August 2013 archive

Making Thinking Visible by Ritchart, Church and Morrison

This paragraph strikes a chord with me:
“In most school settings, educators have focused more on the completion of work and assignments than on a true development of understanding. Although this work can, if designed well, help foster understanding, more often than not its focus is on the replication of skills and knowledge, some new and some old. Classroom are too often places of “tell and practice.” The teacher tells the students what is important to know or do and then has them practice that skill or knowledge. In such classrooms, little thinking is happening. Teachers in such classrooms are rightly stumped when asked to identify the kinds of thinking they want to do because there is ‘t any to be found in much of the work they give students. Retention of information through rote practice isn’t learning; it is training.”

The opposite is also a problem, that is when the class is full of activity, but the students don’t really understand the point of the activities.

In order to understand thinking requires:
1. Observing closely and describing what’s there
2. Building explanations and interpretations
3. Reasoning with evidence
4. Making connections
5. Considering different viewpoints and perspectives
6. Capturing the heart and forming conclusions
And two additional thinking moves;
7. Wondering and asking questions
8. Uncovering complexity and going below the surface of things.

Additional types of thinking that are useful in the areas of problem solving, decision making, and forming judgments include:
1. Identifying patterns and making generalisations
2. Generating possibilities and alternatives
3. Evaluating evidence, arguments, and actions
4. Formulating plans and monitoring actions
5. Identifying claims, assumptions, and bias
6. Clarifying priorities, conditions, and what is known

Embedded Formative Assessment

Eliciting Evidence of Learner Achievement
High-engagement classroom environments appear to have a significant impact on student achievement.

… When teachers allow students to choose whether to participate or not- for example, by allowing them to raise their hands to show they have an answer – they are actually making achievement gap worse, because those who are participating are getting smarter, while those avoiding engagement are forgoing the opportunities to increase their ability.

iPads in the classroom

http://learningandsharingwithmsl.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/using-green-screen-technology.html?spref=tw
http://learningandsharingwithmsl.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/using-ipad-in-grade-one-more-ideas-one.html?spref=tw

These two blog posts by Ms Lirenman are something I would like to follow up on in terms of effectively using iPads in the classroom.