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

VTS

I’m done after this.  But trust me, you’ll like this.  Check out the video that shows VTS with CCSS.

Visual Thinking

“Caption”less?

Quick cool idea!

What’s Going On in This Picture?

My brain is going crazy with the possibilities…especially since writing and research seems to be such a tough area on TCAP.  Let me know if you use this and how!!!

 

DBQ (plus curriculum compacting)

Bet you don’t know what THAT means.  Neither did I.  I was doing some digging online, looking for resources to help teachers learn more about Curriculum Compacting because the 5th grade teachers at Cason Lane and I are planning to get together this week to collaborate.  I ran into this website, and I really liked what she had to say about curriculum compacting.  So I decided to continue to explore her webpage.

Then I saw the DBQ.  I scrolled through the document because I had never heard of it.  It stands for Document Based Question.  Okay.  The concept isn’t new.  Got it.  But listen to this!!  The assignment was about comparing and contrasting.  The students were given a brief description of an event at the mall.  Several “witnesses” had comments.  The students had to compare and contrast all the statements to decide what REALLY happened at the mall and write a thesis.  How cool is that!!

DBQ_Mall

Since I also mentioned compacting…here’s some good information about it and Carolyn Coil’s website.

Curriculum Compacting

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!

 

Adventures Beyond the Classroom Walls

How would your students like to sit beside the Amazon River and learn about the layers of the rainforest?  Integrating content helps engage and motivate!  Connections are made that are natural and relevance seems to peek out of every corner.  Learning sticks when it’s enjoyable.  It’s inviting.

Recently at Scales, the third grade team took on a project that their students will never forget.  Explaining it would sell it short.  I’ll let the video tell you the rest of the story.

Step outside of the box.  You might find YOU like it just as much as the kids do.

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.

Fabulous Finds

I love it when highly respected individuals share ideas!  It’s kind of like peeking into their brains and seeing how they think or what gets their attention.  It tells us more about them…which explains why they are held in high esteem.

1)  Dr. Garrett (Grizzard) shared a fabulous find today.  She saw these in the  IRA’s Reading Today this month.  It’s a new twist to literature circle roles.  What a match with CCSS!

a fact finder (finds important facts)

a solution suggester (provides alternative solutions)

a passage picker (identifies the emotions of a character within a passage)

a travel tracer (explains how the character’s emotions are represented in a setting)

an investigator (finds interesting words and researches their meaning)

a director (creates questions at four levels for students in the group to respond to)

a journaler (describes why a scene is important)

THANKS for sharing!!  What a useful tool!!

2)  While breaking down a writing standard today, it got a little tricky.  The verb (state) was DOK 1; however, they had to state an opinion.  Uh oh…that’s not DOK 1.

Dr. Brooks whips out her phone and goes straight to the Hess’s Cognitive Rigor Matrix.  This neat tool helps you decipher tricky situations when you are trying to decide the level of rigor.

matrix

What a GREAT day!  Thanks Dr. Brooks for sharing.

To Educate or Not?

Teachers answer this question every single day.  Research supports that our top learners are likely to regress because they are not being “taught.”  Let’s define teaching.  To impart knowledge or skill.  To show or explain how to do something.  By definition we can infer the one receiving the knowledge or skill did not know how to do it or did not need explanation.  In agreement?  Why would one listen to explanation of something they understood?

So when the majority of the day for a highly capable student is spent reviewing, waiting, or activities that do not require thinking, there is no “teach,” if you will.  Let’s make a generalization.  If there’s not an opportunity to “receive knowledge” then we are not learning…which means…we are likely missing an opportunity to teach some of our brightest students.  Give them something to learn every day.

So, to educate or not?  Which students will get to learn to capacity in your room this year?

This blog intrigue you?  Read  more here.

Advanced Readers – Unwrapping the Gifted – Education Week Teacher

We need to move forward in our thinking and in our educating.  We can’t allow school to “not be school” for any child.  These students are depending on you.  Need help making this happen?  Email me.

Happy “teaching.”

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!