25 Ways to Develop 21st Century Thinkers. The need to develop critical thinkers has never been as urgent as it is now. In a world that is digitally focused and where there is an outpouring of information surfeit, students need to be equipped with the right tools to live up to the new learning exigencies. Critical thinking as a skill is the mother of all other skills and one that underpins and solidify students overall learning. Given the importance of cultivating a culture of critical thinking inside our classrooms and to help teachers have access to a wide range of resources on how to teach and enhance students critical thinking skills, Educational Technology and mobile Learning has devoted an entire section to everything teachers need in order to teach and integrate this skills in their teaching.
You can access it HERE. Today, we are adding another great resource. This is basically a graphic created by Mentoring Minds in which they featured 25 ways to develop 21st century critical thinkers. Courtesy of: Mentoring Minds. Edutopia. I remember how, as a new teacher, I would attend a professional development and feel inundated with new strategies. (I wanted to get back to the classroom and try them all!) After the magic of that day wore off, I reflected on the many strategies and would often think, "Lots of great stuff, but I'm not sure it's worth the time it would take to implement it all. " We teachers are always looking to innovate, so, yes, it's essential that we try new things to add to our pedagogical bag of tricks. But it's important to focus on purpose and intentionality -- and not on quantity.
So what really matters more than "always trying something new" is the reason behind why we do what we do. What Research Says This leads me to educational researcher John Hattie, who wrote Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. Hattie has spent more than 15 years researching the influences on achievement of K-12 children. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Collaborating with Colleagues. Empowering Student Relationships With Media. Debates over children and media use are nothing new, but the technologies by which children primarily interact with media have changed significantly.
Most guidelines related to "screen time" were developed when television was the dominant media, but new technologies are making us question the value of older research. In its most recent report on the subject, the American Academy of Pediatrics makes reference to "important positive and prosocial effects of media use," and a call for expanding media education programs in schools. While more dedicated media education in schools would be great, it is little more than a pipe dream in the current climate of low budgets and high-stake tests. It is therefore incumbent on individual educators to help students interact with media in ways that are critical and empowering.
We cannot limit this work to media that we have selected for quality or educational value. A New Taxonomy Image Credit: Josh Weisgrau Consume Curate Create Critique Publish. A Teacher's Guide to Differentiating Instruction. Introduction Does effectively teaching 30 students in one classroom require teachers to develop 30 lessons, one tailor-made for each student? Or should teachers “aim for the middle” and hope to reach most students in a given lesson? The answer is not simple. While most would agree it is impractical to try to individualize every lesson for every child, research has shown that teaching to the middle is ineffective.
It ignores the needs of advanced students, often leaving them unchallenged and bored, while it intimidates and confuses lower functioning learners. Best practice suggests an alternative: differentiated instruction. Differentiated instruction is an approach that assumes there is a diversity of learners in every classroom and that all of those learners can be reached if a variety of methods and activities are used. What is Differentiation? How to Start Four planning steps set the stage for effective differentiated instruction. Vary Materials Vary Process Vary Assessment Conclusion. Technological Tools for Differentiated Instruction. Are Teachers of Tomorrow Prepared to Use Innovative Tech? Getty Images With a new generation of teachers coming into the work force, there’s a discrepancy between what principals expect of teachers-in-training and what they’re actually learning in school. A new Project Tomorrow report surveying principals concluded that they want to hire new teachers with creative ideas about how technology can be leveraged to create authentic and differentiated learning experiences.
But student-teachers report that their tech training focuses only on simple management tools. At the same time, the report concludes that those who have the biggest influence on new teachers — veteran educators — don’t always embrace new ways of using technology to engage students. Only half of current working teachers believe they can use technology to motivate students to learn, compared to 75 percent of incoming teachers.
Only 17 percent of current teachers believe technology can help students deeply explore their own ideas, compared to 59 percent of incoming teachers. Related. Helping Diverse Learners Succeed. My career got off to a bad start when I was hired to teach in a Minneapolis Ojibwe Survival School. That was the year that Prince's Sign O the Times dropped -- the year most of my lesson plans failed. More terrifying was the fact that I had no backup plan. I'm embarrassed now to admit that I sent over 15 kids to in-school suspension in a single morning. A chair was thrown at my head and later a waterfowl-sized stone. The attempted assaults weren't fun, but I classified them as aberrations and moved on.
It took a decade for me to figure out what I did wrong -- a lot of little things, but one big thing. Today we know more strategies for helping all kinds of students succeed. Research-Based Strategies for Working with Diverse Learners A review of the research (PDF, 119KB) on teaching diverse learners sorts the "best practices" into four categories, summarized below: 1. Teachers address beliefs that lead to lower expectations of diverse students and persistently teach challenging curriculum. 50+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media. Imagine a world where resources were limited to what was found in the classroom or the school closet known as the "Curriculum Materials Room. " Picture a world where students wrote letters with pen and paper to communicate with other students and adults outside of the building.
Due to postage costs, the teacher either sent the letters in bulk or paid for stamps out of his or her own pocket. Can you recall a time when student interests like skateboarding or video were never used as part of learning curriculum because the tools needed were either too expensive or not yet conceptualized? Do you remember a time when non-traditional learners struggled, and absenteeism meant a high likelihood of students doing poorly in school, and possibly having to retake the course?
If you experienced none of these scenarios, then you live in a world of possibility because you grew up with the many social media tools available to support all learners. Selecting the Right Tool Readiness Interests. Ten Takeaway Tips for Teaching Critical Thinking. Suggestions from educators at KIPP King Collegiate High School on how to help develop and assess critical-thinking skills in your students.
Ideally, teaching kids how to think critically becomes an integral part of your approach, no matter what subject you teach. But if you're just getting started, here are some concrete ways you can begin leveraging your students' critical-thinking skills in the classroom and beyond. 1. Questions, questions, questions. Questioning is at the heart of critical thinking, so you want to create an environment where intellectual curiosity is fostered and questions are encouraged. In the beginning stages, you may be doing most of the asking to show your students the types of questions that will lead to higher-level thinking and understanding. 2. Pose a provocative question to build an argument around and help your students break it down. 3. 4. 5. Lively discussions usually involve some degree of differing perspectives. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Smart Strategies That Help Students Learn How to Learn. Teaching Strategies Bruce Guenter What’s the key to effective learning? One intriguing body of research suggests a rather riddle-like answer: It’s not just what you know. It’s what you know about what you know. To put it in more straightforward terms, anytime a student learns, he or she has to bring in two kinds of prior knowledge: knowledge about the subject at hand (say, mathematics or history) and knowledge about how learning works. In our schools, “the emphasis is on what students need to learn, whereas little emphasis—if any—is placed on training students how they should go about learning the content and what skills will promote efficient studying to support robust learning,” writes John Dunlosky, professor of psychology at Kent State University in Ohio, in an article just published in American Educator.
“Teaching students how to learn is as important as teaching them content.” [RELATED: What Students Should Know About Their Own Brains] • What is the topic for today’s lesson? Related. 5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students. My first year teaching a literacy coach came to observe my classroom. After the students left, she commented on how I asked the whole class a question, would wait just a few seconds, and then answer it myself.
"It's cute," she added. Um, I don't think she thought it was so cute. I think she was treading lightly on the ever-so shaky ego of a brand-new teacher while still giving me some very necessary feedback. So that day, I learned about wait/think time. And also, over the years, I learned to ask better and better questions. Many would agree that for inquiry to be alive and well in a classroom that, amongst other things, the teacher needs to be expert at asking strategic questions, and not only asking well-designed ones, but ones that will also lead students to questions of their own.
Keeping It Simple I also learned over the years that asking straightforward, simply-worded questions can be just as effective as those intricate ones. . #1. This question interrupts us from telling too much. Students Tell All: What It’s Like to Be Trusted Partners in Learning. Inquiry-based learning is not a new pedagogy, but it has come back into fashion in progressive education circles recently because of new emphasis on the power of students’ innate curiosity to drive learning. Inquiry-based learning asks students to discover knowledge on their own with guidance from their teachers. Rather than receiving information up front through lectures, students research guiding questions, ask their own follow-ups and get help along the way.
Learning through inquiry requires more student agency and demands that teachers and administrators trust that students will ask when they need help. It also places the responsibility for completing tasks and meeting deadlines on the shoulders of students. Science Leadership Academy (SLA) in Philadelphia is a partnership between The School District of Philadelphia and The Franklin Institute. Science Leadership Academy students spoke about their learning experience at the school. All photos by Bailey Collins Katrina Schwartz. 'Most Likely To Succeed': Schools Should Teach Kids To Think, Not Memorize. A Classroom Management Strategy For The First Days Of School. At the start of a new school year, it’s common for teachers to send home a packet of information for parents. This packet typically consists of school policies and procedures, daily schedules, papers to be signed, and hopefully a classroom management plan. This is all fine and good. But by throwing all this information together in a single packet, you’re missing an opportunity to get classroom management started with a bang.
The beginning of the school year is the perfect time to send a pleasant behavioral shock wave through your new class of students and their parents. After all, they’re ripe for a change. The students who have had behavior problems in the past are either hopeful to turn over a new leaf or chomping at the bit to wrest control of the class from you as quickly as they can. Either way, the strategy I’m going to share with you sets the tone for the upcoming school year and is an important first step to creating the class you really want.
The Classroom Management Packet 1. 2. Icebreakers _word doc._.doc. 7 First Day of School Activities Students Love. The first day of school will be here before you know it. Most teachers face the big day with enthusiasm, but they dread the inevitable challenge: what to do on the first day of school. Every teacher’s approach is different. Whatever your goal, here are a few things to try to get the school year off to a great start! Goal: Getting to Know Your Students How well will your incoming students know you? How well do you know them? How well do they know each other? If you’re teaching kindergarteners (or high school freshmen, who often seem like kindergarteners), you may need to spend the first day – or the first several days –getting everyone comfortable.
Teaching strategies for improving friendship skills at the elementary school... The School of Education at Gardner-Webb University has received national... We examine the classroom management characteristics of effective teachers. A few useful classroom management ways to get information from your students on... Plan a Scavenger Hunt. Fostering Relationships in the Classroom. Students and teacher need to develop positive and trusting relationships in an effective classroom. It is also critical that all students, especially English-language learners, develop trusting and enriching relationships with each other.
There are many activities which can be used for both introductory purposes and throughout the year to build and maintain positive relationships in the classroom. Some activities which work well to introduce students to each other and to the teacher can be used again at later points in the year as students' interests change and as they gain new life experiences. While this is certainly not an exhaustive list, it contains several suggestions we have found successful and which could easily be adapted for use with different levels of students. 1) Sharing Weekly Reflections 2) Introducing Me/3 Objects This activity is sometimes called a "Me Bag" or an "All About Me Bag. " 3) "I Am" Project There are many variations of the "I Am" activity. 6) Four Squares.
How To Handle Misbehavior The First Two Weeks Of School. Your new students will likely be on their best behavior for the first few days of school. But by the second week, you and your classroom management plan will be tested. After all, your students don’t really know you. Maybe you’ll be like the pushover teacher they had last year. Maybe you’ll be inconsistent or easy to fluster. Maybe some of your students have never had firm boundaries. And because you haven’t spent enough time with your students to earn their confidence, you’re going to be tested. But when it happens, when Anthony says something crude to try to shock you, when Karla talks back and disrespects you, when your students interrupt you, ignore you, and misbehave three feet in front of you… You’ll be ready. Here’s what to do: Pause. Your first reaction to misbehavior should be no reaction. Hide your disappointment.
Never show hurt over misbehavior or disrespect. Lose the battle. Follow through. Do as you promised and follow through with your classroom management plan. Build rapport. Handling Difficult Students The First Week Of School. Blooms%20Taxonomy%20questions.pdf. 38 Question Starters based on Bloom’s Taxonomy - Curriculet. Do We Really Have High Expectations for All Students?