Uses questioning and discussion techniques effectively to promote the development of higher order thinking skills.
I think that is very important for students to receive opportunities to respond to questions both verbally and in written form, and that they are given many opportunities to use higher order thinking skills. Throughout the day students participate in class discussions, and this is something that I have especially tried to focus on in math. Each morning students in math students are taught a new strategy related to the skill that our unit focuses on. Then after the skill is taught, students are given a problem to solve in a small group or partnership. While they are solving the problem, they have to discuss with each other how they are choosing to solve their problem, and WHY they are making those choices. They then present their findings to class. Students are then given an opportunity to ask questions and compare their findings with each other. During this time I ask them to explain why they made the choices they did, what would happen if they had done something differently, and how they could solve their problems in a different way.
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| Students are given a focus question at the beginning of science lessons and then they have an opportunity to discuss and write about their ideas pertaining to the question. |
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| Students were asked to determine what they thought the changed variable should be for their experiments that they created. |
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| Student Experiments |
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| Students planned a fair test to test their own theories that the temperature of the area around the ice cube would affect its melting speed! |
Students are also given the chance to explain their thinking during science. Each day I have a focus question for the lesson. Throughout the lesson, students are prompted to explain their observations and their new learning. Each lesson then finishes with a discussion of student observations and findings. During this end of lesson discussion, students are asking about what they saw, why they think that happened, and how they could plain their experiments differently to achieve different results. These discussions are a positive, engaging and challenging way for students to stretch their thinking and their assumptions.
