Students’ metacognitive response to ambiguous literacy tasks

Abstract

This study examined fifth‐grade students’ metacognitive response to ambiguous literacy tasks and explored the relationship between that response and academic achievement. The study focused on students’ metacognitive plans or strategies for completing two ambiguous literacy tasks — writing stories comprised of weekly spelling words and writing answers to open‐ended questions related to a reading assignment — and analyzed these plans with respect to quality and usefulness. Analysis of eleven students’ interview protocols yielded three levels of metacognitive plans — Rich, Simple, and Undefined — which appear to represent a depth dimension of difference between students; further analysis of these plans in relationship to spelling assignment and reading test grades suggested an additional dimension of functionality — the degree to which the plans seemed to work. Results suggest that a relationship exists between the depth and functionality dimensions; that is, the greater the depth of metacognitive plans, the more likely they are to lead to academic success.