In this article, you will learn...

• Teaching kids the skill of mathematical metacognition is the key to achieving conceptual understanding and procedural fluency.
• Metacognition requires students to examine, externalize, and apply their thinking and is related to the concept of student ownership—a mindset that leads to elevated academic achievement.
• Fostering metacognition requires a balance of explicit instruction, teacher modeling, student-centered exploration, and responsive coaching that helps students first learn the kinds of questions and thought processes they can apply, and then grow to use them on their own.
• For the next eight weeks Elevated Achievement will be providing you with a metacognitive study of the 8 mathematical practices—what this thinking looks like at each grade level, a step-by-step approach to teaching each practice, and a reflection guide to support students as they “think about their thinking.”