Engaging Students

1
Engaging Students

• Incorporating Depth, Complexity, and Questioning
  Strategies into the classroom.

2
Definitions Questioning Strategies

• Methods used by teachers and students to ask
  questions that require the respondent to use
  high-level, critical, and/or creative thinking
  skills when processing information or responding
  to the question.

3
Depth.The Bigger Picture

• Refers to how a person approaches the big
  picture. Often, the approach starts with the
  concrete and moves to the abstract or starts with
  the known and moves to the unknown.

4
Depth

• Requires students to examine
• facts concepts
• generalizations
• related principles and theories
• Necessitates uncovering details and new knowledge
  related to a topic of study.
• Encourages students to adopt perspectives and to
  see patterns in connections.

5
Complexity. More Parts

• Bridges the content to other disciplines,
  enhancing the relevance for students
• Complexity encourages students to
• Relate to concepts and ideas at a sophisticated
  level
• See associations among diverse subjects, topics,
  or levels
• Find multiple solutions from multiple points of
  view

6
Bigger picture
Depth Requires a student to uncover the detail
about how a car works Complexity Requires a
student to see the working relationships between
the different parts
More parts
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Why?

• Engage all students in high-level thinking and
  learning.
• Develop each students creative and critical
  thinking skills.
• Appropriately challenge all students to become
  autonomous learners by developing deeper, more
  complex, and extensive understanding of subject
  matter.

8
What does this look like?

• Teachers choose instructional materials that
  engage, develop, and challenge.
• Teachers model for and interact with students
• ask questions
• provide feedback
• give assignments
• provide assessment
• Students engage with the content and each other
  at high levels, with increased Depth and
  Complexity in their interactions

9
Tools of the Trade

• Effective questioning techniques
• Classroom strategies that guide discussions
• Socratic Seminars and Scored Discussions
• De Bonos Six Thinking Hats
• Blooms Taxonomy
• Posters, Planning Guides, Templates, G-B Matrix
• Depth and Complexity Resources
• Icons, Posters, Templates

10
Questioning

• Effective Questioning Techniques
• Increase Think time and Wait time
• Talk less, ask more
• Move from simple to complex
• Avoid yes or no questions
• Dont let a few students dominate the
  conversation/questioning/answering

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Two effective techniques

• Just by increasing wait time by three seconds,
  teachers can
• Increase student achievement
• Increase number of higher cognitive responses
• Increase contributions by non-participatory
  students

• Increasing question complexity
• Extends thinking skills
• Clarifies understanding
• Creates links between ideas
• Enhances curiosity
• Provides challenges

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Original Revised Blooms
Blooms

• Evaluation
• Synthesis
• Analysis
• Application
• Comprehension
• Knowledge

• Creating
• Evaluating
• Analyzing
• Applying
• Understanding
• Remembering

Higher-order thinking
56
(Based on Pohl, 2000, Learning to Think, Thinking
to Learn, p. 8)
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How to Help Students Make Depth and Complexity
Their Own

• Use icons
• Post Examples of Question Prompts
• Teach students to think in terms of
• The Language of the Discipline
• The patterns, rules, ethics, trends, details, and
  big ideas related to the content
• Different Perspectives
• Relationships over Time

Icon chart
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Keys to Activate Deeper Learning

• Language of the Discipline categorize, identify
• Details describe, differentiate
• Patterns summarize, make analogies
• Trends prioritize, predict
• Rules judge credibility, hypothesize
• Ethics judge with criteria, determine bias
• Big Idea prove with evidence, identify main idea
• Unanswered Questions note ambiguity, distinguish
  fact from fiction

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Method to see a different perspective The Six
Thinking Hats by de Bono

• White Hat Focus on data.
• Red Hat Use emotion.
• Purple Hat Look at the bad points.
• Yellow Hat Think positively.
• Green Hat Think creatively
• Blue Hat Direct the process. Steer
  conversation toward the most needed hat.

Activity packet