Organizing Your Thinking

As I was looking online for tools/resources for some current projects, I came across this nice little clutter free resource for thinking maps.  I haven’t used the “double bubble” map much, and it intrigued me.  I’ll be looking for a way to use it in the near future.

Remember that mind maps/graphic organizers help organize thinking.  This builds metacognition when we are strategic with the organizers we select.  Often times, high ability learners struggle with organization (not just their desks).  They swim in conceptual thinking and can have trouble organizing all those ideas.  Pairing purpose with organizers will give the high ability learners tools for becoming more of an autonomous learner.  It’s important for study skills, note taking, and articulating thoughts.  What a great reminder of thinking about thinking!

I’ve missed this blog! 🙂

Thinking Maps

Resources and Links–Primary Documents Professional Development

Here are a few links that were used and discussed at the professional development that was held at the Central office of Murfreesboro City Schools on April 6th.  Enjoy!

Analyzing_Primary_Sources

http://www.teachtnhistory.org/

TN Ready Blue Prints for Math & R/LA

TN Social Studies Frameworks

Put a Nose on It

A two-year old had been working on drawing circles, so his grandma decided to amp it up a bit.  She said, “Can you put a nose on it?”  And he did.

With a smudge on his nose, he lifted his head with pride and accomplishment!

So, this is a cute, cute story.  It’s easy to appreciate this young child exploring the world and functioning without learned behaviors or expected outcomes.  In the same mind that plays these thoughts, other hypocritical thoughts contradict these beliefs.  Are we even aware?  Do we see possibilities in the “wrong” answers from our students and consider it to be neat?

If I were the grandma, I would have followed this “answer” with…”Can you show me another way to add a nose?”  This approach helps the child develop flexible thinking without destroying his own thinking mind or confidence.  He added a nose.  It just wasn’t the nose Grandma had in mind.

Why is it that the big people, a.k.a. teachers, become so trapped in own expectations or “correct answer” that we can’t see the  actual world around us?  The answers and ideas and possibilities.  Is it any surprise that our students don’t know how to think?  Maybe they’ve given up because all of their thoughts were “wrong.”  Maybe it’s because we don’t give opportunities to think, and they’ve learned they don’t have to think.  Maybe, just maybe, it’s simply because we haven’t thought about this…we haven’t thought about our own thinking.

Guess what?  That’s where it starts.  As a teacher, I must be thinking about the answers I hear and hold myself accountable for having flexible thinking, too.  Could there be a path to the answer that I haven’t considered?  How did they get that answer?  Why would the student answer in that way?  Why would he put his face on the paper?

That’s what makes this story cute.  We were intrigued by this two-year old’s response, and our inquiry and curiosity forced us to consider the thinking involved.  We can see why he put his face down.

It’s an awful day when the student is giving more than a teacher is asking, but the teacher is looking for “one” answer…and misses the amazing work being produced by the student.  Even worse, tells the student it isn’t correct or isn’t what she asked the student to do.  Keep the learning objective clear and think about the responses given by your students.  Respond to their thinking…not necessarily their answers.  Discussion is a reciprocal action.  

This weekend…as you plan for next week…prepare some thought-provoking questions.  Be ready to think about the thinking going on in your classroom.  Find moments like this one in your classroom.

So, get kids talking…and listen.  REALLY listen.  And don’t forget to ask YOURSELF to think, too.

CCSS Units with TEXT Suggestions!!!

The other day, Sheri Arnette told me about a website.  I happened upon it this morning and was amazed at the possibilities it offered.  I haven’t had an opportunity to dig deeply, but from my surface skim, this could give you a plethora of ideas!!  I like how it gives suggested texts, but I LOVE how it breaks the modules into a scaffold approach.

The way I stumbled onto it was through a resource page from another county in the state.  It had some items worth exploring.

Sullivan County

EngageNY is the website Sheri shared with me.  It is found here.

Enjoy!

 

Which Comes First?

Learning or thinking?

While doing some prep work for tomorrow’s appointments, I began searching good ole Google.  (How did I survive all those years?  I LOVE having answers at my fingertips.)  I had questions and wanted to see what the world had to answer them.

Then, I found her (actually she is using HIS work).  An article that defines “reflection.”  It’s long.  It’s scholarly.  So I’ll differentiate.  I’ll pull out some phrases that are AWESOME, and I’ll provide the link.  You can choose your route. (Isn’t choice nice?  How often do you give your students a choice?)  Hopefully these pieces will spark your interest enough to dig into the article called, “Defining Reflection: Another Look at John Dewey and Reflective Thinking” by Carol Rodgers.  Here are some highlights:

• My purpose is, quite simply, to provide a clear picture of Dewey’s original ideas so that they might serve as we improvise, revise, and create new ways of deriving meaning from experiences-thinking to learn.
• “What (an individual) has learned in the way of knowledge and skill in one situation becomes an instrument of understanding and dealing effectively with the situations which follow.  The process goes on as long as life and learning continue.”
• …other kinds of thinking is stream of consciousness. It is the thinking all of us are involuntarily awash in all the time….This is often the only kind of thinking teachers have time for.
• …moves the learner from a disturbing state of perplexity…to a harmonious state of settledness.  Perplexity is created when an individual encounters a situation whose “full character is not yet determined.”  That is, the meaning of the experience has not yet been fully established.
• An additional source of motivation is curiosity, without which there is little energy for the hard work of reflection.
• The store of one’s wisdom is the result of the extent of one’s reflection.
• Formulating the problem or question itself is half the work.  As Dewey says, “A question well put is half answered.”
• Reflection must include action.
• Dewey knew that merely to think without ever having to express what one thought is an incomplete act….The experience has to be formulated in order to be communicated.
• Curiosity about and enthusiasm for that subject matter is essential to good teaching.  Without them a teacher has no energy, no fuel, to carry out reflective inquiry-much less teaching itself.

There is great information in this article.  It helps to define true reflection, its purpose, and the importance of disciplined reflection.  Eye opening.  I hope you’ll take the time to read the article for yourself.

Rodgers, C. (2002). Defining Reflection Another Look at John Dewey and Reflective Thinking. Teachers College Record, 104(4), 842-866.

Engaging Ideas

In Educational Leadership (Vol. 70, No.1), I ran into some pretty nifty ideas for spicing up the classroom.    The article was “How to Know What Students Know” by Himmele and Himmele.

The Ripple Effect:  Picture a ripple in the water…the initial plunk is when each student is given time to individually process the prompt.  The next ripple is when they break into small groups after the individual think time.  In the outer circle of the ripple, the discussion comes back to whole group.  This allows for more meaningful discussion and forces all to participate.  “The quickest way to turn off the minds of shy students, English language learners, or students receiving learning support is to ask your questions in the form of a traditional Q & A.  If you want to reach all students, ripple your questions.”

Chalkboard Splash:  Starting with a question or prompt, students are given a quick write that invites higher order thinking.  Then all students are asked to summarize or find key points and write it in a sentence or two (or given # of words).  Students are then asked to write their work on the board. This gives a quick formative assessment in one activity, students get out of seats, and students get to share their ideas with each other.

The Debate Team Carousel:  LOVE this one.  Four squares on the paper and each square has a different question or prompt.  One student starts with box #1.  Everyone will pass the paper.  On the second round, students respond to box #2 which ties back to the first student’s response.  Third and fourth rounds follow the same idea.  Students will not write more than once on a piece of paper.

Questions Samples (page 60):

1. Write your opinion and give a reason why you think that way.
2. Read your classmate’s response.  In this box, add another reason that would support what your classmate wrote.
3. Write a reason that might be used to argue against what is written in boxes 1 & 2.
4. Read what is written in the 3 boxes.  Add your own opinion and your reason for it in this box.

Let me know how it turns out if you use one of these strategies!

Actual Time Reading

Down to the minute…how much actual time do your students read each day? Write?  Not filling in blanks or giving simple responses, but composing thoughts from within his or her own thinking?

A few years ago, a friend and I decided to chart our school day to see actual instructional time.  We used Excel to create a chart showing each minute of the day.  It was eye opening.  I wanted to make sure that I was organizing the day to squeeze every ounce of learning opportunity from the school day and with a few minor changes, I squeezed even more out of the schedule.

This came to mind as I was reading research by Richard Allington.  His paper was explaining what practice they found in highly effective classrooms.  One thing in effective classrooms?  Students were reading and writing 50% of the day.  More commonly, in other classrooms, they found the amount to be around 10%.  This made me think about the previous charts of instructional time. Stopped me dead in my tracks.  I wasn’t sure what my percentage would have been.  I think my “intention percentage”, if you will, would have been high.  Not sure if my actual classroom time would reflect 50%.  Pretty sure it wouldn’t.

If you took your daily lesson plans and accounted for the time students were reading and writing, real reading and real writing, where would you fall?  I think it would be worth the self-reflection.  With Common Core and PARCC, no time like the present to make these changes.

Other great reminders from the report were model, provide open-ended questions, give explicit instruction, and allow time for students to talk about the content.

 

But if you want to read it for your own take-away, here’s the link to his article called “What I’ve Learned About Effective Reading Instruction From a Decade of Studying Exemplary Elementary Classroom Teachers.”

 

Richard L. Allington

Librarians to the Rescue!!

I have been super impressed with our school librarians!!!  Not only are they really good at what they do, they really want to help!

Check this out…

Tennessee Electric Library.  YIKES, it’s overwhelming.  It doesn’t have to be now!  I have a cheat sheet (THANKS!!).  Everyone is desperately seeking nonfiction articles to provide opportunities for complex text and to target social studies and science content.  Follow these steps and prepare to be amazed.

Step 1:  Visit http://www.tntel.info

Step 2: Click on Junior Edition

Step 3: Enter your search term (ex: Great Depression)

Lexiles provided.

Not so overwhelming now!  This amazing librarian also shared…”Calliope” is great for 6th grade world history and “Cobblestone” for 4/5th US history.

Thanks for sharing!!!