Cognitive wrappers are small self-reflective assignments given before and after homework, class activities, labs, lectures, or assessments to help students focus on the preparation they did. It asks students to reflect on questions such as “how often did you review your notes before class?” or “what tasks did you do to prepare for this exam?” As a metacognitive process, it illuminates the scaffolding that students often don’t realize they use to achieve their learning.

We recently heard from Dr. Ashley Scism about a cognitive exam wrapper that she adapted for her course and that I’m sharing here with permission. Her lunch presentation covered general approaches to wrappers, as well as the impact they can have on student learning, from increasing student confidence to improving grades by engaging a process of critical thinking and self-reflective analysis that ultimately culminates in performance improvement. Most importantly, though, cognitive wrappers help students review their own preparation and study skills more objectively. Ashley reported that cognitive wrappers were especially useful in framing the conversations she had with students following an exam. She shared with us one case study in which one student, in danger of failing out of the program, discussed their exam wrapper with Ashley. Using the wrapper as guidance, Ashley offered study strategies and pre-exam activities that the student might try. In a future exam, the student performed highest in the class.

Feel free to look over Ashley’s powerpoint, her general strategies for cognitive wrappers, and her template for cognitive wrappers here (please note this link requires a Belmont account–email the Teaching Center if you’re having trouble accessing it.