English Language Proficiency Standards
Critical Thinking in the Social Studies Classroom Gigi Lott K-12 Social Studies Specialist (361)-561-8566 [email protected]
Questions
What is an Essential Question?
•Concepts or skills in the form of a questions (replaces the objective). •Organizes and sets the focus of the lesson. •A tool to help teachers to gather evidence of learning.
Ask Yourself…
•What is the intended goal of the lesson? •What do I expect my students to know by the conclusion of the lesson?
TEKS Resource-Backward Design Document
Instructional Focus Document (IFD)
You try Creating Essential Questions Use the standard to form the question • Economics. The student understands the economic effects of World War II and the Cold War. The student is expected to: • US. 17A Describe the economic effects of World War II on the home front such as the end of the Great Depression, rationing, and increased opportunity for women and minority employment. Readiness Standard
You try Creating Essential Questions Use the standard to form the question • History. The student understands the domestic and international impact of US participation in World War II. The student is expected to: • US .7D Analyze major issues of World War II, including the Holocaust; the internment of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans and Executive Order 9066; and the development of conventional and atomic weapons. Readiness Standard
Seven Defining Characteristics of a Essential Question 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Open-ended Thought-provoking and intellectually engaging Requires higher-order thinking Important, transferable ideas Additional questions Support and justification Recurs
Question Formulation Technique (QFT)
What is the Question Formulation Technique? The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a simple, but rigorous, step-by-step process designed to help students produce, improve, and strategize on how to use their questions. The QFT allows students to practice three thinking abilities in one process: divergent, convergent and metacognitive thinking.
Using Student Questions Students can use their questions for many purposes, including the following: • Conduct Research • Reports • Conduct Experiments • Independent Projects • Write Papers/ Essays • Group and Individual Projects • Socratic Seminars/ Debates • Prepare for Presentations/Interviews
Components of the Question Formulation Technique 1. The Question Focus (QFocus) 2. The Rules for Producing Questions 3. Producing Questions 4. Categorizing Questions 5. Prioritizing Questions 6. Next Steps 7. Reflection
Rules for Producing Questions Ask as many questions as you can Do not stop to discuss, judge or answer the questions Write down every question exactly as it is stated Change any statement into a question What might be difficult about following these rules?
www.rightquestion.org
The Question Focus (QFocus) A simple statement, a visual or aural aid to help students generate questions Created from curriculum content
You will need to design a QFocus every time you use the QFT
Producing Questions Once students have discussed the Rules for Producing Questions: • • •
Divide students into small groups of 3-5 Ask groups to identify a note-taker Distribute newsprint or worksheets to each small group
Instructional Focus Document (IFD)
Producing the Questions Question Focus: Europeans began exploring and colonizing in North America for a variety of reasons. 1. Follow the Rules for Producing Questions. 2. Number your questions.
www.rightquestion.org
Rules For Producing Questions Introduce the Rules for Producing Questions: Ask as many questions as you can Do not stop to answer, judge or to discuss the questions Write down every question exactly as it is stated Change any statement into a question TIP: Distribute or post the Rules for Producing Questions
Improve Your Questions You might have these two kinds of questions in your list: • Closed-ended questions – they can be answered with “yes” or “no” or with one word. • Open-ended questions – they require an explanation and cannot be answered with yes” or “no” or with one word.
www.rightquestion.org
Improve Your Questions Identify closed- and open-ended questions. 1. Mark the closed-ended questions with a C and the openended questions with an O.
www.rightquestion.org
Improve Your Questions 2. Name advantages of asking closed-ended questions.
www.rightquestion.org
Improve Your Questions 3. Name disadvantages of asking closed-ended questions.
www.rightquestion.org
Improve Your Questions 4. Name advantages of asking open-ended questions.
www.rightquestion.org
Improve Your Questions 5. Name disadvantages of asking open-ended questions.
www.rightquestion.org
Improve Your Questions 6. Review your list of questions and change one closed-ended question into an open-ended. Then, change one open-ended question into a closed-ended one.
www.rightquestion.org
Prioritizing Questions Criteria for prioritizing is usually set by the teacher. Criteria will depend on what you have planned as next steps with the questions. Instructions for prioritization will vary. Here are some examples: Choose three questions that… •most interest you. •you consider to be the most important. •will best help you design your research project •will best help you design your experiment •will best help you solve a problem •you want/need to answer first.
Prioritize Your Questions
• Choose the three most important questions from your list. • Keep in mind the Question Focus. • Mark each priority question with an “X”
www.rightquestion.org
Share Your Questions Please share: •
The questions you changed from closed to open-ended and from open-ended to closed. Read each question as originally written and how it was changed
•
Your three priority questions
•
Your rationale for selecting those three
•
The numbers of your priority questions
www.rightquestion.org
Next Steps
1. How are you going to use your three priority questions?
www.rightquestion.org
Reflection 1. What did you learn? 2. What value does it have?
www.rightquestion.org
• Additional materials to help you teach the QFT are available at www.rightquestion.org. • For a comprehensive description of how to use the Question Formulation Technique in the classroom please see the book: Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions (2011: Harvard Education Press). http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/144/MakeJustOneChange • We would appreciate any insights, suggestions or feedback about this presentation.
Thank you!
Academic Conversations
Conversation Builds Critical Thinking Skills • Talking helps develop critical thinking skills. • Conversation helps students to “examine, scrutinize, criticize, validate, and shape the ideas being discussed.” • Students develop their own ideas. • Academic conversations develop students’ intellectual agility. • Conversation helps students to refine and enrich their knowledge. • Students often become teachers of one another.
Five Core Skills of Academic Conversation See Academic Conversation Placemat in your folder 1. Elaborate and clarify 2. Support ideas with examples 3. Build on and/or challenge a partner’s idea 4. Paraphrase 5. Synthesize conversation points
Activities for Skill 1: Elaborate and Clarify •Clarifying with Analogies and Metaphors – •Converse about Graphic Organizers and Manipulatives – •Opinion Continuum/Four Corners •Journal Jumpstarts (Quick Writes) –
Activities for Skill 2: Support Ideas with Examples •Hunting for deep quotations•Planning their conversations on paper – •Teach terms that trigger the need for examples –
Activities for Skill 3: Build on and/or Challenge a Partner’s Idea •Conflicting Texts and Quotations •Two-Minute Opinion Share
Activities for Skill 4: Paraphrase • Paraphrase Cards – • Understand and Organize as a Listener
Activities for Skill 5: Synthesize Conversation Points • Parking, Promoting, and Pruning Ideas • Parking Distracting Thoughts – Train students to write down thoughts that might be useful later, or to “park” them (Nichols, 2006). • Promoting – Some brilliant ideas never get shared. Teach students to promote ideas • Pruning – Students also need to discard (prune) thoughts that are likely to be unhelpful. • Pair – Plus – One - Have students practice in “pair-plus-one” groups. The third person is an observer who provides feedback and extra support as the partners converse. Eventually, students practice in pairs and self-monitor.
Visible Thinking Routines
What are they? • Each routine: • Is goal oriented in that it targets specific types of thinking • Gets used over and over again in the classroom • Consists of only a few steps • Is easy to learn and teach • Is easy to support when students are engaged in the routine • Can be used across a variety of context • Can be used by the group or by the individual
Routines for Introducing and Exploring Ideas
See-Think-Wonder •What do you see when you look at this picture? •What do you think when you look at this picture? •What do you wonder when you look at this picture?
Chalk Talk •This routine can be used to start a lesson or as a reflection after the lesson. •A silent conversation between students conducted on paper. •This process allows learners time to think through the prompt, to formulate questions, and responses to others comments.
Routines for Synthesizing and Organizing Ideas
Color-Symbol-Image
4C’s Connections, Challenge, Concepts, Changes
Routines for Digging Deeper Into Ideas
What Makes You Say That? (WMYST?) •This routine helps students reflect on their thinking by asking them to elaborate on the thinking that lies behind their response. •Used on a regular basis this helps students move towards evidential reasoning. •Aids students in being critical of what they hear, or read. •The language is not challenging.
Step Inside The Nile River
Questions
• What can the Nile see, observe, or notice? • What might the Nile know about, understand, or believe? • What might the Nile care about? • What might Nile wonder about or question?
I Used to Think….Now I Think…. “I used to think….” •Now, I want you to think about how your ideas about immigration have changed as a result of what we’ve been discussing. Write a few sentences beginning with “But now, I think….?”
Questions
What is an Essential Question?
•Concepts or skills in the form of a questions (replaces the objective). •Organizes and sets the focus of the lesson. •A tool to help teachers to gather evidence of learning.
Ask Yourself…
•What is the intended goal of the lesson? •What do I expect my students to know by the conclusion of the lesson?
TEKS Resource-Backward Design Document
Instructional Focus Document (IFD)
You try Creating Essential Questions Use the standard to form the question • Economics. The student understands the economic effects of World War II and the Cold War. The student is expected to: • US. 17A Describe the economic effects of World War II on the home front such as the end of the Great Depression, rationing, and increased opportunity for women and minority employment. Readiness Standard
You try Creating Essential Questions Use the standard to form the question • History. The student understands the domestic and international impact of US participation in World War II. The student is expected to: • US .7D Analyze major issues of World War II, including the Holocaust; the internment of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans and Executive Order 9066; and the development of conventional and atomic weapons. Readiness Standard
Seven Defining Characteristics of a Essential Question 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Open-ended Thought-provoking and intellectually engaging Requires higher-order thinking Important, transferable ideas Additional questions Support and justification Recurs
Question Formulation Technique (QFT)
What is the Question Formulation Technique? The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a simple, but rigorous, step-by-step process designed to help students produce, improve, and strategize on how to use their questions. The QFT allows students to practice three thinking abilities in one process: divergent, convergent and metacognitive thinking.
Using Student Questions Students can use their questions for many purposes, including the following: • Conduct Research • Reports • Conduct Experiments • Independent Projects • Write Papers/ Essays • Group and Individual Projects • Socratic Seminars/ Debates • Prepare for Presentations/Interviews
Components of the Question Formulation Technique 1. The Question Focus (QFocus) 2. The Rules for Producing Questions 3. Producing Questions 4. Categorizing Questions 5. Prioritizing Questions 6. Next Steps 7. Reflection
Rules for Producing Questions Ask as many questions as you can Do not stop to discuss, judge or answer the questions Write down every question exactly as it is stated Change any statement into a question What might be difficult about following these rules?
www.rightquestion.org
The Question Focus (QFocus) A simple statement, a visual or aural aid to help students generate questions Created from curriculum content
You will need to design a QFocus every time you use the QFT
Producing Questions Once students have discussed the Rules for Producing Questions: • • •
Divide students into small groups of 3-5 Ask groups to identify a note-taker Distribute newsprint or worksheets to each small group
Instructional Focus Document (IFD)
Producing the Questions Question Focus: Europeans began exploring and colonizing in North America for a variety of reasons. 1. Follow the Rules for Producing Questions. 2. Number your questions.
www.rightquestion.org
Rules For Producing Questions Introduce the Rules for Producing Questions: Ask as many questions as you can Do not stop to answer, judge or to discuss the questions Write down every question exactly as it is stated Change any statement into a question TIP: Distribute or post the Rules for Producing Questions
Improve Your Questions You might have these two kinds of questions in your list: • Closed-ended questions – they can be answered with “yes” or “no” or with one word. • Open-ended questions – they require an explanation and cannot be answered with yes” or “no” or with one word.
www.rightquestion.org
Improve Your Questions Identify closed- and open-ended questions. 1. Mark the closed-ended questions with a C and the openended questions with an O.
www.rightquestion.org
Improve Your Questions 2. Name advantages of asking closed-ended questions.
www.rightquestion.org
Improve Your Questions 3. Name disadvantages of asking closed-ended questions.
www.rightquestion.org
Improve Your Questions 4. Name advantages of asking open-ended questions.
www.rightquestion.org
Improve Your Questions 5. Name disadvantages of asking open-ended questions.
www.rightquestion.org
Improve Your Questions 6. Review your list of questions and change one closed-ended question into an open-ended. Then, change one open-ended question into a closed-ended one.
www.rightquestion.org
Prioritizing Questions Criteria for prioritizing is usually set by the teacher. Criteria will depend on what you have planned as next steps with the questions. Instructions for prioritization will vary. Here are some examples: Choose three questions that… •most interest you. •you consider to be the most important. •will best help you design your research project •will best help you design your experiment •will best help you solve a problem •you want/need to answer first.
Prioritize Your Questions
• Choose the three most important questions from your list. • Keep in mind the Question Focus. • Mark each priority question with an “X”
www.rightquestion.org
Share Your Questions Please share: •
The questions you changed from closed to open-ended and from open-ended to closed. Read each question as originally written and how it was changed
•
Your three priority questions
•
Your rationale for selecting those three
•
The numbers of your priority questions
www.rightquestion.org
Next Steps
1. How are you going to use your three priority questions?
www.rightquestion.org
Reflection 1. What did you learn? 2. What value does it have?
www.rightquestion.org
• Additional materials to help you teach the QFT are available at www.rightquestion.org. • For a comprehensive description of how to use the Question Formulation Technique in the classroom please see the book: Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions (2011: Harvard Education Press). http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/144/MakeJustOneChange • We would appreciate any insights, suggestions or feedback about this presentation.
Thank you!
Academic Conversations
Conversation Builds Critical Thinking Skills • Talking helps develop critical thinking skills. • Conversation helps students to “examine, scrutinize, criticize, validate, and shape the ideas being discussed.” • Students develop their own ideas. • Academic conversations develop students’ intellectual agility. • Conversation helps students to refine and enrich their knowledge. • Students often become teachers of one another.
Five Core Skills of Academic Conversation See Academic Conversation Placemat in your folder 1. Elaborate and clarify 2. Support ideas with examples 3. Build on and/or challenge a partner’s idea 4. Paraphrase 5. Synthesize conversation points
Activities for Skill 1: Elaborate and Clarify •Clarifying with Analogies and Metaphors – •Converse about Graphic Organizers and Manipulatives – •Opinion Continuum/Four Corners •Journal Jumpstarts (Quick Writes) –
Activities for Skill 2: Support Ideas with Examples •Hunting for deep quotations•Planning their conversations on paper – •Teach terms that trigger the need for examples –
Activities for Skill 3: Build on and/or Challenge a Partner’s Idea •Conflicting Texts and Quotations •Two-Minute Opinion Share
Activities for Skill 4: Paraphrase • Paraphrase Cards – • Understand and Organize as a Listener
Activities for Skill 5: Synthesize Conversation Points • Parking, Promoting, and Pruning Ideas • Parking Distracting Thoughts – Train students to write down thoughts that might be useful later, or to “park” them (Nichols, 2006). • Promoting – Some brilliant ideas never get shared. Teach students to promote ideas • Pruning – Students also need to discard (prune) thoughts that are likely to be unhelpful. • Pair – Plus – One - Have students practice in “pair-plus-one” groups. The third person is an observer who provides feedback and extra support as the partners converse. Eventually, students practice in pairs and self-monitor.
Visible Thinking Routines
What are they? • Each routine: • Is goal oriented in that it targets specific types of thinking • Gets used over and over again in the classroom • Consists of only a few steps • Is easy to learn and teach • Is easy to support when students are engaged in the routine • Can be used across a variety of context • Can be used by the group or by the individual
Routines for Introducing and Exploring Ideas
See-Think-Wonder •What do you see when you look at this picture? •What do you think when you look at this picture? •What do you wonder when you look at this picture?
Chalk Talk •This routine can be used to start a lesson or as a reflection after the lesson. •A silent conversation between students conducted on paper. •This process allows learners time to think through the prompt, to formulate questions, and responses to others comments.
Routines for Synthesizing and Organizing Ideas
Color-Symbol-Image
4C’s Connections, Challenge, Concepts, Changes
Routines for Digging Deeper Into Ideas
What Makes You Say That? (WMYST?) •This routine helps students reflect on their thinking by asking them to elaborate on the thinking that lies behind their response. •Used on a regular basis this helps students move towards evidential reasoning. •Aids students in being critical of what they hear, or read. •The language is not challenging.
Step Inside The Nile River
Questions
• What can the Nile see, observe, or notice? • What might the Nile know about, understand, or believe? • What might the Nile care about? • What might Nile wonder about or question?
I Used to Think….Now I Think…. “I used to think….” •Now, I want you to think about how your ideas about immigration have changed as a result of what we’ve been discussing. Write a few sentences beginning with “But now, I think….?”
