar with because my thoughts come easily about what I want to write. However when I have a lot I want to write about it is hard to know where to start so it is important to organize my thoughts first before I start writing. I usually do this by brainstorming and creating outlines. When it comes to writing about something I am either not interested in or that is difficult to write about, then it takes a lot for me to get my thinking focused. I usually create my own questions about the topic that I try to answer in my writing. This gives me some initiative to start writing and a starting point and then I go from there.