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An Open Letter to Ninth Graders. Dear First-Year High School Students, I am one of the co-editors of What Is “College-Level” Writing? —a 2006 collection of essays that focuses on the difference between high school writing and college-level writing. Because of my work on that book, I’ve spent a great deal of time in the last five years thinking about what students need to make the transition from high school to college.

Many studies and reports in recent years have argued that there’s an important “expectations gap” between the skills students are typically bringing to college and what college teachers like me think students should be bringing with them to college. I offer you my advice and encouragement as you embark on your high school career because I think there’s a lot that you can do on your own to get ready for college. Let’s begin with perhaps the most fundamental of all college-readiness skills— reading. Reading Students who are ready for college like to read.

Writing Thinking Listening “Grit” Attitude Toward College. Flow Chart for Studying. Ponder Questions. A Harvard assistant dean of admissions: You had to look for people who could come into a very competitive environment, who could still find self-esteem and who in some way, shape or form was still the best at something. How do you figure that out? It was never the answers they gave.

It was the questions they asked. The questions give a much better clue to how a person thinks. I know many folks who consider themselves intellectuals. Yes perhaps if they just mention a topic, that really stands for some questions about that topic. Once you start to think about a question, you’ll probably soon start to break it down into supporting sub-questions.

ShareThis Tagged as: Personal Trackback URL: The Last Question by Isaac Asimov. Synthesis. The Extended Essay (IB DP) Research. Other prompts and AP Lang multiple choice. Advice for effective analytical reasoning. Good list of cognitive biases Wikipedia List of Cognitive Biases (Please read this before continuing below.) After reading through the list, one wonders how people ever get anything right. That's called the "cognitive biases bias," or maybe the "skepticism bias" or "paralysis by analysis. " There's also the "bias bias," where lists of cognitive biases are used as rhetorical weapons to attack any analysis, regardless of the quality of the analysis. The previous sentence then could be countered by describing it as an example of the "bias bias bias," and so on in an boring infinite regress of tu quoque disputation, or "slashdot.

" The way out is to demand evidence for a claim of bias, and not just to rely on an assertion of bias. Thus the critic is responsible for providing good evidence for the claim of bias and by demonstrating that the claimed bias is relevant to the findings of the original work. In Wikpedia, I particularly appreciated: -- Edward Tufte. Inference | Classroom Strategies. Language Arts The Question-Answer Relationship strategy helps students understand the different types of questions. By learning that the answers to some questions are "Right There" in the text, that some answers require a reader to "Think and Search," and that some answers can only be answered "On My Own," students recognize that they must first consider the question before developing an answer.See Question-Answer Relationship strategy > Into the Book has an interactive activity that helps young children learn about inferring. In the interactive, students try to infer meaning in letters from virtual pen pals.

They try to answer two questions: "WHERE is your pen pal? " (inferences about location) and "WHO is your pen pal? " (inferences about personality). Riddles are one way to practice inferential thinking skills because successful readers make guesses based on what they read and what they already know. Math Science Teachers can start out providing simple observations: Social Studies. A Taxonomy of Reflection: Critical Thinking For Students, Teachers, and Principals (Part I) My approach to staff development (and teaching) borrows from the thinking of Donald Finkel who believed that teaching should be thought of as "providing experience, provoking reflection.

" He goes on to write, ... to reflectively experience is to make connections within the details of the work of the problem, to see it through the lens of abstraction or theory, to generate one's own questions about it, to take more active and conscious control over understanding. ~ From Teaching With Your Mouth Shut Over the last few years I've led many teachers and administrators on classroom walkthroughs designed to foster a collegial conversation about teaching and learning. The walkthroughs served as roving Socratic seminars and a catalyst for reflection.

But reflection can be a challenging endeavor. It's not something that's fostered in school - typically someone else tells you how you're doing! 1. See my Prezi tour of the Taxonomy A Taxonomy of Lower to Higher Order Reflection. Cognitive Biases - A Visual Study Guide. A Visual Guide to Cognitive Bias. You’re biased. I’m biased. We’re all biased when it comes to thinking, remembering, being social, and making decisions.

Understanding the different cognitive biases we have can help us design and interpret experiments, interact with each other, and make healthy, rational choices. Developing critical thinking. It means not taking what you hear or read at face value, but using your critical faculties to weigh up the evidence, and considering the implications and conclusions of what the writer is saying. Imagine two situations. On the first, you are on a country walk and you come across a notice which tells you not to attempt to climb a fence because of risk of electrocution. Would you pause to consider before obeying this instruction? On the other hand, suppose you were to receive a letter from a local farmer announcing that he proposed to put up an electric fence to protect a certain field.

In this case, would you not be more likely to think about his reasons for doing so and what the implications would be for you and your family? In the first case, you are thinking reactively and in the second, you are thinking critically. An allied skill is the ability to analyse – that is, to read or listen for the following points: How robust are the points presented as evidence? What is its source? 1. 2. ProjectImplicit. The Socratic Method. The Socratic Method:Teaching by Asking Instead of by Tellingby Rick Garlikov The following is a transcript of a teaching experiment, using the Socratic method, with a regular third grade class in a suburban elementary school.

I present my perspective and views on the session, and on the Socratic method as a teaching tool, following the transcript. The class was conducted on a Friday afternoon beginning at 1:30, late in May, with about two weeks left in the school year. This time was purposely chosen as one of the most difficult times to entice and hold these children's concentration about a somewhat complex intellectual matter. The point was to demonstrate the power of the Socratic method for both teaching and also for getting students involved and excited about the material being taught.

The experiment was to see whether I could teach these students binary arithmetic (arithmetic using only two numbers, 0 and 1) only by asking them questions. 1) "How many is this? " 4) Another way? Socrative | Student Response System | Audience Response Systems | Clicker | Clickers | Student Clickers | ARS | Mobile Clicker | Software Clicker.

Detective Game by Peter Pappas. I did not waste the opening week of school introducing the course – my students solved mysteries. I took simplified mysteries and split them into 25-30 clues, each on a single strip of paper. Read my blog post on how I used this lesson. I used a random count off to get the kids away from their buddies and into groups of 5-6 students. Each group got a complete set of clues for the mystery.

Each student in the group got 4-5 clues that they could not pass around to the other students. They had to share the clues verbally in the group and that guaranteed that every student is a talker on day one. This activity demonstrates to students the need for considering the contributions of every group member and gives them practice in organizing cooperatively to accomplish a task. You will need a set of clues for the case for each group. Link to Murder Mystery Clues Link to Bank Robbery Clues Students are seated in a circle with the teacher standing outside the group. Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom.

How We Learn | Video channel on TED.com. Using TED Conversations in the classroom. The Digital Education Revolution, Cont'd: Meet TED-Ed's New Online Learning Platform - Megan Garber - Technology. TED's new tool lets teachers create customized lessons that revolve around web video. The iconic image of high school education, forged for most of us through personal experience and viewings of Dead Poets Society, is this: a teacher, standing in front of his or her class, lecturing. There are exceptions, definitely: the class discussion, the interactive lab experiment, the game, the field trip.

For the most part, though, despite years of education reform, we tend of think of education as a highly vertical experience, one of active teachers and passive students, one in which knowledge radiates out from a single speaker to a roomful of silent listeners. That model is changing, though, and quickly. Increasingly, education -- in college, definitely, but in high school and elementary school, too -- is becoming more horizontally integrated, guided by conversation and interaction and the productive chaos of student curiosity. That's big. And it could be, just a little bit, revolutionary. Be a Wikipedia Editor.

From Wired How-To Wiki Let's get one thing out there first: Anybody can edit Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. In that sense, anyone can be a Wikipedia editor. However, to be trusted within the Wikipedia community requires a bit more effort. This article will show you how easy it is to get started and set you on the right path to being a Wikipedia editor. You're looking at a Mediawiki wiki, and it works in the same way Wikipedia does. Make Your First Edit Go to the Wikipedia homepage and search for a topic about which you are knowledgeable. You will be taken to a page with a large text box, inside of which is the content of the article. If you want to edit only a particular section of an article, find the "edit" link near that section's heading. In that case, the edit-text box will only have the content from that small section, which can help you find the spot you want to edit.

Get Edit Credit When you edit a page without using a Wikipedia account, you are making "anonymous edits. " PBL. Education - Challenge Based Learning. What should students learn in the 21st century? By Charles FadelFounder & chairman, Center for Curriculum Redesign Vice-chair of the Education committee of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)Visiting scholar, Harvard GSE, MIT ESG/IAP and Wharton/Penn CLO It has become clear that teaching skills requires answering “What should students learn in the 21st century?”

On a deep and broad basis. Teachers need to have the time and flexibility to develop knowledge, skills, and character, while also considering the meta-layer/fourth dimension that includes learning how to learn, interdisciplinarity, and personalisation. Adapting to 21st century needs means revisiting each dimension and how they interact: Knowledge - relevance required: Students’ lack of motivation, and often disengagement, reflects the inability of education systems to connect content to real-world experience. 20 Must-See Facts About The 21st Century Classroom. The Current State Of Technology In K-12 7.62K Views 0 Likes What is the next device most students will soon purchase? How many schools have a digital strategy? Find out in the current state of technology in K-12.

What Is PBL Really? Do you want to engage your students in Project Based Learning (PBL)? Maybe you are asking yourself what is PBL really? Am I doing it right? Well, first of all, the most important thing to understand is that PBL is a construct made up by human beings and so there are lots of variations! And you are entitled to construct your own version, too, within some parameters. My suggestion is to study many of the great resources that are available to you and then create your own working definition and effective PBL practice. (I’ve included some of my favourite resources below.) Some Parameters to Consider I have created this diagram, enhanced by the critical eye of Brenda Sherry, which may be useful as you consider what is important to you and to your students.

We like to think with the frame of continua rather than dichotomies simply because things are rarely on or off, black or white, ones or zeroes! You could likely add other dimensions to consider as you build your own understandings and beliefs! Www.inquiryhub.org. 7th Graders Publish Their Own Textbook. Mac Life wrote an article titled Super 7th Graders Publish Their Own eBook to the iBookstore. It explains the project in more detail. "Each student has to choose an organisms they wanted to study and were required to submit their topic for approval. Afterward, students had to write informative – but entertaining!

– articles about their organism. " Andrea collected work from 69 students and entered it into iBooks Author. iBooks Author is free but only works on Macs running 10.7 Lion or higher. iBooks Author is a fantastically powerful tool. There are some disadvantages to using iBooks author for crafting your own learning materials. Check out what Andrea and her students say about writing their book. I think the comment by CNEBBY in the Customer Reviews of Creatures, Plants and More sums up the project well: "This is an awesome example of what kids can do when they are properly motivated by a skilled teacher. " Resources and Tools for PBL Start to Finish. An Introduction to Project-Based Learning. Classroom Guide: Top Ten Tips for Assessing Project-Based Learning. Are we asking the right questions? - Ideas. Googleable vs Non-Googleable Questions.

How To Make Students Better Online Researchers. Seriously Amazing | Smithsonian. How to Choose Summer Reading for Students. Why Eastern And Western Cultures Tackle Learning Differently. Everything You've Ever Been Told About How You Learn Is A Lie. The Role of Questions in Teaching, Thinking and Le. General Exam Questions. Harvard admission exam 1869. Kansas 8th Grade Graduation Exam 1895. Document Deep Dive: What Was on the First SAT? Can you pass this 101-year-old test for 8th graders? No, You’re Probably Not Smarter Than a 1912-Era 8th Grader. The impossible “literacy” test Louisiana used to give black voters. A Questioning Toolkit. Questioning – Top Ten Strategies. Thought Questions - Asking the right questions is the answer.

Creativity/Problem Solving/Criti. Education: Visual Ranking Tool: Overview and Benefits. How To Think & Learn... Concise Learning™ - Learning & Student Success Portal. Conciselearning. Evaluation Toolkit. Use of Scoring Rubrics study. Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning. Cooperative Grouping. Developing Clear Learning Outcomes and Objectives. Archives.mainelearns.org/ovc/story_files/ess_quest.pdf. Resources « Sisyphean High: AP English Language & Composition. Our Mission - Right Question Institute. 'Askers' vs. 'Guessers' - National. Fishbowl Discussion rubric - C589BW. Students Creating Conversations for Learning with the Fishbowl.

Inquiry-based Learning: Explanation. The Keys to Inquiry: Introduction. 7.4: Inquiry Models of Teaching. Print/crjss/v3-188-198.pdf. Idea Book for Earth Science Inquiry by Dr Richard J Suchman. Www.stanford.edu/~danls/Suchman commentary.pdf. Suchman, J. Richard. Inquiry Box Teacher's Handbook. Chicago, Illinois 60611 (259 East Erie Street): Science Research Associates, Inc., 1967. 28 P. $1.60 - 2006 - Science Education.