Engaging Middle School Students

1
Sparks and Conduits for Students Thinking
Critically Mighty Peace Teachers Convention 2014
2
For more conversation

• Rick Wormeli
• 703-620-2447
• rwormeli_at_cox.net
• www.rickwormeli.net
• _at_rickwormeli (Twitter)

3
Handcuffs Puzzle Downloaded from
britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/jbhandcuff Each
person has a piece of rope with a loop tied in
both ends, so it can be worn as handcuffs. The
rope should be reasonably long, so that the
person wearing it can easily step over it if they
want. Each person puts on a complete set of
handcuffs. Before putting them on, they loop
their handcuffs around each other so they are
tied together. Each person should wear a complete
set of handcuffs. They then have to get
themselves apart while following these rules
4

• The Handcuff Puzzle Rules
• The handcuffs cannot be removed.
• Do not break, cut, saw through, bite through or
  in any other way damage the rope. Damaging each
  other is probably a bad idea too.
• If you are doing this puzzle with a class, make
  certain you tell them they need to be able to
  show you their solution.

5
How might we increase the complexity of this
activity?
6
Haunker Hawser
Supplies 100-foot rope, two milk crates or two,
round wood boards
7
Consider Rhodes Scholarship Candidate
struggles
8

• Is creative thinking the same as critical
  thinking?
• Creative Thinking generative, nonjudgmental and
  expansive. When you are thinking creatively, you
  are generating lists of new ideas.
• Critical Thinking analytical, judgmental and
  selective. When you are thinking critically, you
  are making choices.
• http//ericbrown.com/critical-thinking-vs-creative
  -thinking.htmSeptember 5, 2008 By Eric D. Brown

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• Critical Thinking Creative Thinking
• analytic generative
• convergent divergent
• vertical lateral
• probability possibility
• judgment suspended judgment
• focused diffuse
• objective subjective
• answer an answer
• left brain right brain
• verbal visual
• linear associative
• reasoning richness, novelty
• yes but yes and

From www.virtualsalt.com
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• Interesting overlap of definitions at
  http//eduscapes.com/tap/topic69.htm
• Critical thinking involves logical thinking and
  reasoning including skills such as comparison,
  classification, sequencing, cause/effect,
  patterning, webbing, analogies, deductive and
  inductive reasoning, forecasting, planning,
  hypothesizing, and critiquing.
• Creative thinking involves creating something new
  or original. It involves the skills of
  flexibility, originality, fluency, elaboration,
  brainstorming, modification, imagery, associative
  thinking, attribute listing, metaphorical
  thinking, forced relationships. The aim of
  creative thinking is to stimulate curiosity and
  promote divergence.

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Advanced Thinkers

• Concede ignorance when they are ignorant.
• Find out whats going on.
• Respect intellectuals and dont deride them.
• Speak out after doing their homework.
• Examine superstitions.
• Play thinking games and amuse themselves by
  trying to answer puzzle questions.
• Become more informed about history than they are.

12
Advanced Thinkers

• Arent afraid to change their minds.
• Are aware that their opinions, assumptions, and
  beliefs are often affected by peer-group
  pressure.
• Are realistically skeptical even of leaders.
• Recognize that they have personal prejudices.
• Do not to fall in love with their first answers.
• from Steve Allens book, Dumbth The Lost Art of
  Thinking with 101 Ways to Reason Better and
  Improve your Mind (Prometheus Books)

13

• Fixed Intelligence Mindset
• Nov. 5, 2013 Webinar Ed Week with Dr. Carol
  Dweck
• Talent/intelligence set at birth
• Must look smart at all costs
• Showing effort/struggle is seen as a negative,
  something to be avoided
• When failing, these individuals blame
  circumstance or others. They feel helpless to
  change anything.
• Fixed mindset is much more harmful for students
  laboring under a negative stereotype
• When we praise talents, innate qualities, we
  create fixed mindsets in students. I was never
  good at math, nor will I ever be good at math.
  Just give me the test and let me get my F.

14

• Growth Intelligence Mindset
• Nov. 5, 2013 Webinar Ed Week with Dr. carol
  Dweck
• Check out Brainology.u
  s!
• Talent/intelligence malleable, changeable
• Must learn at all costs.
• Effort/struggle seen as part of the process,
  normal, even virtuous
• When failing, these individuals analyze their
  own decisions and actions, then revise efforts
  and try again. Very resilient.
• Colleges are looking for growth mindset quality
  in freshman candidates
• Include, yet in any statement of content or
  skill not yet attained
• Praise process/decisions made when work done
  well
• Who had a terrific struggle today?
• Great persistence!
• You kept trying different things until it
  worked.
• Nice strategies.
• Who has an interesting mistake to share?

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Positive Culture for Failure Tenets

• Academic struggle is virtuous, not weakness.
• To recover from failure teaches more than being
  labeled for failure ever could teach.
• Failure can teach us in ways consistent success
  cannot.
• Initial failure followed by responsive teaching
  that helps students revise thinking results in
  greater long-term retention of content.
• The expert in any field is the one who has made
  the most mistakes in that field. (Neils Bohr)

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Writer, Mark Bauerlein, speaking about todays
students surfing the Internet

• Their choices are never limited, and the
  initial frustrations of richer experiences send
  them elsewhere within seconds. With so much
  abundance, variety, and speed, users key in to
  exactly what they already want. Companionship is
  only a click away.Why undergo the labor of
  revising values, why face an incongruent outlook,
  why cope with disconfirming evidence, why expand
  the sensibilitywhen you can find ample
  sustenance for present interests? Dense content,
  articulate diction and artistic images are too
  much....They remind them of their deficiencies,
  and who wants that? Confirmation soothes,
  rejections hurts. Great art is tough, mass art
  is easy. Dense arguments require concentration,
  adolescent visuals hit home instantly.

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• Writer and educator, Margaret Wheatley, is
  correct
• We cant be creative unless were willing to
  be confused.

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Taking Positive Risks

• The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his
  orders from one who does.
• -- Herbert Prochnow
• If I had been a kid in my class today, would I
  want to come back tomorrow?
• -- Elsbeth Murphy
• Nothing ventured, something lost.
• -- Roland Barth

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Negating Students Incorrect Responses While
Keeping Them in the Conversation

• Act interested, Tell me more about that
• Empathy and Sympathy I used to think that,
  too, or I understand how you could conclude
  that
• Alter the reality
• -- Change the question so that the answer is
  correct
• -- Thats the answer for the question Im about
  to ask
• -- When student claims he doesnt know, ask,
  If you DID know, what would you say?

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Negating Students Incorrect Responses and While
Them in the Conversation

• Affirm risk-taking
• Allow the student more time or to ask for
  assistance
• Focus on the portions that are correct

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• Video
• When There is Only One Correct Answer

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Discern the Pattern and Fill in the Last Row of
Numbers

• 1
• 1 1
• 2 1
• 1 2 1 1
• 1 1 1 2 2 1
• 3 1 2 2 1 1
• 1 3 1 1 2 2 2 1
• 1 1 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 1

- From, Creative Thinkering, 2011, Michael
Michalko, p. 44
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Practice Complex-ifying. Really. A lot.

• Practice turning regular education objectives
  and tasks into advanced objectives and tasks.

24
What is Mastery?

• Tim was so learned, that he could name a horse
  in nine languages so ignorant, that he bought a
  cow to ride on.
• Ben Franklin, 1750, Poor Richards
  Almanac

25

• The better
• question
• is not,
• What is
• the
• standard? The better
  question is, What
  evidence will we tolerate?

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The student understands fact versus opinion.

• Identify
• Create
• Revise
• Manipulate

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Theres a big difference What are we really
trying to assess?

• Explain the second law of thermodynamics vs.
  Which of the following situations shows the
  second law of thermodynamics in action?
• What is the function of a kidney? vs. Suppose
  we gave a frog a diet that no impurities fresh
  organic flies, no pesticides, nothing impure.
  Would the frog still need a kidney?
• Explain Keyness economic theory vs. Explain
  todays downturn in the stock market in light of
  Keyness economic theory.
• From, Teaching the Large College Class, Frank
  Heppner, 2007, Wiley and Sons

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One-Word Summaries

• The new government regulations for the
  meat-packing industry in the 1920s could be seen
  as an opportunity,
• Picassos work is actually an argument for.,
• NASAs battle with Rockwell industries over the
  warnings about frozen temperatures and the
  O-rings on the space shuttle were trench
  warfare.
• Basic Idea Argue for or against the word as a
  good description for the topic.

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Summarization Pyramid
__________ ______________ ____________________ ___
______________________ ___________________________
___ ___________________________________
Great prompts for each line Synonym, analogy,
question, three attributes, alternative title,
causes, effects, reasons, arguments, ingredients,
opinion, larger category, formula/sequence,
insight, tools, misinterpretation, sample,
people, future of the topic
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Some Elements of Challenging, Complex Experiences

• Illuminate more material during the course of the
  year,
• whether by moving more rapidly, by exploring
  concepts in greater depth, or by offering more
  breadth in the field of study.
• Students encounter higher order thinking skills
• (analysis, synthesis, evaluation, application,
  deduction,
• induction, justification) as standard operating
  procedures, not something newly introduced.
• Tangential thinking is invited.
• Subjects are integrated to a larger extent.
• Textbooks and novels are resources, not the
• curriculum.
• Primary sources in research are more heavily
  valued.
• We affirm effort and perseverance, not
  intelligent or capability. We give feedback on
  decisions made.

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• We expose students to a larger variety of
  language and literature. Non-traditional
  grammar, sentence structures, vocabulary words
  and writers voice are encouraged.
• We encourage increased student autonomy.
• We intentionally provoke thinking and confront
  the status quo and invite students to do the
  same.
• Independent studies
• (orbitals), adjusted
• prompts, and
• learning contracts
• are used.
• Pose curveballs,
• novelty.
• Tolerate/encourage
• more ambiguity.

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To Increase (or Decrease) a Tasks Complexity,
Add (or Remove) these Attributes

• Manipulate information, not just echo it
• Extend the concept to other areas
• Integrate more than one subject or skill
• Increase the number of variables that must be
  considered incorporate more facets
• Demonstrate higher level thinking, i.e. Blooms
  Taxonomy, Williams Taxonomy
• Use or apply content/skills in situations not yet
  experienced
• Make choices among several substantive ones
• Work with advanced resources
• Add an unexpected element to the process or
  product
• Work independently
• Reframe a topic under a new theme
• Share the backstory to a concept how it was
  developed
• Identify misconceptions within something

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To Increase (or Decrease) a Tasks Complexity,
Add (or Remove) these Attributes

• Identify the bias or prejudice in something
• Negotiate the evaluative criteria
• Deal with ambiguity and multiple meanings or
  steps
• Use more authentic applications to the real world
• Analyze the action or object
• Argue against something taken for granted or
  commonly accepted
• Synthesize (bring together) two or more unrelated
  concepts or objects to create something new
• Critique something against a set of standards
• Work with the ethical side of the subject
• Work in with more abstract concepts and models
• Respond to more open-ended situations
• Increase their automacity with the topic
• Identify big picture patterns or connections
• Defend their work

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• Manipulate information, not just echo it
• Once youve understood the motivations and
  viewpoints of the two historical figures,
  identify how each one would respond to the three
  ethical issues provided.
• Extend the concept to other areas
• How does this idea apply to the expansion of the
  railroads in 1800s? or, How is this portrayed
  in the Kingdom Protista?
• Work with advanced resources
• Using the latest schematics of the Space Shuttle
  flight deck and real interviews with
  professionals at Jet Propulsion Laboratories in
  California, prepare a report that
• Add an unexpected element to the process or
  product
• What could prevent meiosis from creating four
  haploid nuclei (gametes) from a single haploid
  cell?

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• Reframe a topic under a new theme
• Re-write the scene from the point of view of
  the antagonist, Re-envision the countrys
  involvement in war in terms of insect behavior,
  or, Re-tell Goldilocks and the Three Bears so
  that it becomes a cautionary tale about
  McCarthyism.
• Synthesize (bring together) two or more unrelated
  concepts or objects to create something new
• How are grammar conventions like music?
• Work with the ethical side of the subject
• At what point is the Federal government
  justified in subordinating an individuals rights
  in the pursuit of safe-guarding its citizens?

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The Equalizer(Carol Ann Tomlinson)Foundational
------------------ TransformationalConcrete
----------------------- AbstractSimple
-------------------------- ComplexSingle
Facet/fact ------------- Multi-Faceted/factsSmall
er Leap ------------------ Greater LeapMore
Structured -------------- More OpenClearly
Defined --------------- Fuzzy ProblemsLess
Independence ---------- Greater
IndependenceSlower ---------------------------
Quicker
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R.A.F.T.S.

• R Role, A Audience, F Form, T Time or
  Topic, S Strong Adjective or Adverb
•  
• Students take on a role, work for a specific
  audience, use a particular form to express the
  content, and do it within a time reference, such
  as pre-Civil War, 2025, or ancient Greece.
• Sample assignment chosen by a student
• A candidate for the Green Party (role), trying
  to convince election board members (audience) to
  let him be in a national debate with Democrats
  and the Republicans. The student writes a speech
  (form) to give to the Board during the
  Presidential election in 2004 (time). Within
  this assignment, students use arguments and
  information from this past election with third
  party concerns, as well as their knowledge of the
  election and debate process. Another student
  could be given a RAFT assignment in the same
  manner, but this time the student is a member of
  the election board who has just listened to the
  first students speech.

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R.A.F.T.S.

• Raise the complexity Choose items for each
  category that are farther away from a natural fit
  for the topic . Example When writing about
  Civil War Reconstruction, choices include a rap
  artist, a scientist from the future, and Captain
  Nemo.
• Lower the complexity Choose items for each
  category that are closer to a natural fit for the
  topic. Example When writing about Civil War
  Reconstruction, choices include a member of the
  Freedmens Bureau, a southern colonel returning
  home to his burned plantation, and a northern
  business owner

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Williams Taxonomy

• Fluency
• Flexibility
• Originality
• Elaboration
• Risk Taking
• Complexity
• Curiosity
• Imagination

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Frank Williams Taxonomy of Creative Thinking

• Fluency We generate as many ideas and
  responses as we can
• Example Task Choose one of the simple machines
  weve studied (wheel and axle, screw, wedge,
  lever, pulley, and inclined plane), and list
  everything in your home that uses it to operate,
  then list as many items in your home as you can
  that use more than one simple machine in order to
  operate.
• --------------------------------------------------
  --------------------------------------------------
  -----
• Flexibility We categorize ideas, objects, and
  learning by thinking divergently
  about them
• Example Task Design a classification system for
  the items on your list.

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Frank Williams Taxonomy of Creative Thinking

• Originality We create clever and often unique
  responses to a prompt
• Example Task Define life and non-life.
• --------------------------------------------------
  -----------------
• Elaboration We expand upon or stretch an idea
  or thing, building on previous thinking
• Example What inferences about future algae
  growth can you make, given the three graphs of
  data from our experiment?

42
Frank Williams Taxonomy of Creative Thinking

• Risk Taking We take chances in our thinking,
  attempting tasks for which the outcome is unknown
• Example Write a position statement on whether
  or not genetic engineering of humans
  should be funded by the United States government.
  
• --------------------------------------------------
  -----------------------------
• Complexity We create order from chaos, we
  explore the logic of a situation, we integrate
  additional variables or aspects of a situation,
  contemplate connections
• Example Analyze how two different students
  changed their lab methodology to
  prevent data contamination.

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Frank Williams Taxonomy of Creative Thinking

• Curiosity We pursue guesses, we wonder about
  varied elements, we question.
• Example What would you like to ask someone who
  has lived aboard the International Space Station
  for three months about living in zero-gravity?
• --------------------------------------------------
  -----------------------------
• Imagination We visualize ideas and objects, we
  go beyond just what we have in front of us
• Example Imagine building an undersea colony for
  500 citizens, most of whom are scientists, a
  kilometer below the oceans surface. What factors
  would you have to consider when building and
  maintaining the colony and the happiness of its
  citizens?

44
(No Transcript)
45
Creativity and Critical Thinking involve
patience, resilience, and interaction -- Dan
Meyer Math Needs a Makeover
http//www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curricul
um_makeover.html
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CONSTRUCTIVISM
Traditional Learning
Constructivist Learning

• Part to whole, emphasize skills
• Strict adherence to curriculum
• Rely on textbooks, workbooks
• Students are blank slates
• Teachers disseminate info
• Teachers seek correct answer to validate
  learning
• Assessment/Teaching separate

• Whole to part, emph. concepts
• Pursue student questions
• Rely on prim. sources, manip.
• Students are thinkers
• Teachers mediate, interact
• Teachers seek students knowledge to make
  decisions
• Assessment/Teaching are interwoven

47
Logical Fallacies

• Ad Hominem (Argument To The Man) -- Attacking
  the person instead of attacking his argument
  Dr. Jones conclusions on ocean currents are
  incorrect because he once plagiarized an research
  article.
• Straw Man (Fallacy of Extension) -- Attacking an
  exaggerated version of your opponent's position.
  "Senator Jones says that we should not fund the
  attack submarine program. I disagree entirely. I
  can't understand why he wants to leave us
  defenseless like that."
• The Excluded Middle (False Dichotomy) -- Assuming
  there are only two alternatives when in fact
  there are more. For example, assuming Atheism is
  the only alternative to Fundamentalism, or being
  a traitor is the only alternative to being a loud
  patriot.
• From Jim Mortons Practical Skeptic
  website http//members.aol.com/jimn469897/ske
  ptic.htm)  

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Be a Suspicious Reader

• How does this fit with what I know?
• What evidence does he offer for his claims?
• Where is he going next?
• Am I safe with where this is going How is it
  affecting me?
• What is he not saying?
• Why is he presenting it this way?

49
Ask Students to Look for Patterns

• Add these numbers
• 296, 302, 299, 320
• Each is close to 300, so identify the
  relationship to 300
• -4, 2, -1, 20 -5 22 17
• (300 x 4) 17 1,217

50
Jamie's homework assignment requires her to write
a short biography of five female Nobel Prize
winners. Help her match each nobelist to her
prize category, country of origin and the year in
which she won her prize. Below are all categories
and options used in this puzzle Years Names
Categories Countries 1968 Ada Alvarez
chemistry Australia 1972 Fay Ferguson
economics France 1976 Glenda Glenn
literature Germany 1980 Hannah Hay
medicine Poland 1984 Patsy Pope
physics Russia
Downloaded February 2013 from www.logic-puzzles.or
g
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Clues

1. Fay Ferguson is from Australia.
2. The person from Australia didn't win the prize in
   literature.
3. The nobelist who won in 1968 didn't win the prize
   in chemistry.
4. Of the nobelist who won the prize in medicine and
   Ada Alvarez, one won in 1984 and the other won in
   1972.
5. The winner from Poland won her prize 4 years
   after the nobelist from Australia.
6. Patsy Pope won her prize after the winner who won
   the prize in chemistry.
7. Neither Fay Ferguson nor the winner who won the
   prize in economics is the winner who won in 1984.
8. The nobelist from Germany won her prize 4 years
   after the winner from France.
9. Glenda Glenn isn't from France.
10. The person who won in 1976 didn't win the prize
    in literature.
11. The five nobelists are the nobelist from France,
    the winner who won in 1972, Hannah Hay, the
    winner who won in 1968 and the winner who won in
    1980.

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• Remember, whoever does the editing, does the
  learning!

53
From Assessment/Grading Researcher, Doug Reeves,
The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 18,
2009

• The Class of 2013 grew up playing video games
  and received feedback that was immediate,
  specific, and brutal they won or else died at
  the end of each game. For them, the purpose of
  feedback is not to calculate an average or score
  a final exam, but to inform them about how they
  can improve on their next attempt to rule the
  universe.

54
Feedback vs Assessment

• Feedback Holding up a mirror to students,
  showing them what they did and comparing it what
  they should have done Theres no evaluative
  component!
• Assessment Gathering data so we can make a
  decision
• Greatest Impact on Student Success Formative
  feedback

55
Two Ways to Begin Using Descriptive Feedback

• Point and Describe
• (from Teaching with Love Logic, Jim Fay, David
  Funk)
• Goal, Status, and Plan for the Goal
• Identify the objective/goal/standard/outcome
• Identify where the student is in relation to the
  goal (Status)
• Identify what needs to happen in order to close
  the gap

56
Effective Protocol for Data Analysisand
Descriptive Feeddback found in many
SchoolsHeres What, So What, Now What

1. Heres What (data, factual statements, no
   commentary)
2. So What (Interpretation of data, what
   patterns/insights do we perceive, what does the
   data say to us?)
3. Now What (Plan of action, including new
   questions, next steps)

57
Inquiry Method

•  
• 1.    Something arouses students curiosity.
•  
• 2.    Students identify questions regarding
  topic. There is usually one main question with
  several sub-questions that help answer the main
  question. These questions are submitted to
  classmates for review.
• 3. Students determine the process of
  investigation into topic. Their proposal for
  how to conduct the investigation is submitted to
  classmates for review and revision as necessary.
  
•  
• 4.    Students conduct the investigation.
•  
• 5.    Students share their findings.
•  

58
Socratic Seminar

• Pre-Seminar
• A.      Shared experiences, chosen for richness
  of ideas, issues, ambiguity, discussability
• B.      Students reflect on material
•     Group dynamics, ground rules, and
  courtesy are understood and accepted.
•  
• Seminar
• A. Teacher asks a provocative question. Opening,
  Core, and Closure Questions
• B. Students respond to the provocative question
  and each other.
• C. Teacher offers core questions that help
  students interpret and to re-direct, also
  evalutes and tries to keep mouth shut.
• C. Closing connect to the real world of the
  student
• Post-Seminar
• Writings, Summations, Artwork, Reflection,
  Critique, Analysis

59
Debate Format

• 1.    Statement of the General Debate Topic and
  Why its
• Important 1 min.
• 2.    Affirmative Position Opening Remarks 3
  min.
• 3.    Negative Position Opening Remarks 3 min.
• 4.    Affirmative Position Arguments 5 min.
• 5.    Negative Position Arguments 5 min.
• 6.    Caucus Students on both teams consider
  their arguments and rebuttals in light of what
  has been presented. 3 min.
• 7.    Affirmative Rebuttal and Questioning of the
  Negatives Case 3 min.
• 8.    Negative Rebuttal and Questioning of the
  Affirmatives Case 3 min.
• 9.    Closing Arguments Affirmative Position 2
  min.
• 10. Closing Arguments Negative Position 2
  min.

60
Meeting of Minds at Rachel Carson Middle
School Portrayals of Dr. Sally Ride, Albert
Einstein, Josef Stalin, Bob Dylan, Boss Tweed,
Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, Senator Joseph McCarthy,
the Unsinkable Molly Brown, Rosa Parks. In the
background Advisors for each historical figure

61
Ropes Course Games
62
Ropes Course Games

• Electric Fence (Getting over triangle fence
  without touching)
• Spider Web (Pass bodies through webbing withot
  ringing the attached bells)
• Group Balance (2X2 platform on which everyone
  stands and sings a short song)
• Nitro-glycerin Relocation (previous slide)
• Trust Falls (circle style or from a chair)

63
Line-up

• Groups of students line up according to criteria.
  Each student holds an index card identifying
  what he or she is portraying.
• Students discuss everyones position with one
  another -- posing questions, disagreeing, and
  explaining rationales.

64
Line-up

• Students can line-up according to
• chronology, sequences in math problems,
  components of an essay, equations, sentences,
  verb tense, scientific process/cycle, patterns
  alternating, category/example, increasing/decreasi
  ng degree, chromatic scale, sequence of events,
  cause/effect, components of a larger topic,
  opposites, synonyms

65
Statues (Body Sculpture)

• Students work in small groups
• using every groupmembers body
• to symbolically portray concepts
• in frozen tableau.
• Where does the learning occur?

66
Human Continuum
A
D
67
Human Continuum

• Use a human continuum. Place a long strip of
  masking tape across the middle of the floor, with
  an "Agree" or Yes taped at one end, and
  "Disagree" or No at the other end. Put a
  notch in the middle for those unwilling to commit
  to either side. Read statements about the days
  concepts aloud while students literally stand
  where they believe along the continuum. Be pushy
  ask students to defend their positions.

68
Components of Blood Content Matrix
Red Cells White Cells Plasma
Platelets
Purpose Amount Size Shape Nucleus ? Where
formed
69
The students rough draft
Red blood cells carry oxygen and nutrients
around the body. They are small and indented in
the middle, like little Cheerios. There are 5
million per cc of blood. There is no nucleus in
mature red blood cells. They are formed in the
bone marrow and spleen.
70
Narrowing the Topic
The Civil War
People
Reasons
Inventions
Battles
71
Battles of the Civil War
Gettysburg
Vicksburg
Antietam
Manassas
72
Battles of Gettysburg
Statistics
Strategies
Famous People
Geography
73
What was the Fish hook strategy used at the
Battle of Gettysburg?
Yeah. Thats it.
74
Text StructuresTaking Notes with
Compare/Contrast
Concept 1
Concept 2
75
T-List or T-Chart Wilsons 14 Points
Main Ideas
Details/Examples
1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3
Reasons President Wilson Designed the Plan for
Peace Three Immediate Effects on U.S.
Allies Three Structures/Protocols created by
the Plans
76
Cornell Note-Taking Format

• Reduce Record
• Summarize in
• short phrases
• or essential
• questions next
• to each block
• of notes.
•  
•   
• Review -- Summarize (paragraph-style) your
  points or responses to the questions. Reflect
  and comment on what you learned.

Write your notes on this side.
77
Somebody Wanted But SoFiction

•  
• Somebody (characters)
• wanted (plot-motivation),
• but (conflict),
• so (resolution) .

78
Something HappenedAnd ThenNon-fiction
  Something (independent variable) happened
(change in that independent variable), and
(effect on the dependent variable), then
(conclusion) .
79
Build a Model

• Abstract ideas can be expressed through models.
• Assign the model or give students a choice to
  summarize via a model, but make sure there is
  time to plan, build/draw, and explain the model
  to classmates. Without these three features, we
  dilute the models effectiveness as a learning
  tool.
• As they work, dont hesitate to ask guiding
  questions of your students. Its a time to
  monitor closely, not let them fly solo. If we
  wait until the students present us with their
  models, we missed the prime learning windows.
• Ask students to defend their models as students
  critique their accuracy and effectiveness.

80
Metaphors Break Down

• You cant think of feudalism as a ladder
  because you can climb up a ladder. The feudal
  structure is more like sedimentary rock whats
  on the bottom will always be on the bottom unless
  some cataclysmic event occurs.
• -- Amy Benjamin, Writing in the Content Areas, p.
  80

81

• Creating and interpreting patterns of content,
  not just content itself, creates a marketable
  skill in todays students. A look at data as
  indicating peaks and valleys of growth over
  time, noticing a trend runs parallel to another,
  or that a new advertising campaign for dietary
  supplements merges four distinct worlds --
  Greco-Roman, retro-80s, romance literature, and
  suburbia is currency for tomorrows employees.
  
• To see this in a math curriculum, for example,
  look at algebraic patterns. Frances Van Dykes A
  Visual Approach to Algebra (Dale Seymour
  Publications, 1998)

82
A submarine submerges, rises up to the surface,
and submerges again. Its depth d is a function
of time t. (p.44)
d
d
t
t
83
A submarine submerges, rises up to the surface,
and submerges again. Its depth d is a function
of time t. (continued)
d
d
t
t
84
Consider the following graphs. Describe a
situation that could be appropriately represented
by each graph. Give the quantity measured along
the horizontal axis as well as the quantity
measured along the vertical axis.
85
Study Executive Function!
Late, Lost, and Unprepared Joyce Cooper-Kohn,
Laurie Dietzel Smart but Scattered Peg Dawson,
Richard Guare
86
Emotion drives attention, attention drives
learning. -- Robert Sylwester, 1995, p. 119,
Wolfe
87
Oxygen/Nutrient-Filled Bloodflow When the Body
is in Survival Mode

• Vital Organs
• Areas associated with growth
• Areas associated with social activity
• Cognition

88
Neurotransmitters

• Dopamine activates pleasure centers, controls
  conscious motor activity, facilitates mental
  acuity
• Serotonin calming, mood enhancer, helps with
  memory, sleep, appetite control, and regulation
  of body temperature
• Healthy diet, exercise, and sleep help
  production of both!

89
Neuron
90
Prime the brain prior to asking students to do
any learning experience.

• Priming means we show students
• What they will get out of the experience (the
  objectives)
• What they will encounter as they go through the
  experience (itinerary, structure)

91

• Worthy they were,
• Rafael, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello.
• Theirs a chromatic and plumed rebirth,
• A daring reflection upon man.
• Beyond Hastings and a Wifes tale in Canterbury,
• Galileo thrust at more than Windmills,
• He, Copernicus Gravitas.
• And for the spectre of debate,
• religion blinked then jailed,
• errant no more,
• thereby errant forever.
• Cousin to Pericles, Son of Alexander,
• The cosmology of Adam fanned for all,
• feudal plains trampled by trumpeters,
• man and woman lay awake --
• calves on wobbly legs,
• staring at new freedom
• and Gutenbergs promise.

92
Perception

• What do you see?
• What number do you see?
• What letter do you see?
• Perception is when we bring meaning to the
  information we receive, and it depends on prior
  knowledge and what we expect to see. (Wolfe,
  2001)
• Are we teaching so that students perceive, or
  just to present curriculum and leave it up to the
  student to perceive it?

93
Petals Around the Rose
The name of the game is, Petals Around the
Rose. The name is very important. For each
roll of the game, there is one answer, and I will
tell you that answer.
94
Petals Around the Rose
Answer
6
0
10
95
Petals Around the Rose

• Clues to give students if they struggle
• All the math you need to solve this problem you
  learn in kindergarten or before.
• The sequence of the dice patterns has no
  bearing on the answer.

96
Creativity Reminder from a Mythbuster

• http//www.ted.com/talks/how_simple_ideas_lead_to_
  scientific_discoveries.html

97
Resources

• Mindware www.mindwareonline.com
  (1-800-999-0398)
• Fluegelman, Andrew, Editor. The New Games Book,
  Headlands Press Book, Doubeday and Company, New
  York, 1976
• Henton, Mary (1996) Adventure in the Classroom.
  Dubuque, Iowa Kendall Hunt
• Lundberg, Elaine M. Thurston, Cheryl Miller.
  (1997) If Theyre Laughing Fort Collins,
  Colorado Cottonwood Press, Inc.
• Rohnke, K. (1984). Silver Bullets. Dubuque, Iowa
  Kendall Hunt.
• Rohnke, K. Butler, S. (1995). QuickSilver.
  Dubuque, Iowa Kendall Hunt
• Rohnke, K. (1991). The Bottomless Bag Again.
  Dubuque, Iowa Kendall Hunt
• Rohnke, K. (1991). Bottomless Baggie. Dubuque,
  Iowa Kendall Hunt
• Rohnke, K. (1989). Cowstail and Cobras II.
  Dubuque, Iowa Kendall Hunt