To Boost Higher-Order Thinking, Try Curation

Listen to this post as a podcast: If no one has ever encouraged, pushed, or insisted that you build more higher-order thinking into your students’ learning, it’s possible you’ve been teaching in a cave. Higher-level thinking has been a core value of educators for decades. We learned about it in college. We hear about it in PD. We’re even evaluated on whether we’re cultivating it in our classrooms: Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching, a widely used instrument to measure teacher effectiveness, describes a distinguished teacher as one whose “lesson activities require high-level student thinking” (Domain 3, Component 3c). All that aside, most teachers would say they want their students to be thinking on higher levels, that if our teaching kept students at the lowest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy—simply recalling information—we wouldn’t be doing a very good job as teachers. If this sounds anything like you, I have a suggestion: Try a curation assignment. That’s what I’m proposing we do.

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/curation/

On building learning playlists We create them on Spotify and YouTube and iTunes. Before music went digital, some of us made CD or cassette mixtapes and shared them as gifts. With our ability to ethically curate content and unglue it from its containers, and a growing array of digital tools and open education resources, many of us are engaging in a creative new form of the remix.

Gamify Reading for Maximum Student Engagement There is always an ongoing debate in classrooms, particularly at the elementary level, as to the effectiveness of adding technology to early and more advanced reading programs. However, the right combination of excitement and entertainment and actual learning experiences through a more computer or app game-like experience is very positive for children. The key factor to remember is that online games and gaming experiences can be a wonderful way to enhance foundational reading skills. It is not meant to replace teaching or teacher engagement with students around course material. With the kids excited about interacting with each other, with technology and with a format they are comfortable with, real changes in motivation and learning opportunities will become a part of their daily experience.

28 Critical Thinking Question Stems For Any Content Area - 28 Critical Thinking Question Stems For Any Content Area by TeachThought Staff Critical thinking isn’t a skill, nor is it content knowledge or even evidence of understanding. While it involves and requires these ideas, critical thinking is also very much a state of mind — a willingness and tendency to sit with an idea and ‘struggle wonderfully’ with it. In critical thinking, there is no conclusion; it is constant interaction with changing circumstances and new knowledge that allows for broader vision which allows for new evidence which starts the process over again. Critical thinking has at its core raw emotion and tone.

Peterson web page - HYPERDOCS HyperDoc: Guide to Making a HyperDoc HyperDoc by Lesson Topics HyperDocs and Student Centered Learning - many *Automation - NYC School Librarian Guidebook Automation is a software application to assist building level librarians with the management of the library catalog, circulation, material and patron activity, as well the production of a variety of reports and statistics. Automation is not just a tool to modernize the job of the librarian; it is a tool that provides greater access to the library’s collection for students, staff, and parents. Physical access to the library collection is a prerequisite to equitable and intellectual access. One of the first benchmarks of the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum is for students to independently locate books on a shelf in a library using a library's catalog. The universal standard in 21st century for libraries is a web-based catalog.

The Elementary Good Work Toolkit The Elementary Toolkit is a work in progress. To access our most updated draft, click here! Despite the versatility of the Good Work Toolkit, one space to which it was not immediately adaptable was the elementary classroom. The Good Work Toolkit was initially designed with high school students in mind, and although older students and professionals were able to readily repurpose and use the materials, it was less accessible for a younger audience.

How to improve your Critical Thinking skills: Interview with Dr. Gerald Nosich – Life Lessons In this article I interview an expert on Critical Thinking, Dr. Gerald Nosich from the Foundation for Critical Thinking, who has been teaching Critical Thinking since 1977 to find out how we can improve our Critical Thinking skills. In this article you will learn: Let’s start at the beginning… Michael: What is Critical thinking? Ways To Use Canva In Your Library & Classroom Instruction A couple weeks ago I shared Part 1 of this four part series. That is all about how to use Canva in meaningful ways. Today I am excited to share Part 2!

Librarians Harness Instagram New library card holders celebrate in #FirstLibraryCard posts from Worcester, Mass. (l.), and Jersey City, N.J. Today’s librarians are typically well versed in social media, and for many, one platform in particular shines brighter than the rest: Instagram. After all, the picture-friendly platform can help them reach readers—and exchange ideas. “It’s the most universal,” says librarian Betsy Bird, collection development manager at Evanston Public Library in Illinois. “Unlike Twitter, which is used mostly by adults, Instagram is used across the board.”

National Center on Disability and Journalism The style guide is intended for journalists, communication professionals and members of the general public who are seeking the appropriate and accurate language to use when writing or talking about people living with disabilities. The guide covers general terms and words on physical disabilities, hearing and visual impairments, mental and cognitive disabilities and seizure disorders. Entries are listed in alphabetical order. Writing a Critique A critique (or critical review) is not to be mistaken for a literature review. A 'critical review', or 'critique', is a complete type of text (or genre), discussing one particular article or book in detail. In some instances, you may be asked to write a critique of two or three articles (e.g. a comparative critical review). In contrast, a 'literature review', which also needs to be 'critical', is a part of a larger type of text, such as a chapter of your dissertation. Most importantly: Read your article / book as many times as possible, as this will make the critical review much easier. Contents

Bring Read Alouds to Life with the Novel Effect App Recently I stumbled across a post on TCEA's blog entitled Take Reading to the Next Level with Novel Effect. Apparently lots of educators are already using the Novel Effect app in the classroom! In case you are like me and haven't heard of this, I wanted to write a quick blog post about my experience and recommend that you try it out. Tool literacy as a new process I’ve been thinking a bit about the notion of app smashing and the way we introduce learning challenges in our classrooms and libraries. And I am thinking there’s a thinking process going on that we’re not thinking about nearly enough. The Evolution of the Desk by Best Reviews Introducing a tool and saying you are going to use this tool to tell this story is kinda like saying go to page 347 and do exercises three through five. The notion of app smashing was coined by Greg Kulowiec (@gregkulowiec) of EdTechTeacher Loosely, it’s the process of using multiple applications together in order to to complete complex tasks or projects.

OPINION: Advice about how to raise the high school graduation rate — from students themselves - The Hechinger Report “Ask how we’re doing and mean it. Ask the follow-up question, even when we brush you off the first time. And be willing to listen to the answers.”