Issue 76: Jan 25, 2010 Connections Newsletter

Productive Talk

Debbie Cargill
Jan 25, 2010

Why is the use of Collaborative Pairs beneficial to student learning? In an online "Talks with an Author" about their new ASCD book, Productive Group Work: How to Engage Students, Build Teamwork, and Promote Understanding, authors Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and Sandi Everlove talk about the importance of group work as a "stepping stone to learning and mastery." Group work includes pairs and/or small groups. The power of productive group work is built around the gradual release of responsibility model and Frey asserts that it is the "linchpin for what happens in student learning." She says that productive group work helps students to "consolidate what they know, clarify what they don't know, and extend their knowledge about the concepts and skills being learned." Fisher added that it also builds confidence and competence in students.

As an effective strategy, Collaborative Pairs are an essential part of the Acquisition Lesson. Talking about the learning, especially new learning, helps students make sense of it, clear up misunderstandings, and take learning to a deeper level. As an organizational tool, students are grouped collaboratively in order to actively engage their thinking about new learning. Active student engagement results in a higher level of learning.

To become a collaborative classroom, set the expectations and model appropriate behaviors for productive talk. Just as with other classroom procedures and routines, students must be taught what Collaborative Pairs look like and be given opportunities to practice. While there are many opportunities for group work, Collaborative Pairs should be used extensively throughout Acquisition Lessons for practice and summarizing. If necessary, start slowly, but build this effective practice into lessons for better retention and transfer. Working together productively is a necessary skill for success in adult life.

See What Moves You: How to get the most from Collaborative Pairs for more information.



Teaching Extending Thinking Explicitly

Barbara McSwain
Jan 25, 2010

Red Mill Elementary in the West Shore School District in central Pennsylvania takes the teaching of Extending Thinking Strategies seriously. They know in 2011 that 75-80% of state test items will come from Extending Thinking. The most common thinking strategies identified by research are:

  • Classifying
  • Comparing/Contrasting
  • Inductive Reasoning
  • Abstracting
  • Error Analysis
  • Constructing Support
  • Deductive Reasoning
  • Analyzing Perspectives

For students to master a thinking skill and to be able to apply it STRATEGICALLY in a real life situation, focus on one Extending Thinking strategy per lesson. An Acquisition Lesson may take 1-3 days on the average. Extending Thinking should occur after one or more Acquisition Lessons on the most essential standards. It should be an expectation of every grade level to expose students to multiple thinking strategy activities over a course of a year. In order for this to occur, each grade level should examine each lesson to apply the most appropriate Extending Thinking strategy.

Students should be taught the strategy explicitly before applying it to content beginning in Kindergarten. Red Mill uses the following Acquisition Lesson to teach Classifying and Categorizing to Kindergarten students:

Topic: Classify

Essential Question: How do you classify objects into categories?

Activating Strategy: Using a Sorting Map graphic organizer, students will sort objects by choice in small groups.

Key vocabulary to preview: category, sort, groups, organize

Teaching Strategies:

1. Distribute several objects (pencil, eraser, paper, puzzle pieces, etc.) to groups. Each group will have the same type and number of objects.
2. Groups think aloud about how they are going to classify objects.
3. Use a sorting map, for chosen attributes.
4. Students will draw pictures of chosen category.
5. Write the category next to the student pictures.

Summarizing Strategy:

1. Students will take a gallery walk around to visit other groups sorts.
2. As a class, create a list of when objects need to be classified.

As a classroom teacher, you may want to add your own Assessment Prompts to the Red Mill Acquisition Lesson plan. Remember to continue to teach and cultivate the use of all eight Extending Thinking strategies throughout the school year. You may want to refer to the LEARNING-FOCUSED Strategies: Connecting to Extending Thinking notebook and the Extending Thinking flipchart to assist you with signal words, appropriate questions, lesson plans and graphic organizers.



What Are Pattern Puzzles?

Denise Burson
Jan 25, 2010

A Pattern Puzzle is a thinking strategy that combines physical manipulation of pieces with mental manipulation of concepts.

Pattern Puzzles are used to:

  • Understand patterns and structure
  • Categorize or group information
  • Sequence events or process steps
  • Give students a way to sort and process information
  • Explore a variety of structures (Poetry, steps to solve a math problem or geometric proof, scientific experiments, plot of a story)

How?

  • Make a copy of a section of text, science or mathematics process, the events in a story, etc.
  • Cut the copy into sentences, steps, or events.
  • Mix up and put in an envelope.
  • Students are to empty the envelope and sort those ideas into a way that makes sense. Perhaps it is to put them into a hierarchy, by grouping smaller ideas into larger concepts or categories. Or students might need to arrange a series of events or steps into a timeline or a process. Or they might be placing individual pieces on a compare/contrast organizer, according to whether they represent similarities or differences. Each of these is a form of organizing; the pattern puzzle activity gives students a way to sort, process and organize information.
  • Have students explain their thinking

Language Arts Example

An active approach for understanding patterns and structures is to have students arrange sentences strips to form a well-organized paragraph. Write each sentence on a separate strip of paper. Mix up the strips and demonstrate how to organize them into a paragraph. Use the Think Aloud strategy to explain your thinking. Talk about the topic sentence and the use of transition words.

Science Example

Give students a copy of the grid with only one triangle of information present. From another copy of the puzzle, cut out the triangle pieces containing the information. Students will take the cut up triangle pieces and complete the puzzle. See the example below:

Science: Ecology Pattern Puzzle


Template (right click on the image, copy, and then paste it into your document):

Pattern Puzzle template