After a question is asked and discussed in class, have students pair up and discuss one (or more) of the following:

• Share how you thought about what the question was asking.

• Share the process you used to arrive at an answer you wanted to choose.

• What was your main reason for choosing your answer, and what were the main reasons you did not choose each of the other answers?

• How did your ideas compare with your neighbor’s ideas?

• What was most confusing to you about this question?

• How confident are you in your answer? Why? What else would you need to know to increase your confidence?

After an assignment or task, have students reflect on one (or more) of the following:

• Pose three questions that you had about the concepts you explored in your assignment that you still cannot answer.

• Describe at least two ideas related to this assignment that you found confusing.

• “I learned a lot in doing this assignment.” To what extent do you agree? disagree?

• How was the way you approached completing this assignment different compared with the last time we had an assignment like this?

• What advice would you give yourself based on what you know now if you were starting this assignment all over again?

The prompts above are from “Promoting Student Metacognition” by Kimberly D. Tanner. Read more here.