Group items tagged

"Back in the day-we usually referred to visible thinking as explicit thinking. But, as with many solid, worthwhile constructs, they are not readily adopted and so often reappear decades (or centuries!) later under a new name with new advocates and with a new dream that maybe this time things might stick and better the lives of students. "So it is with visible thinking. The basic idea is to uncover the implicit and inert thinking and to make that thinking discussable and perhaps available to others. For it is by objectifying knowledge that we can come to understand it." Talking through a project or the composition process is another way to make learning explicit. Explicit understanding of the process is part of Bloom's Taxonomy.

"During a recent meeting with some colleagues, I reflected upon the conversations that I have had with potential clients over the past 6 months with regards to the use of mobile technologies. With a very small exception (probably 2-3 out of approx 60 conversations) those conversations have revolved around the creation of 'mobile learning', which actually translated as the "shrinking down of desktop content to allow it to be viewed and interacted with on a mobile device". Very little, if any mention, of creating performance support resources… No consideration of using the devices native functions I.e. camera, keyboard, GPS, voice recorder, to enhance the experience…. A heavy focus on the learner 'learning' something from it, as opposed to the worker 'enhancing' their performance from it (Hell, who needs to learn the London Underground routes if you've got the app in your pocket?) And this is where I think we have got it wrong again!" Great thoughts on where we are and where we might go with mobile technologies for education

Encourages the use of synthesis and deeper reading than just "beginning, middle, and end" by having them put together several readings, e.g., about an autistic child and a psychological case study to analyze a character in fiction. Uses case studies from non-fiction articles to create prototypes of, for example, a robot that pushes emotional or intellectual thinking to the extreme. Scenarios from fiction show what their prototypes have and what they need. As they read they are now thinking about how the reading speaks to humans. The video also has a running text commentary that helps visualize how a teacher can make students think about their reading, see patterns, examine their own thought processes and progress. Questions to consider in the margin, as well as connections to the Common Core Standards.

Teacher has students create question to think about a specific text in the context of reading fiction. Relates Common Core Standards to analytical thinking.

A site for thought about how to inspire creativity and thinking: "Design thinking consists of four key elements: Defining the Problem, Creating and Considering Multiple Options, Refining Selected Directions, and Executing the Best Plan of Action."

This blog offers "prepared Brainstorming" as a way to avoid the common abuses of brainstorming: . . . "brainstorming is clearly an oft-used and abused strategy in both classes and staff meetings at school. While we have developed this strategy somewhat with techniques like Think-Pair-Share, we can still fall back on the traditional model when strapped for time, with far from stellar outcomes. "While this infographic focuses on brainstorming, I think its message resonates across all forms of group work that occurs in schools, involving both students and teachers. I think it deserves reflection." The infographic offers the tips to good brainstorming in class and preparation beforehand.

"The Let's Think project draws on over 25 years of research by academics and teacher practitioners. It offers a fresh approach to teaching English, Mathematics, Science (and other subjects) that has a proven impact on students' development as thinkers. Let's Think has several published resources from Foundation Stage to KS3 in a range of curriculum areas."

"For decades, education reform has been focused on curriculum, assessment, instruction, and more recently standards, and data, with these efforts only bleeding over into how students think briefly, and by chance. This means that the focus of finite teacher and school resources are not on promoting thinking and understanding, but rather what kinds of things students are going to be thinking about and how they'll prove they understand them." The cognitive emphasis in Bloom's taxonomy is heartening, but beware of using the spiral in an overly rigid way. It's all too easy to get stuck on the lower levels of "knowing": remembering or factual information, while never quite getting to the higher levels of creativity.

"Thinking Blocks is a nice site for elementary and middle school mathematics teachers. Thinking Blocks provides interactive templates in which students use brightly colored blocks to model and solve problems. As students work through the problems they are provided with feedback as to whether or not they are using the correct sequence to solve each problem. There are templates and problems for addition, multiplication, fractions, and ratios. You can also develop your own problems using the modeling tool." T/H to R. Byrne

"What you see here are candid submissions from people who have engaged in a little exercise. Here's how it works. Think about the word Race. How would you distill your thoughts, experiences or observations about race into one sentence that only has six words?" This National Public Radio blog makes the perfect starting point for a multicultural lesson for ESL/EFL students. The entries are sheer poetry and give a great deal of content to think about the issue of race and one's place in society, for better or worse. Each 6-word "poem" makes us, as one contributor said, "Look past race to underlying humanity."

Brainstorming or creativity by committee may hinder rather than help productive thought and encourage "social loafing," conformity to group-think, and fear of criticism, among other hindrances to divergent, creative thinking.

This is "another great resource on critical thinking skills created by Microsoft and luckily provided for free..I have had a look at it some days ago and guess what? You will definitely love it. It talks about literacy in the digital age and features some great critical and web search skills students need to have.The guide is just 37 pages but is definitely worth reading. If you feel like you can't read it now then download it and read at your own leisure." The downloadable pdf file has good ideas.

One teacher explains how to teach thinking skills. A nice build up, e.g., from concepts to topic sentences, observation to finding patterns and drawing conclusions. Starts with magazine advertising as a short path to larger works.

"We want our students to be active viewers. But why stop at comprehension? "Active viewing is great, but it isn't enough. When it comes to video, students shouldn't just get it; they should also have something to say about it. Students need to be active and reactive viewers -- comprehending and critiquing, reading and reacting, getting and giving knowledge. Below you'll find great tools, tips, and strategies for helping to foster both of these essential media-literacy skills." This page has a wealth of materials -- worksheets, video lessons, tips, etc. -- for critical thinking.

A tutorial on mindmapping, using iMindMap -- how and why you can use this thinking tool to learn and remember, in six simple steps. mphasizes the importance of sing different colors, thickness of lines, visual capabilities, et al.

"Swift Playground is an iPad app to learn Apple's Swift coding language which underpins apps on iOS. The app has engaging lessons and different levels to play." I think learning an app language is appropriate for many levels of students. It gives them control over the games and processes as they think about how the app should go and what it should do.

"I'm trying to capture rethinking about education or formal learning. I'm tired of anything that allows folks to think knowledge dump and test is going to lead to meaningful change. I'm also trying to 'think out loud' for myself. And start getting more concrete about learning experience design." This thoughtful blog is accompanied by a very useful graphic display of how content, activities, evaluation, etc. feed into each other.

This is a nice list of strategies, with links to explanations, of how you can find out what misperceptions they have. Useful for mutiple ages.

"I was recently in a third grade classroom and was struck by the presence of rules that were posted for how to have a conversation. The poster said, "Each person must contribute to the discussion but take turns talking. Ask each other, 'Would you like to add to my idea?' or 'Can you tell us what you are thinking?' Ask questions so that you understand each other's ideas. Say, 'Can you tell me more about that?' or 'Can you say that in another way?'" "Having visited many middle and high schools, I think these same rules could -- and probably should -- be posted there as well. " How important the rules of conversation are! We all too often expect our students to "get into groups and discuss," but how often are these productive conversations? These tips/strategies are well worth practicing at the beginning of every year/semester, and not just with young learners. These tips are also a nice practice for EFL/ESL students as they prepare to speak with native speakers.

A nice example of how to do a Think-Pair-Share in a math context. Students first work individually, then pair up to compare and talk about their answers, and then share within their groups of about 5. Talking about concepts helps students process and learn the concept. The teacher circulates, listening in. Groups report back to the whole class by holding up a small whiteboard/paper with the answer, so that teacher can quickly see how each group (mixed levels of expertise) has done it. She selects one or two groups to explain the answer and how they arrived at it.