HOT Skills Challenge #5 – Thinking CAP

Let’s encourage each learner to put on a Thinking CAP, throughout the summer:

As we’ve talked about different ways to instill HOT Skills (Higher Order Thinking Skills) in our learners,  we’ve discussed ways to be Creative, Analytical, and Practical.  In Dr. Robert Sternberg's work, Successful Intelligence, he contends that successful people learn to integrate and use three components of intelligence for thinking:  Creative, Analytical, and Practical.     

. 

Sternberg spells out his definition of intelligence by saying, 
.

“Successful intelligence is the kind 
of intelligence used to achieve important 
goals. People who succeed, 

whether by their own standards 
or by other people’s,   

are those who have managed to 
acquire, develop, and apply 

a full range of intellectual skills, 

rather than merely relying on 
the inert intelligence 
that schools so value. 

These individuals may or may not 
succeed on conventional tests, 

but they have something in common 

that is much more important 
than high test scores. 

They know their strengths; 
they know their weaknesses. 

They capitalize on their strengths; 

they compensate for or 
correct their weaknesses.” 

. 
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Key functions in each aspect of intelligence include:

• ·        C-reative:  create, invent, discover, imagine, suppose, predict

• ·        A-nalytical:  analyze, critique, judge, compare/contrast, evaluate, assess

• ·        P-ractical:  apply, connect, use (useful), put into practice, implement, employ

 .
If you've participated in the HOT Skills challenge, staff development, and/or WOW, you have already given your learners some of these tools for thinking!  Before summer break, why not discuss with your learners ways to put on their Thinking CAPs throughout the summer?

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Here are our Gibbs' WOW, for review:


·       1-  Fluency

·       2-  Flexibility

·       3-  Originality

·       4-  Elaboration

·       5-  Creativity

·       6-  Creative thinking

·       7-  Cause / Effect

·       8-  Because

·       9-  Compare (and contrast)

·       10- Classify

·       11- Differentiate

·       12- Predict

·       13- Revise

·       14- Edit

·       15- Modify

·       16- Analyze

·       17- Practical

·       18- Thinking C.A.P.

HOT Skills Challenge #4 - Be Analytical! Be Practical!

This month, keep asking questions!  Be ANALYTICAL, but be PRACTICAL, too.

How does that work?

ANALYTICAL:

• ·        Keep asking questions!

• ·        Have students ask questions!

• ·        Investigate!

• ·        Use “Words of the Week”, numbers 7- 11 and 13-16 to jump start analytical thought:

o   7-  Cause / Effect

o   8-  Because

o   9-  Compare (and contrast)

o   10- Classify

o   11- Differentiate

o   13- Revise

o   14- Edit

o   15- Modify

o   16- Analyze

  

PRACTICAL:

There are many ways to make school learning more PRACTICAL! 

Our students are bombarded daily with all kinds of information, both old and new.  They need to learn to connect much of this info to their own lives, by teachers providing many opportunities for:      

• 1.  Making text connections  

a.   To other texts

b.   To self

c.   To the world (local / global)

• 2.     Real world assignments (designed by teacher to help make useful connections)

• 3.     Asking questions to make practical connections:  “How would this work in my home?  Neighborhood?  Town?  State?  Country?”

• 4.    Guest Speaker experts to speak on current topics…

• 5.   Find more here:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/102112/chapters/Making_a_Real-World_Connection.aspx

• and here:

http://www.teachhub.com/top-12-ways-bring-real-world-your-classroom

• and here:

http://resources4rethinking.ca/en/toolbox/real-world-connections

HOT Skills Challenge #3 - Student / Learner Questioning

It's in Kindergarten or before that we usually introduce questioning with the words:

• Who?
  

• What?
  

• Where?
  

• When?
  

• Why?  
  

• How?   

Yet, those same words often get children in trouble!  Have you ever heard an adult say to a child, "You ask too many questions!"?  Those very children with inquisitive minds / creative mindsets often have their curious mindsets squashed at an early age.  How can teachers foster (and not squelch) student questioning?

In Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK), these question words begin at DOK-Level 1.  In DOK, the use of these question words are so important throughout all levels, with special use of these words in DOK-Level 4 when ELABORATING for .

Whichever grade level, you teach, take the challenge to foster student/learner questioning.  A wonderful way to finish the school year strong might be to have a MYSTERY BAG. 

Learners can only learn what is in the mystery bag by asking questions that begin with the following words:

• Who?

• What? 

• Where? 

• When? 

• Why? 

• How?    

CHALLENGE:

I encourage you to have a MYSTERY BAG (or box) daily... OR on certain letter days... OR weekly.  Give your learners the opportunity to really question... to think... to inquire... to discover...

A daily MYSTERY OBJECT (hidden in the bag)  could connect to the read-aloud of the day, the weather, numbers, dates, individual students, teacher, or any other topic of discussion for  THE day.   

ENJOY THE JOURNEY!