English·English Thinking·meta
Knowing What You Don't Know
Monitor your own vocabulary gaps — notice words you half-know, distinguish confident from uncertain knowledge, and develop strategies to resolve the uncertainty
Suggested ages 8–10
Evidence of understanding
- Noticing Unfamiliar Words Assessment research (grade 2+)
- word consciousness and vocabulary metacognition research
- Building Word Knowledge e-Book (PMC 2019)
Assessment prompt
When Knowing What You Don't Know comes across a word they half-know — where they can guess the meaning but aren't sure — do they notice that gap and do something about it, like looking it up or asking?
Standards alignment
No external standards are linked to this topic.