Issue 99: Aug 09, 2010 Connections Newsletter
9 Ideas for Extending Student Thinking in Science
Toni Enloe
Aug 09, 2010
How do authentic experiences challenge students to extend their thinking?
While pencil and paper tests are a great way to assess student knowledge of a topic or concept, Extending Thinking activities challenge students to apply that knowledge giving teachers a clearer picture of the student's level of understanding. Good Extending Thinking activities should be designed to reflect the Do's in the K-U-D Organizer using the knowledge of the topic or concept and should push students to stand on their "mental tiptoes." These authentic experiences are natural motivators for many students and when adapted may be used at any grade level.
1. Editorials - This is a great way for students to examine a point of view. Example: Write an editorial to express Copernicus' views on the Geocentric Theory. Extending Thinking Strategy: Analyzing Perspectives
2. Comic Strips - For students who are more artistically gifted, cartoons or comic strips give them an outlet for their creativity. Example: Design a cartoon or comic strip that makes a statement about genetic engineering. Extending Thinking Strategy: Analyzing Perspectives, Constructing Support
3. Job Recommendation - This activity requires students to look at all of the key information on a topic and construct support based on the positive aspects. Example: Write a job description for periodic table. Extending Thinking Strategy: Constructing Support
4. Classified Ad - Through this activity, students must be concise and synthesize information. For fun, give them a budget (use local newspaper rates for classified ads) and have students construct their ad based on that budget. Example: Create a classified advertisement for Newton's third law. What is it? What can it do? Why would someone need it? Extending Thinking Strategy: Constructing Support
5. Diary entry - Students sequence the events in an experience to create a diary or journal entry about that experience. Example: Based on what you have learned about the intricacies of the water cycle, record in a diary or journal your experiences as water droplet. Where did you go? What were some of your experiences? How did it change you? Extending Thinking Strategy: Analyzing Perspectives
6. Learning Center - Students are required to synthesize the information and identify the key points. They should design at least one activity that can be used to demonstrate understanding of the topic. Example: Design a learning center to explain the three states of matter to a group of 1st grade students. What are they? What processes are involved? How can we demonstrate them? Extending Thinking Strategy: Comparing and Contrasting
7. Interview Questions - When developing interview questions, students will need to consider, the contributions of the individual and trials and tribulations of their work. Example: Develop a set of interview questions for Galileo. Make sure that you also discuss how he might answer the questions. Extending Thinking Strategy: Analyzing Perspectives, Constructing Support
8. Surveys and Analysis - This activity requires students to not only create a survey but to also analyze the results and generate a report based on those results. Students should also look at errors in thinking as they do their analysis. Example: Based on your knowledge about alternative energy sources, design and conduct a survey to sample the knowledge and attitudes about the topic. Analyze your survey results and generate a report to share with your classmates. Extending Thinking Strategy: Classifying and Categorizing, Evaluation
9. Dance - For students who are kinesthetically motivated, this activity provides them with a way to interpret their understanding of a concept or topic. Example: Compose a dance that reflects the series of reactions in the Krebs Cycle. Be prepared to teach it to your classmates. (Of course, this works great for any cycle or process.) Extending Thinking Strategy: Evaluation, Cause and Effect
NOTE: Do not forget to either design or adapt a rubric for each activity. In all of these activities, students should be required to use the key vocabulary for the concept or topic.
Extending Thinking Through Reading Comprehension Strategies
Debbie Willingham
Aug 09, 2010
How can you extend student thinking while using reading comprehension strategies?
We all realize now that many of the questions on the state and national tests our students take are primarily based on higher levels of thinking. Because of that, we need to regularly incorporate higher level reading comprehension strategies into our assignments in all content areas. The Extending Thinking assignments we make can reinforce reading comprehension strategies to take students to a deeper level of content understanding. Integrating Extending Thinking and reading comprehension strategies is easily done because they complement each other so well. These "combination" strategies include main idea and details, text elements/classifying/abstracting, sequencing, cause and effect/error analysis/deductive reasoning, inference/inductive reasoning, compare and contrast, and fact and opinion/constructing support/analyzing perspectives. Often several of these go hand in hand in our assignments, so it is not as important that we label an assignment with a particular strategy as that we just be sure to make those types of assignments.
In order to easily do this, we should follow these steps:
1. Decide the purpose - what students should get out of the reading. The Extending Thinking and/or reading comprehension strategy can be included or implied in the Lesson Essential Question.
2. Choose (or create) a graphic organizer for the content information that will organize it according to the strategy being emphasized.
3. Think of an assignment students will complete that will use the graphic organizer and reinforce a higher level thinking strategy.
Here is a simple example:
Essential Question: What details explain and support the reasons for writing the Constitution? (Incorporates both main idea/details and constructing support strategies).re is a simple example:
Activating Strategy: Brainstorm reasons for making a major change in your life, discuss and lead into tie-in with the United States' decision to make a major change in the government.
Teaching Strategies: Teacher-led discussion and reading of the Preamble, with students completing a matrix organizer paraphrasing details; Assessment Prompts after each two details with partners listing specific examples for each detail.
Assignment: Students complete the following RAFT:
Role: delegate to the Constitutional Convention
Audience: the public
Format: letter to the editor
Topic: constructing support for the new Constitution based on at least three details/reasons/ examples on their graphic organizer
Summarizing Strategy: "The Important Thing" about reasons for writing the Constitution
Understanding the importance of having students think beyond foundational or surface content knowledge enables teachers to consciously reinforce the use of extending thinking and reading comprehension strategies. Incorporating them into into lessons and assignments enables students to get more content from their own reading and better prepares them for later assignments and tests. We need to be sure to do this in all content areas on a regular basis to help our students get the most from our teaching and their learning.
Questioning Techniques - Critical Analysis Questions
Carol Brewer
Aug 09, 2010
How do I use the Critical Analysis Questioning Technique to make the connection from instruction to assessments?
The Questioning Technique is the way in which teachers plan for and use questions. Critical Analysis questions require students to think like the author, or to think as if they write the text. These type of questions are often missed because they require students to think about what they have read. The answers are not right there in the text and many times it is not referenced. The question might refer to the text, but students have to analyze what is written. For example, "Why did the author start the passage with a quote?" Students should go back and reread the beginning of the text and think about why the author used this quote to start the passage. The question does not want the students to analyze the quote; the question wants the students to think about why the author "used" the quote to start the passage. It is important for students to recog nize and practice these questions at an early age.
The best way to implement critical analysis is for students to use their own writing. It is all about the questions that are being asked. For example, kindergarten students draw pictures of a farm, label the details in the picture and write sentences about their picture. Questions asked should be, "Why did you put the ducks near the pond?" Students have to think about the ducks and the pond and the relationship between the two. Once this questioning technique is understood and trusted by students, it is a valuable strategy for any type of assessment. Using the results from the assessments is also a powerful strategy to use in small flexible groups to meet the needs of all students.
A suggested structure for the Questioning Techniques is for schools to have a monthly focus for their questions. Just like the Comprehension Strategy of the Month, teachers model and apply one type of question throughout the month to ensure that students can understand and use them independently. Additional type questions can of course be used throughout the month, but this is the focus type question for the month.
Additional information for the Questioning Techniques can be found with the Connecting Learning to Assessments training, book and flipchart.
